4. Contents
What are Alexa Skills
How Alexa Skills work
How to make money from Alexa Skill
Ilarna showcase
Demo - Designing a Skill
Demo - Developing a Skill
Start the challenge
Show and tell
Prize
01
02
04
05
06
07
08
09
10
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What is a voice app?
1st party is a built in function of the device
– Weather
– Timers
– Music
– Translation
3rd party is a voice app that adds extra
functionality to the device
– Brands
– Connect to an external service
– Highly personalised to user
Alexa Skills
Google actions
Bixby Capsules
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How the Alexa Skills Kit Works
User makes
a request
You pass back a
textual or audio
response
Audio stream is
sent up to Alexa
You pass back a
graphical response
APL or card
Alexa sends customer
intent to your service
Respond to intent
through text & visual
Your service
processes
requestAlexa recognizes intent through
ASR & NLU, then identifies and
routes to the proper skill
Alexa converts Text-to-Speech (TTS) &
renders graphical component
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How the Alexa Skills Kit Works - Example
Alexa, Tell
Starbucks
to order my
regular
“Your regular is a
grande flat white
from the Starbucks
at 23 Washington
Ave. It costs $3.24.
Would you like to
order?”
Raw audio is sent
to Alexa
Product Name
Product Description
Store Name Store
Address Cost (inc.
Tax)
OrderRegularIntent
Response sent back
by skill
Your skill would
receive the
intent and
determine what
the order is and
at what storeAlexa decodes the raw audio and
converts it to an intent. In this
case, the user wants to order their
regular coffee via the Starbucks
Skill
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How can your skill utilise Alexa features
• Account linking
• APL (Alexa Presentation Language)
• Alexa buttons
• SSML
• Set reminders, shopping lists, to-do list
• Get user’s address, email, name, phone
• Get location of the user (auto / phone)
• …
https://developer.amazon.com/alexa/feature-updates
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Alexa Developer rewards
• Developers receive rewards for Skills
that perform well
• If your skill appears in the top 30 of any
category
• Paid monthly
• Could change how payment works…
rewarding new skills rather than top
• https://developer.amazon.com/en-
GB/alexa/alexa-skills-kit/rewards
ISP (In Skill purchasing)
• One-time purchases:
• Entitlements that unlock access to features or content within a
skill. One-time purchases do not expire.
• Consumables:
• Content or features that can be purchased, depleted, and
purchased again. For example, hints for a game, in-game
currency or extra lives.
• Subscriptions:
• Offers access to premium content or features for a period of
time. Users are charged on a recurring basis until they cancel
their subscription.
• 70% to developer – 30% to Amazon
• https://developer.amazon.com/docs/in-skill-
purchase/isp-overview.html
Generate a revenue
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• Skill needs to be new and
have ISP
• UK Skill Store Finalist - The
best premium skill published
in the UK skill store will
receive $10,000, plus
invitation & travel to the ISP
Finalist Summit in Seattle
• Grand Prize - The winner for
the overall best skill with In-
Skill Purchasing will be
chosen from the finalists and
will receive $15,000 in
addition to their finalist prize
Competition
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Demo of Talking Dog
● Eat
● Drink
● Sit
● Sleep
● Wake Up
● Talk/Bark
● Scold
● Praise
● Sing
● Growl
ISP - Treat pack
APL - Dogs on the screen
images of some of the
actions
Audio:
ZapSplat
Images:
PixaBay
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Top tips for building a skill
1. Write down any ideas
2. Look at the marketplaces, appstores
3. Plan your skill - user interface
4. APL and ISP
5. Quality over Quantity
6. Are you happy with the finished product
7. Don’t stop when it goes live
8. Enjoy
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How do we design for voice?
Your Happy Path is the best-case, easiest interaction available in your Skill/Action.
The value of Scripting:
1) Always build your simplest interaction first
2) Read out your dialog!
3) Prepare for the unexpected
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1) Use Voiceflow
• Design the flow of the conversation
• Use the testing tool
• If possible connect to your Alexa
account
2) Develop in ASK & Node.JS
• Create the language model
• Create fulfilment to process the
conversation
The challenge
• Create an idea for an Alexa Skill
• Create a simple conversation between you and the user
• Write one sentence explanation of what the skill does
• Write your name down and place in the box if you want to present
• We’ll pick as many names out of the box as possible to present
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Next steps
• Read the Alexa blog to keep up to date with competitions, features
and releases
• Learn more about voice – Rabbit & Pork newsletter, Voicebot.AI
website, Podcasts and Alexa events
• Think how you can develop your idea from today
• Consider ISP as a method to generate revenue
