Alexa Channel Tuning and Skip: Simple Sync 3.3.0

The second iteration of our Amazon Echo support went live last week and the corresponding release of Simple Sync, 3.3.0, is now available via the usual autoupdate methods. Simple Hub will automatically update within the next 24 hours (or force power cycle to update right away). Google Play and OS X auto-updates are live.

Feature highlights include:

[ul][li]Amazon Echo Channel Tuning: Channel change syntax is now available: “Alexa, tell Simple Control to tune HBO.”, or “tune channel 725”. Most popular channel names are automatically translated to the appropriate channel number. Echo integration requires Simple Sync and Simple Service. Also supported are “tune channel {up/down}”, “change the channel to {name/number}”, and “change the channel {up/down}”.[/li]
[li]Amazon Echo Iteration: Commands such as “skip” and “replay” can now be issued to Alexa with a repetition count such as “Alexa, tell Simple Control to skip 6 times.”[/li][/ul]

Some hundreds of channel names are recognized, but if the name doesn’t work, the number will. In addition, the phonetic recognition of certain key activity names has been updated with more names. We recommend using activity names with these basic terms for high recognition success:

Amazon Apple TV Blinds Bluray Camera Curtains Denon Direct TV Dish Dune Epson Fire TV Fireplace TV Hulu Kaleidescape Kitchen TV Kodi LG Lights Lutron Mac Marantz Netflix OS ten PS four PS three Panasonic Pioneer Playstation Plex Power Off Projector Receiver Roku Samsung Shades Shield Sonos Sony Spotify System Off Television Time Warner Tivo TV U Verse VLC Vudu X Box X Finity Yamaha

Highest channel name recognition success will be achieved with these channel names:

5 Star Max A&E ABC Action Max Adult Swim Africa Al Jazeera Amazon AMC American Heroes Animal Planet Aspire Audience AWE AXS Baby Baby 1st BBC America BET BET Gospel BET Hip Hop BET Jams BET Soul Bloomberg Boomerang Bravo C Span C Span 2 C Span 3 Cartoon Network CBS CBS Sports Centric Chiller Cinemax Cinemax East Cinemax West Cinemoi Cloo CMT CMT Music CNBC CNBC World CNN CNN International Comedy Central Comedy TV Concert TV Cooking Cozi Crackle Create Crime and Investigation Crunchyroll CW Destination America Discovery Channel Discovery Family Discovery Life Disney Disney Junior Disney XD DIY DMX E El Rey Encore Encore Action Encore Black Encore Classic Encore Espanol Encore Family Encore Suspense Encore Westerns Epix ESPN Plus ESPN University ES TV ESPN ESPN 2 ESPN Classic ESPN news Esquire Fido Flix FM Food Network Fox Fox Business Fox College Sports Fox News Fox Soccer Fox Sports 1 Fox Sports 2 Freeform Fuse FX FX Movie FXX FYI GAC Galavision Game Game Show Golf GSN H2 Hallmark Hallmark Movies Harmony HBO HBO 2 HBO Comedy HBO East HBO Family HBO Latino HBO On Demand HBO Signature HBO West HBO Zone HDNet Headline News HGTV History HLN Home and Garden Home Shopping Network HSN HSN 2 Hulu Hustler IFC Independent Film Indie Plex INSP Investigation Discovery Ion Ion Life Justice Central Kids & Teens KQED Lifetime Lifetime Real Women LMN Logo MGM Military History MLB MLB Extra Innings MLS More Max Movie Max Movie Plex MSNBC MTV MTV Hits MTV2 Music Choice Muzak my destination My network NASA Nat Geo Wild National Geographic NBA NBC NBCSN Netflix Newsmax NFL NFL Red Zone NFL Sunday Ticket NHL NHL Center Ice Nick 2 Nick at Nite Nick Junior Nickelodeon Nicktoons On Demand Outdoor Outer Max Outside Ovation OWN Oxygen PBS PBS Kids Penthouse Pets TV Pivot Playboy Playgirl Plex Pop Pursuit Qubo QVC QVC Plus Reelz Retro Plex Revolt RLTV Science Sho 2 Sho Beyond Sho Extreme Sho Next Sho Women Showtime Showtime Family Showtime Showcase Sirius Ski Channel Sky News Smithsonian Sony Movie Spice Spike Sports Net Sportsman Sprout Starz Starz Cinema Starz Comedy Starz Edge Starz in Black Starz Kids & Family Stingray Sundance Syfy TBS TCM Team TeenNick Telemundo Tennis The Movie Channel Thriller Max TLC TNT Travel Tru TV Turner Classic TV Land TV One TVG TVG 2 UFC Universal Univision Untamed Up USA Velocity VH1 VH1 Classic Vudu We Weather Channel WGN World Fishing Youtube Z Living

Note that as you can tell from the channel names, the tune channel commands also work with things like Roku to say something like “tune channel to Amazon”.

Thank you.