Using Voice Commands for Tapo Robotic Vacuums

As Robotic Vacuums have become more popular in households, so has the trend of giving your robot friend a name. We want to know what names our community members have come up with for their vacuums. Choosing a name can be difficult, as most users give their vacuums Human-Like names. Unfortunately, this can often cause your Voice Assistant to not recognize the command, and may even end up interacting with someone from your Contacts with a similar name.

For the best results, it is recommended that a relatively uncommon name is chosen for your device, this way, your Alexa will not confuse your command with attempting to text or call someone.  If you have difficulty, you may change the name of the device from either the Tapo or Alexa App.

 

“Alexa, ask [Robot Name] to Start/Pause/Resume/Stop Cleaning”

“Alexa, ask [Robot Name] to Go Home”

“Alexa, ask [Robot Name] where it is or Alexa, where is [Robot Name]?”

“Alexa Turn On/Off [Robot Name]”

 

Activate a Cleaning Preset with a Voice Command Using Tapo Shortcuts

With a Voice Assistant, your Smart Home becomes even more accessible and this convenience even extends to your Robot Vacuum!

Fortunately, Tapo offers support for both Alexa and Google Voice Assistants – allowing you fine-tune control of your vacuum and to simply ask for a room to be cleaned.

*Note: You Must Link Your Tapo Account with Either Your Google or Alexa Account for the Device and its Actions to Appear as an Option in Your Voice Assistant App:

At their most basic level, Tapo Robot Vacuums are seen as separate devices in Alexa and Google Home App. Both platforms provide on/off control to trigger a whole-home clean, while the Google Home App also has Dock/Undock Controls and Routine Starters

First, Create a Shortcut in the Tapo App to Clean a Specific Room via Room Cleaning > Advanced Clean

Name the Shortcut Something Like “Vacuum the Living Room”

Next, Open Your Voice Assistant App to Create a Routine triggering the Tapo Shortcut

 

For Alexa: Routines > Add New Routine

Trigger: Voice > Clean the ___ Room

Action: Smart Home > Scenes > Vacuum the _____ (Name of Shortcut from Tapo App)

 

 

For Google: Routines > Add New Routine > Add Household Routine

Starter: When I Say to Google Assistant > Clean the ___ Room

Action: Adjust Home Devices > Add Scenes

 

Once these shortcuts have been created in the Tapo App, they are accessible to multiple features of your voice assistant, whether routines or access to whole home geofencing.

Alexa Hunches (Clean While Away from Home)

In case you did not know, the Alexa Integration for Tapo also takes advantage of the Hunches Feature from Alexa. A Hunch allows you to configure Alexa to take action when Alexa believes that no one is home or you have fallen asleep.

The available hunches for your Alexa Account, depend highly on what devices are connected to your Alexa Account.

With the new Tapo Robot Vacuums, Alexa can now automatically send your vacuum out to clean your home when your Alexa Home determines that there is no one available in the home.

 

Google Routines (Creating a Cleaning Schedule)

For Automated Routines Using Google Home, the process is slightly different. Currently, robotic vacuums are not available as an option for when your home detects users away or in the house. Instead, you can use the routines feature to schedule your vacuum to automatically clean at specific times, or based on other triggers. To do this, you must configure your vacuum with the above commands.

If you are having difficulty creating a routing with a schedule, you may need to use two commands to start the cleaning process. These commands will need to be manually entered, as if you were talking to your Google Assistnat. First, use a Command to Turn on the Vacuum, then use a second command to tell the vacuum to start cleaning.

Stay Tuned for More Information and Specifics on How To Integrate Your Tapo Vacuum with your Google Home and Alexa Smart Homes!

 

 

How Would You Use Your Robot Vacuum with a Third-Party Integration or Voice Assistant?