I am developing an Alexa Skill, and before releasing the first version of it, I wanted to be sure that I can notify my users about new features.
How can I do this ? What are my options ?
I saw Alexa Proactive Event, but I'm not sure about how to use it and if it's the right choice.
Following options:
Visually
(of course who reads when using alexa ;-) )
alexa developer console -> distribution -> whats new
For my skills I also updated the "detailed description" with some mini release notes before this "whats new" text field existed.
Voice
You can check in your backend logic if your user uses the skill after your update.
Therefore you would need to save the time whenever a user uses your skill (of course you need the times before your update but a backend update is independent from your skill update with certification).
Now if a requests come in you check the lastUsage time and can send out your special update message.
Of course you could also do via a flag (flag all users which got the message) instead of lastUsageTime.
Will be helpfull for persisting this data (alreadyGotUpdate message flag or lastSkillUsageTime): https://developer.amazon.com/de/docs/alexa-skills-kit-sdk-for-nodejs/manage-attributes.html#persistenceadapter
Related
Is there a way to activate an event Alexa without speaking?
For instance, I am working on a project involving a pill box, and once it is set up, I want Alexa to remind me to take my medication without requiring a vocal command from me
Have you looked into Routines? This would let you schedule time-based actions like Alexa-spoken reminders.
If you're building a custom skill, the Reminders API would give you a way to programmatically setup spoken reminders as well.
There's also the Alexa Routines Kit skills can use to create Routines by voice, but this is in developer preview, so you would need to apply for access.
I am trying to create a simple survey skill in Amazon Alexa where Alexa asks the user a question and they respond in any manner they feel like (open-ended). For example, if Alexa asks "Do you cook?", a user may respond in many ways such as "Yes I do cook", "My son does the cooking" etc.
The issue I am getting is that the questions can have similar responses so when I create an utterance in the Alexa dev console they overlap (utterance conflicts) and I am redirected to the error handler. (note each question has its own intent)
Is there any other way I can go about creating a survey without using intents?
Can I capture the full user response to a slot?
The reason being I want to store the user's response in a database.
Unfortunately, Alexa Skills aren't designed to do Speech To Text.
When a user talks to a device, the request goes through multiple steps:
Automated Speech Recognition > It does Speech To Text internally
Natural Language Understanding (NLU) > Using Machine Learning, it will understand what the user want to do (Stop a skill, play music, switch on the light, ...)
Depending of the context, if the NLU understand that the user is trying to respond to your skill (the interaction model match what the user is saying), it will send a POST request to your skill. But it will not send you the Speech To Text.
Documentation
Although, the intent AMAZON.SearchQuery will do the job but you will have to use a prefix: My answer is {query} and not directly {query} because all requests will be redirected to this intent otherwise. It will not look like a good & smooth user experience.
I'm designing a custom team tab using React that calls third party API, I need after executing the API successfully, user gets notified . What is the best way to achieve this? I used Bot in my project, but not sure how can I call it from my custom tab class. I'm aware of the existence of proactive messaging, is it the only way to do it? If it is, a pointer on how to implement it to a custom tab would be appreciated.
If you're wanting to message the user 1-1 (like in the personal app), then proactive messaging is definitely what you need (inside a Team, there are other options), and considering you have the bot already in place that's perfect. The only thing you might be missing are the details required to send the actual proactive message (the best time to get them is when the bot is first installed by the user). In particular, you need ConversationId and ServiceUrl.
With regards the concept of Proactive Messaging, basically once the bot is installed, and you have the required values, you can -send- the message from any backend code at all. That can include, for example, custom tab's backend api. You need to identify the user, which you can do using the Teams Context (it's not the safest way but it's the easiest), and then look up the values in your own backend store (e.g. database or whatever) to get the ConversationId and ServiceUrl, then just message the user in your backend.
I am new in Alexa skill kit development
I have already read Tutorials on Alexa Skill Kit
I have to implement Alexa Skill , In which I need to manually send command and want Alexa to speak it.
i.e When user login in system I can fire API as Alexa request and I want Alexa device to Speak that for example "Welcome Have a great day"
Is it Possible ? Or Any other alternatives. ?
Notifications for Alexa skill are in still in beta. You can apply for the access to it by filling up this form here : https://alexa.au1.qualtrics.com/jfe/form/SV_72lplGGegxNZ9Ln
If Push Notifications is what you're looking for, then the answer is YES.
Since in the comments you said, "You are not asking for HOW TO DO IT", so I'll just let this link here for your reference. https://developer.amazon.com/docs/alexa-voice-service/notifications-overview.html
I think you may want to use proactive events for your skill. They are now commercially available. You will be able to send a notification to your skill and the Amazon device will blink (yellow). However you will still need to say "Alexa check my notifications" to retrieve the actual message
https://developer.amazon.com/docs/smapi/proactive-events-api.html
Another idea would be to use "progressive response" feature: https://developer.amazon.com/docs/custom-skills/send-the-user-a-progressive-response.html
You can fire the interaction to alexa when your API is invoked and send a progressive response. Not really a notification but it might serve you. This way you will not need to ask to check the notifications to Alexa but directly get the voice message in the progressive responses
I need help in sending notifications to alexa device of a user (echo, dot, etc.. not the other non amazon alexa devices) from alexa skill i am building. I see quote maker doing it but, how its doing it is a blackbox.
For example if the user ordered some item through my skill (say abc org). I would like to notify user on their alexa devices about the status of order proactively ( eg, item shipped, or item out for deliver today).
Amazon has this already for amazon shopping, but i dont see much information on implementing the same for skills.
I saw quote maker creating a notification for self, but how its doing it is a blackbox
I had the exact same question and am still not 100% sure about the answer.
As best as I can tell, the Notifications API never made it out of developer preview, and instead has been replaced with the Proactive Events API.
Unfortunately, unless your skill needs to send notifications about trash pickup or sports scores, you're probably out of luck. Here is the complete list of all notifications types that are currently supported:
Weather alert
Sports event update
Message reminder
Order status update
Reservation confirmation
Trash collection reminder
Media content availability notification
Social game invitation notification