Create a Siri shortcut on Domoticz and Jeedom

To control your home automation devices with Siri and Jeedom or Domoticz, there are several ways. Use a Homekit gateway, or use the new Siri shortcuts in iOS 13.

Homekit gateway

Setting up a gateway between your Jeedom or Domoticz server, and Homekit allows you to easily control your home automation devices. It works very well, but with the disadvantage of a rather complex configuration and advanced knowledge in your home automation system. In addition, all home automation devices are not compatible with Homekit.

Shortcuts and Siri actions

iOS 12 introduced a new feature that can simplify the use of Siri: Siri actions.

Unlike Homekit, using a Siri shortcut allows the user to create their own shortcuts with Siri, by using your own keywords. This has the advantage of being very simple to set up, and above all, it allows you to control any type of device, as long as it is available in your home automation server, in Pilot.

And Pilot in all this?

Since version 2.4, Pilot supports Siri shortcuts. You can create your custom actions, and enjoy integration with Siri on your iPhone and iPad.

Also, the actions performed in Pilot will automatically be offered by Siri. For example, if Siri finds that you launch the “Hello Home” scenario every morning with Pilot, then Siri could offer you to do so directly from your lock screen!

How does it work?

Creating a Siri shortcut is done in a few steps:

First, make sure you have iOS 13, essential for using Siri shortcuts!
Start by opening Pilot, and trigger the action you want: turn on a light, open a shutter, set the lighting intensity of a light, open the garage door, set the temperature of a thermostat, etc.
Then, on your iPhone, return to the home screen, then go to Settings> Siri and search> All shortcuts
On this screen, you find the shortcuts of all your applications. Scroll to find the history of Pilot actions used
Select the desired action to create the associated shortcut. Siri will then ask you to dictate your shortcut for it to be registered!
There you go ! You can now trigger Siri and dictate your keyword so that it triggers the associated action.

Bear in mind

The Siri shortcuts you create can be used on your iPhone, but will also be automatically available on all your other devices: iPhone, iPad, Apple Watch, HomePod!

Feel free to ask your questions in the comments;)

20 thoughts on “Create a Siri shortcut on Domoticz and Jeedom”

Taco September 21, 2018 at 11:07

Hey Hey. I really like this update. Great job. Just question, switching lights on via fibaro unit and domoticz software leave a trigger within the Siri search and trigger can be made. Switching the same lights off does not leave a trigger and so no trigger can be created. Why?

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1. patrickferreira Post authorSeptember 22, 2018 at 19:16
  
  Hi, you should be able to see all the shortcuts created in the settings of your iPhone, in the Siri settings page.
  
  Reply ↓
  1. Taco September 24, 2018 at 21:43
    
    Yes may bad. Thanks for your help.
    
    Reply ↓
Boudewijn Beckers September 23, 2018 at 11:53

Hi,

I updated to iOS 12 and the latest Pilot and created 2 shortcuts. When I try to trigger them it says there’s a problem with the Pilot app and just stops there..

Seen that before?

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1. patrickferreira Post authorSeptember 23, 2018 at 13:16
  
  Hi,
  
  Tell me some more:
  * How many servers setup? Are they Jeedom or Domoticz?
  * Do you have a local network address set up?
  * Have you tried setting up other kinds of devices, see if they all bug?
  
  Let me know 😉
  
  Reply ↓
  1. Boudewijn Beckers September 23, 2018 at 20:24
    
    Only one server running Domoticz.. Local server on or off makes no difference.. I tried with both the thermostat as well as lights and also poweredcycled the phone to be sure..
    
    Any suggestions?
    
    Reply ↓
    1. patrickferreira Post authorSeptember 23, 2018 at 20:26
      
      That’s weird. I will send you an email.
      
      Reply ↓
Joe Dondelinger September 23, 2018 at 17:06

So I set a few shortcuts, but Siri keeps saying “sorry there was a problem with the app!” Rebooting phone didn’t work. Any suggestions?

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1. patrickferreira Post authorSeptember 23, 2018 at 17:18
  
  Can you try triggering the shortcuts from the search field in the home screen, see if it works?
  
  If it doesn’t work, can you please give me some more info:
  * How many servers setup? Are they Jeedom or Domoticz?
  * Do you have a local network address set up?
  * Have you tried setting up other kinds of devices, see if they all bug?
  
  Reply ↓
Joe Dondelinger September 23, 2018 at 21:10

I tried triggering from the home screen search field and still get an error telling me “there was a problem, try again”.

I have 5 Domoticz servers programmed in the app the first one is my home Domoticz(the one I’m trying to set up the shortcuts for) it is on a local IP and the other 4 are on external IP’s. And of course I am on my local network while accessing my home Domoticz.

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1. patrickferreira Post authorSeptember 25, 2018 at 18:05
  
  Can you try deleting all the shortcuts you created, and then create new ones, but for other devices?
  
  Last resort would be to reinstall the app, but even doing that, I am not 100% sure it will work. A few users are reporting the same issue, and as of today, I don’t know how to fix it. I will keep looking, maybe there is something wrong with iOS itself.
  
  Reply ↓
Stephan D May 28, 2019 at 14:12

Hi, i tried this but i can’t find any shortcuts from pilot in the history mentioned in step 4

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1. Patrick Post authorMay 29, 2019 at 18:41
  
  Currently broken in the app. Will be fixed in 3.0.1 🙂
  
  Reply ↓
  1. Stephan May 31, 2019 at 15:42
    
    Updated to 3.01, i only see one shortcut, tried several switches without succes.
    
    Reply ↓
    1. Patrick Post authorMay 31, 2019 at 18:30
      
      You need to trigger the device from the detail view from within Pilot. 😉 Long press a device to get in there, then trigger whatever command you want. Then it will register as a Siri shortcut.
      
      Reply ↓
      1. Stephan June 2, 2019 at 09:28
        
        Ok thanks, that did the trick
Paul July 9, 2019 at 19:04

Hey Patrick, my French main man.
Well done on the most recent Pilot update btw, nicely done !

Thanx for explaining that to generate a Siri shortcut the long push on the buttons (the detailview) inside Pilot was needed to trigger a shortcut. That helped a lot.
I can now switch single switches from within Siri, by voice.

But still there are a few anomalies I came across.
When I try to make a shortcut for a ‘scene’, Siri does recognize it. But when triggered in Siri itself, it makes a note that ‘ToonState’ is being triggered. And does not trigger the actual scene (two switches). The Toonstate is a whole other idx and I havent’t added it in Siri.. Any thoughts how that happens ?

Second problem is the incremental slider: When I try to trigger my mechanical ventilation, which is a slider, Siri detects it but keeps stating ‘on at 1%’. Even when I slide it to 100% swiftly, she only detects the 1 %. And triggers accordingly.

Any thoughts on how to cope with this strange phenomenon ?

Greetz
Paul (NL)

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1. Patrick Post authorJanuary 23, 2020 at 22:32
  
  Hello 🙂 Hopefully the next release of Pilot will fix all of this. Please look forward to it.
  Cheers!
  
  Reply ↓
Sam November 20, 2019 at 17:01

I just bought the Premium version of Pilot. I really like the app.
But I can’t create a Siri shortcut. The app Pilot doesn’t appear in the list of ‘all shortcuts’

I have iPhone version 12.4.1.

Reply ↓
1. Patrick Post authorJanuary 23, 2020 at 22:29
  
  Working on huge improvements for Siri shortcuts.
  Release coming very soon 😉
  
  Reply ↓

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