Virtual Switch Creation

[highwingers]

I dont understand why cant i create a virtual switch and perform automations against it. I developed great App for Alexa which does amazing thing.

Only if i can create a virtual switch then i can do some sort of automations for my users. I can toggle Virtual switch on/off and run some conditions on users Nest speakers.

My app SmartAzan is a example of virtual switches for Alexa.

is this something like this remotely possible with Google?

[PrantlMarkus]

Hey highwingers,

you can create virtual switches or other devices with google playground.

I use these virtual outlets as variables in my automations that i wrote with google script editor.

Works fine for my usage.

Hope i can help you!

[MarciaMellow]

I also use Google Playground to create virtual switches. You can even give them attributes like extra inputs (as though they were TVs) and use those inputs as different saved states. I successfully created a robust For-Next loop using the device.command.NextInput. Additionally, if you create a virtual switch using Samsung SmartThings, the switches will be visible to both Google and Alexa, effectively creating a bridge between the two ecosystems.

[highwingers]

Thats very interesting. I think i should look into SmartThings. Because I believe smartthings have an API approach as well to create virtual switches. I developed a SaaS service for Alexa which works great.

so please advise if its possible.

Create Virtual Switch using SmartThings
Control Virtual Switch using SmartThings
When I toggle Virtual switch ON/off i can kick off some Routines within Google Home App

Thanks

[MarciaMellow]

SmartThings allows you to create virtual switches through their new web site my.smartthings.com/advanced (no API access necessary). Yes, you can control the virtual switches through Google Home, Google Script Editor, and Alexa. And yes, both Google Home and Alexa can use them to trigger routines; however, even though Alexa can perform actions on them, but does not seem to be able to use them as triggers. This implies that Alexa can trigger a Google routine, but not vice versa.