I'm developing an Alexa Custom Skill. I want to have Beta Testing for the same. I added few emails to the Skill Beta Testing facility by Amazon. After accepting the invitation, it seems the Testers can't invoke the skill(They have enabled the skill). Neither from the Amazon Alexa App nor from the Echo Show Device(which is registered to the tester). But if tested on Test Simulator, it works. I want to have the skill work on Echo devices with the tester accounts. Help regarding the same.
We also faced similar problems.
Our resolution - It seems that if the geographic area of the tester is same as of the skill it should work.
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I have set up an Echo Dot device for my account. My intent is to call an Alexa skill on this device externally.
I have seen a lot of tutorials, but I could only see that these skills were started by voice.
Is there any way to trigger an Alexa skill by using an API, and not using voice at all? If not, what would be the market available alternatives for such a workflow?
It's not possible yet to trigger Alexa directly without Alexa wasn't asked. You could use notifications. Alexa will have a yellow ring and user has to ask for messages.
See https://developer.amazon.com/en-US/docs/alexa/smapi/proactive-events-api.html for details.
I've found a way of achieving this.
By using IFTTT, there is a skill called IFTTTriger that you can install in your Alexa device, and later on, install the https://mkzense.com/iftttrigger . In that way, I was able to create an IFTTT applet that could trigger Alexa using a virtual device.
That is the only way available as of now. Worked perfectly well.
I have created sample skill with aws lamda functions. I have tested skills using simulator which is working fine. I want to test skills on alexa app.
Can anybody mention steps to test skills on alexa app from scratch ?
Your Alexa Skills are automatically installed on your device where the registration device is done with the same developer account. Even before you publish a Skill you will find in the section Skill and Games of the app Alexa under the tab your Skill section Developers.
Your development skill is available in "Skills > Your Skills" page of the Alexa App. You can enable the skill and test its functionality by asking Alexa, ...
NOTE: - check the language to your skill compiled is same as your Alexa App language.
Make sure your request complies with https://developer.amazon.com/docs/custom-skills/request-and-response-json-reference.html
The developer console should work. You dont need to write 'Alexa tell skillname to do something'. Leave out the 'Alexa' in the beginning. Otherwise you can also the skill directly on a device. When the skill is enabled for testing, and you have an alexa device under the same account, you can already use the skill on that device.
You can test it with Alexa App,
Login to Alexa app with your developer account.
Click on the Alexa Logo at the bottom center to make Alexa listen to you.
Open your skill with your invocation name.
You can also see You skill under Skills and Games section of the Alexa app.
Open Skills and Games
Click on Your Skills (Top right)
Your skill will be listed under Dev Skills.
That's pretty simple. Just download the Alexa app on your smartphone and Log in with the same ID that you used to develop the skill. In the "Skills and Games" section, you will find your skill under the "In dev" tab. From there you can test your skill.
I created a Alexa Skill with an AWS Lambda. I want to have this Skill only on my personal echo Without certificating or even publishing it. Is this possile? Didnt find a way
Just don't submit it for publishing. As long as the skill is not published it will only be available in the developer account and for the beta testers, if at all you have added any. Then setup your echo with that developer account.
I have a music application. I have built all the custom skill for my music application and it is working fine in amazon echo device. My question is how do i integrate it with alexa app. I can see spotify, pandora, saavn etc in the music section of alexa app and any song playing from this 3rd party application will appear in playqueue and now playing section in alexa app. So how to integrate? Any ideas or link regarding this will help me a lot.
Read and follow this: Submitting the Skill for Certification
When your skill is ready for publication, you can submit it to Amazon for review. The Submit for Certification button becomes available once all required fields are completed.
So make sure you meet all Certification Requirements.
When you submit your skill to the Alexa skills store, it must pass a certification process before it can be published live to Amazon customers. Before you submit your new skill for certification, you should perform your own quality assurance testing.
First, Policy Testing.
The following list shows specific examples that we look out for when evaluating whether a skill can be made available on Alexa.
Second, Security Testing.
To protect customer data, the cloud-based service for your skill must meet Amazon’s security requirements.
Third, Functional Testing.
The functional tests verify that: The skill’s basic functionality matches the information displayed on the skill’s detail card in the Amazon Alexa app. ...[And] the skill’s core functionality works and provides useful home cards to the Amazon Alexa app.
Fourth, Voice Interface and User Experience Testing.
Voice interface and user experience testing focuses on: Testing the user experience to ensure that the skill is aligned with several key features of Alexa that help create a great experience for customers. [And] reviewing the intent schema, the set of sample utterances, and the list of values for any custom slot types you have defined to ensure that they are correct, complete, and adhere to voice design best practices.
I want to use amazon alexa api for my website/ mobile application. I would like to know if it is possible to use and how to integrate alexa, given that I develop my custom skill.
You can use the Alexa Voice Service. You will need to collect the user's audio and then submit it to Amazon. The voice snippet does not need to contain the hotword (e.g. Alexa). You should be able to use most features that don't involve the device and aren't asynchronous. For example, you can utilize the alarm or timer features nor the music streams.
It sounds like you are asking how to allow the user to talk to your website or mobile app.
An Alexa custom skill is something you create to extend Alexa's vocabulary, so to speak. It isn't an alternative to using a mouse or keyboard with an existing app.
A website and a mobile app are, or can be, two different ways for a user to access the functionality you provide. Think of an Alexa skill as a 3rd way to access that functionality. A user could ask the Alexa device (Echo, Dot, iPhone Lexi app, etc) to get or perform the same things that your website does.
So for example, if your website explains how your widgets work, then you could create a widget Alexa skill that would allow Alexa user's to ask about your widgets.
The Alexa Voice Service is something entirely different. It is an API to enable adding Alexa voice to a different piece of hardware. For example, my friend Thaddeus created an Alexa Voice Service app called Lexi that runs on an iPhone. This allows a user to talk to Alexa using their iPhone. However, it doesn't add any new capability to Alexa. It only allows me to do things on my iPhone that I can already do on my Echo.