Arduino Launches Official Amazon Alexa Skill for Arduino IoT Cloud Projects — No Coding Required
Works on all Arduino IoT Cloud devices — including the newly-supported ESP8266 devices, providing you're a Create Maker Plan member.
Arduino has announced its first official Alexa Skill, connecting Amazon's popular voice-activated assistant platform to the Arduino IoT Cloud — and with the promise of no extra coding beyond that required to create the projects in the first place.
"You can now securely connect Alexa to your Arduino IoT Cloud projects with no additional coding required," Arduino claims in its announcement of the new feature. "You could use Alexa to turn on the lights in the living room, check the temperature in the bedroom, start the coffee machine, check on your plants, find out if your dog is sleeping in the doghouse... the only limit is your imagination!
"Being compatible with one of the most recognized cloud-based services on the market, bridges the communication gap between different applications and processes, and removes many tricky aspects that usually follows wireless connectivity and communication. Using Alexa is as simple as asking a question — just ask, and Alexa will respond instantly."
Using the feature is a four-step process: Alexa users add the Arduino IoT Cloud Smart Home Skill to their Alexa application, link their Arduino Create account with Alexa, use the Devices tab in the Alexa app to search for devices, and choose whichever Arduino IoT Cloud project that is required from the resulting list.
"The launch of the Arduino IoT Cloud and Alexa integration brings easy cross platform communication, customizable user interfaces and reduced complexity when it comes to programming," Arduino notes. "These features will allow many different types of users to benefit from this service, where they can create anything from voice controlled light dimmers to plant waterers."
Arduino IoT Cloud is primarily designed for microcontrollers featuring a Microchip ATECC508A cryptographic co-processor — meaning the Arduino MKR 1000, MKR WiFi 1010, MKR GSM 1400, and Nano 33 IoT, at present — which handles encryption and authentication; along with adding Alexa support, however, also adds support for ESP8266 devices including the NodeMCU and ESPduino with full SSL encryption — though only for those users with a Create Maker Plan subscription.
More information is available on the official announcement page.