Alexa Custom Skill Syntax

See the Setup Guide for Account Linking Steps. After linking your Amazon Alexa app with the Roomie Remote Custom Skill, to give a Custom skill command to Roomie Remote, you need to start with the wake word, “Alexa,” and then tell Alexa you want the command to apply to Roomie Remote by using the Roomie Remote invocation name, which is “Roomie Remote.” Voice commands you want to pass to Roomie Remote using the Custom skill start with:

Alexa, tell Roomie Remote to …

Which would be followed by the appropriate command phrase. The “to” is omitted in some cases. For example, to start an Activity called Listen to Sonos in a Room named Office, you could say:

Alexa, tell Roomie Remote to Listen to Sonos in the Office

Keep the following in mind when structuring your Custom skill command phrases:

• For a quick overview of how to give a command to Roomie Remote via Alexa, say:
  Alexa, start Roomie Remote.
  When Alexa asks “What would you like me to do?” at the end, you can either say a command phrase or say “Alexa, cancel.”
• The Alexa voice service can sometimes have difficulty with obscure words and phrases. We recommend using words and phrases that Alexa finds easier to understand. The more common and distinct the word or phrase, the higher the likelihood that Alexa will understand it.
  Suggested Room names: Bedroom, Kitchen, Office, Living Room, Family Room, Dining Room, Parlor, Theater, Kid’s Room, Kid’s bedroom, Baby’s Room, Baby’s bedroom, Nursery, Guest Room, Guest bedroom, Bath, Bathroom, Restroom, Basement, Great Room, Drawing Room, Gym, Garage, Library, Patio, Cellar, Hall.
  Recommended Activity suffixes (these would be preceded by the normal prefixes, like Watch, Listen to, Play, and so on): TV, Television, Roku, Dish, TiVo, Plex, Kodi, Sonos, Receiver, Music, Lights, Shades, Blu-ray, DirecTV, Fire TV, Fireplace TV, Kitchen TV, Apple TV, Mac, Camera, Power Off, System Off.
• In your Roomie Remote configuration, try to avoid using Room or Activity names that are similar. For example, “Watch TV 1” and “Watch TV 2” in the same Room will reduce probability of success.
  Make sure to adhere to standard Activity names as generated by Roomie Remote, such as “Watch TiVo” or “Listen to Sonos”. Non-standard Activity names have a higher probability of not being correctly recognized.
• Roomie Remote supports a wide variety of command phrases, so if one phrasing of a command does not work, try something similar.
  For example, “Alexa, tell Roomie Remote to start Listen to Sonos in the Office” could also be “Alexa, tell Roomie Remote to turn on Listen to Sonos in the Office” or you could omit the verb entirely and just say “Alexa, tell Roomie Remote to Listen to Sonos in the Office.”
  Command phrases do not have to be grammatically correct.
• When referring to Rooms and Activities, use Rooms and Activities that are currently configured in Roomie Remote.
• Not all command phrases need to specify an Activity and a Room. Instead, if the context of the command phrase is clear, the additional information does not need to be included.
  For example, if you give the command phrase:
  Alexa, tell Roomie Remote to set the current Room to Office
  Roomie Remote would set the current Room to the Office.
  Then if you wanted to mute the current Activity in the Office, the next command phrase would only need to be:
  Alexa, tell Roomie Remote to mute
  The Room context is clear, so it does not need to be part of the command phrase.

Common Custom Skill Command Phrases

Following are some examples of command phrase structure, with examples. Some examples do not follow the structure exactly, because variations work. Words in braces are placeholders for parts of your Roomie Remote environment (a Room or Activity, for example) or a desired value (Volume, for example).

• Setting the Room:
  • tell Roomie Remote to set the current Room to {Room}
• Starting an Activity:
  • tell Roomie Remote to turn on {Activity}
  • Example: tell Roomie Remote to Watch TV in the Living Room
• Powering off:
  • tell Roomie Remote to turn off
  • tell Roomie Remote to turn off {Room}
  • tell Roomie Remote to turn off the {Room}
  • tell Roomie Remote to turn the {Room} off
  • tell Roomie Remote to turn {Room} off
• Muting:
  • tell Roomie Remote to mute {Room}
  • tell Roomie Remote to mute [in {Room}]
• Unmuting:
  • tell Roomie Remote to unmute {Room}
  • tell Roomie Remote to unmute [in {Room}]
• Playing:
  • tell Roomie Remote to play in {Room}
  • tell Roomie Remote to play [in {Room}]
• Pausing:
  • tell Roomie Remote to pause {Activity}
  • tell Roomie Remote to pause [in {Room}]
• Next:
  • tell Roomie Remote to skip to the next chapter in {Room}
  • tell Roomie Remote to skip to the next chapter [in {Room}]
• Previous:
  • tell Roomie Remote previous on {Activity}
  • tell Roomie Remote previous on {Activity} [in {Room}]
  • tell Roomie Remote previous in the {Room}
  • tell Roomie Remote previous in {Room}
  • tell Roomie Remote previous
• Skip:
  • tell Roomie Remote to skip
  • tell Roomie Remote to skip {# of times}
  • tell Roomie Remote to skip {# of times} times
  • tell Roomie Remote to skip [in {Room}]
  • tell Roomie Remote to skip [in {Room}] {# of times}
  • Example: Alexa, tell Roomie Remote to skip 6 times in Office
• Replay:
  • tell Roomie Remote to replay
  • tell Roomie Remote to replay {# of times}
  • tell Roomie Remote to replay {# of times} times
  • tell Roomie Remote to replay [in {Room}]
  • tell Roomie Remote to replay [in {Room}] {# of times}
  • Example: Alexa, tell Roomie Remote to replay 6 times in Office
• Volume Up:
  • tell Roomie Remote to turn up the volume [in {Room}]
  • tell Roomie Remote to turn up the volume [in the {Room}]
  • tell Roomie Remote to turn the volume up [in {Room}]
• Volume Down:
  • tell Roomie Remote to turn down the volume [in {Room}]
  • tell Roomie Remote to turn down the volume [in the {Room}]
  • tell Roomie Remote to turn the volume down [in {Room}]
• Setting the Volume:
  • tell Roomie Remote to set volume {sign}{Volume}
  • tell Roomie Remote to set volume {sign}{Volume} D.B.
  • tell Roomie Remote to set volume {sign}{Volume} Decibels
  • tell Roomie Remote to set volume {sign}{Volume}
  • Example: Alexa, tell Roomie Remote to set volume to minus 25 Db
• Changing the Channel:
  • tell Roomie Remote to tune [to]{Channel Name/Number} [in {Room}]
  • tell Roomie Remote to tune channel {up/down}
  • tell Roomie Remote to tune channel {up/down} {# of times} times [in {Room}]
  • Note: {Channel Name} must be a common channel name.
  • Example: Alexa, tell Roomie Remote to tune Food TV in the Kitchen

If your Device supports volume in decibels, you can use two additional values:

• {DBvolume}, which is a numeric value in decibels
• {sign}, which can be “minus”, “negative”, “plus”, or “positive” (minus or negative is required for a negative value, plus and positive are optional)
• Example: Alexa, tell Roomie Remote to set volume to “20 decibels” or “minus 10 DB”.

Alexa skills are only available in specific countries. Check the Alexa Skill Store to determine whether a particular skill is available in your country.