The Alexa Skills are a vast topic considering the huge number of Skills available today and their diversity. Starting from simple ones made for music, online radios, podcasts, and news contents and updates, to more complex skills. They are created to allow users to receive daily personalized content, services, and order products.
This list starts with the services that Amazon itself has included in the range of capabilities Alexa has. They start from basic ones like asking for the weather, reminder or alarms, to Drop-In, Echo calls routines etc.
Many international and local businesses have used this opportunity to spread their services through their own interactive Alexa Skills, also called Voice Apps. We can mention Domino’s Pizza Skill, a Skill that allows their customers to order food using only their voice, and only two months after its debut Domino’s says that 1/5 of their customers used the Alexa Skill to order.
The Marriott’s hotel line has equipped its rooms with Amazon Echo for it to answer the questions and simplify the Room service ordering process for its customers.
You can tell Alexa to activate the BBC skill and choose from the possibilities it offers. You can hear the latest news from the world, listen to your favorite radio station or podcast.
What does this services mean for the users?
For most of them, these services are an addition to what Alexa is already offering. With the number of Skills being added daily, this is a chance for them to have more services and products.
Amazon has added strong requirements and policies for Skill creators to not allow disturbing, annoying, or pushy advertisements. They make a thorough control of every Voice App that gets published. The requirements leave little space for displeasure while using such skills, and makes the users feel more appreciated.
Similar to every other service, some people don’t find it attractive in every aspect. Sometimes there are many Skills including in-app purchases for upgrades or premium services within the Voice App.
Well, we can easily say that nothing really comes for free and this is completely normal.
The next question that might come into our minds is: how does someone create an Alexa Skill?
Below you can find the two ways you can go about it:
- The first step is creating the Skill yourself, but this would require you to have programming knowledge of different languages. Unfortunately, this way is troublesome. You will need to transform your idea into code. Then convert it to Amazon’s default programming language used to develop Alexa Skills: Lambda language. You need to have an Amazon Developer Account and be part of the AWS console. The console offers great benefits to developers creating Alexa Skills through this platform. Or you can hire a developer, which should be a certified Alexa developer. He should guarantees that the Skills will be correctly built in every detail. Unfortunately, it will cost you more and if the Skill does not gain traction, you will just lose money.
- The second way, and probably the easiest one. You need to create it using third-party platforms that have already created the system. They will translate your idea into a program, simplifying this way the hardest step. One of the best tools available: ipervox.com
All you need is to have a creative and useful idea then create the Alexa Skill. What it offers, and how the users will interact with it.
As mentioned above, one of these platforms, and a well-known one, being among the first to offer a dedicated service for the building of Voice Apps, is IPERVOX. Our platform allows every user to create their own Voice Apps like Alexa Skills (and Google Actions), in simple steps and receive as a product an interactive and useful Skill.
If you don’t have created your voice app yet but you’re ready to create the first one, just click on the button “START FOR FREE”. In a few minutes, you’ll be in the voice world.
