Notify Me

Another clever skill for Alexa

Notify Your Echo

Take control of your Alexa by sending it your own notifications. This skill is perfect for people into home automation ("A leak has been detected in the laundry room"), home security ("Your garage door has been open for over an hour"), IT ("Your web server is down"), and many other creative uses you might think up ("It's Tuesday. Did you put out the trash?").

Notify Me works with an almost unlimited number of services and devices, such as HomeSeer, IFTTT, Indigo, ISY, Node-RED, Tasker, and more. See the Examples section below for specifics.

This is an admittedly nerdy skill for, well, nerds who are at least somewhat familiar using RESTful APIs.


Getting Started

To get started, just enable the skill from the Alexa app or from the Amazon website, giving it permission to send notifications to your Alexa and linking it to your Amazon account so we can send a unique access code to the email address associated with that account. Next, just say, "Alexa, open Notify Me" and the skill will introduce itself and send your access code via email.

If it seems to be taking too long to receive the access code, please check your SPAM filter. The email will come from from notifyme@notifymyecho.com via amazonses.com. Remember: launching the skill ("Alexa, open Notify Me" or "Alexa, launch the Notify Me skill") is what triggers the email with the access code.

With your access code in hand, you are ready to go. See below for instructions on how to start notifying yourself!

How to use your Access Code

First off, please don’t share or lose your access code. If you do share it and appear to be getting unwelcome Echo notifications, disable and re-enable the Notify Me skill; then launch the skill again and you will be sent a new access code. If you lose this code, relaunch the Notify Me skill and simply ask it to resend your access code.

Use of the access code assumes you have a passing familiarity with RESTful APIs. (Don't worry, Notify Me's API is quite simple.) Here are its specifications:

Specs

URL: https://api.notifymyecho.com/v1/NotifyMe

Port (if required): 443

Method: POST | PUT | GET (Notify Me doesn’t care, but you should generally use POST)

URL Params (optional if you use Data Params)

notification=string

accessCode=ACCESS_CODE

title=string

The title parameter is optional

Data (body) Params (optional if you use URL Params)

{

"notification": "string",

"accessCode": "ACCESS_CODE",

"title": "string" // optional parameter

}


Notes

  • Replace ACCESS_CODE with your access code string

  • The NotifyMe part of the URL is case sensitive -- you must capitalize the N and the M.

  • While you can use both URL and Data (body) parameters in the same call, be aware that data (body) parameters override URL parameters in the case of a conflict.

  • This API requires a secure HTTPS connection.

Examples

Below are just a few examples of how you can use Notify Me on a variety of platforms. In each example, you must replace ACCESS_CODE with the code you received via email after you enabled and launched the skill.


URL

https://api.notifymyecho.com/v1/NotifyMe?notification=Hello%20World!&accessCode=ACCESS_CODE


curl

curl https://api.notifymyecho.com/v1/NotifyMe -H "Content-Type: application/json" -d '{"notification":"Hello World!","accessCode":"ACCESS_CODE"}'


Windows PowerShell

Invoke-RestMethod https://api.notifymyecho.com/v1/NotifyMe -Method POST -Body '{"notification":"Hello World!","accessCode":"ACCESS_CODE"}'


Python

import json

import requests

body = json.dumps({

"notification": "Hello World!",

"accessCode": "ACCESS_CODE"

})

requests.post(url = "https://api.notifymyecho.com/v1/NotifyMe", data = body)


Node.js

var https = require("https");

var body = JSON.stringify({

"notification": "Hello World!",

"accessCode": "ACCESS_CODE"

});

https.request({

hostname: "api.notifymyecho.com",

path: "/v1/NotifyMe",

method: "POST",

headers: {

"Content-Type": "application/json",

"Content-Length": Buffer.byteLength(body)

}

}).end(body);


IFTTT

When creating your own Applet (https://ifttt.com/create)...

  • Choose an "if" service to trigger your Alexa Notification and then choose Notify My Echo as the "that" service (enter "Notify My Echo" in the search box to find it).

  • Select the Notify My Echo service and agree to connect to it by selecting the Connect button.

  • When the login window appears, log in using the same credentials you used when you enabled the Notify Me skill and then select Allow to let IFTTT know who you are.

  • Choose the Send Alexa Notification action that appears (it's the only action available), enter your notification message into the text box, and select Create Action.

  • Finalize the deal by pressing the Finish button.

Note that with IFTTT, you don't have to remember your access code -- IFTTT remembers it for you. But, you do have to enable the Notify Me skill and launch it ("Alexa, open the Notify Me skill") in order for it to send notifications! Connecting with the IFTTT service is not enough. Again, you must successfully enable and launch the Notify Me skill to use the Notify My Echo service.


HomeSeer HS3 VB Script

The following script, saved with a .vb extension, should work with HomeSeer HS3. Just pass your notification message in the "Run a Script or Script Command" Parameters field.

Sub Main(ByVal notification As String)

dim accessCode = "ACCESS_CODE"

dim host = "https://api.notifymyecho.com"

dim path = "/v1/NotifyMe?notification="+notification+"&accessCode="+accessCode

dim result = hs.GetURL(host, path, TRUE, 443)

hs.WriteLog("msg", result)

End Sub


ISY-994i series controller

See instructions found here: https://forum.universal-devices.com/topic/23865-how-to-use/


Indigo home automation software for macOS

See instructions found here: http://forums.indigodomo.com/viewtopic.php?f=123&t=20641


Node-RED

There is a Node-RED node for Notify Me. To find it, choose Manage palette from the Node-RED menu (or press Shift-Alt-P), click on the Install tab, and search for Thomptronics. The official Notify Me node is called @thomptronics/node-red-contrib-alexa-notify-me. Select it and click install.

You can read more about how to use this node here: https://flows.nodered.org/node/@thomptronics/node-red-contrib-alexa-notify-me


Tasker (Android App)

Tasker's Net -> HTTP Request action works great with Notify Me.

  1. Launch Tasker, go to the Tasks tab and tap the plus sign to create a new task. Give your task a name such as NotifyMe and tap the check mark to accept.

  2. Tap the plus sign to add an Action, choose Net and then choose HTTP Request

  3. Fill out the following fields as shown below:

Method: POST

URL: https://api.notifymyecho.com/v1/NotifyMe

Query Parameters:

notification:"Hello World!"

accessCode:ACCESS_CODE

4. Tap the "back" button and then click the play button at the bottom of the screen to test this new HTTP Request Action.

5. If all is good, tap the "back" button again and then select the check mark to save your task.


REMEMBER to replace ACCESS_CODE with your access code string in all of the above examples.

Want more information?

Notify Me FAQ

How Notifications Work

Feedback Page

If you would be so kind, please give Notify Me a (hopefully good!) rating in the skill store. Five-star reviews go a long way towards supporting development of this and other skills like it.

Cheers!