If a voice platform shall be successful, it needs to offer its users a large choice of voice apps. All users shall be able to customize their Alexa experience with the particular Skills they need. The platform provider cannot possibly
Alexa Ecosystem
Alexa is not a monolithic app delivered by Amazon, but rather an ecosystem of highly specialized voice apps (or Skills) that are all available on the Alexa platform. There are clear roles for software providers, hardware providers and Amazon as
Part 4 of Alexa Account Linking: How can Alexa Call APIs?
In part 4 of this series on Alexa Account Linking we call the protected API of the linked account. Let’s say we want to call the Spotify API in our Alexa Skill. The Spotify API is protected, it requires a
Part 3 of Alexa Account Linking: How Alexa uses OAuth?
In part 3 of this series, we describe how an Alexa Skill can get an OAuth access token in the Skill Service. Having the OAuth access token is a prerequisite for calling an API later on. So there are potentially
Part 2 of Alexa Account Linking Configuration
To get started with Alexa Account Linking configuration, we need to configure the account linking parameters on the Alexa Skill Interface. This is done on the configuration page in the Alexa Developer Console. We can configure our Skill to enforce
Alexa Account Linking – Part 1: OAuth Provider Registration
Before anything else, the Skill developer needs to register the Alexa Skill as an “App” with the API provider (e.g. Spotify). We call this step Alexa OAuth Provider Registration. Typically, there is a section on the developer portal of the
Alexa Account Linking with OAuth and Spotify
You can write powerful Alexa Skills by calling APIs. But first, you need to set up Account Linking. We show how to do it.
Skill Interface vs Skill Service – What is the Difference?
An Alexa Skill is made up of two components: the Skill Interface and the Skill Service. What is the difference and which component shall solve which task? A Skill Interface is a descriptor, that defines trigger points, so-called intents, in
Alexa Skill Store vs. Mobile App Store
Just as in the early days of mobile, when fortunes were made with mobile apps on the app store, it is now the perfect time to catch the opportunities offered by voice apps, so-called Skills. rketing. Often, the Alexa architecture
How do Alexa Skills work?
Let’s study the behavior of Alexa. Imagine the user says ”Alexa, what is the weather?” Now, which components of Alexa’s technical architecture are involved and how do they interact? In the following diagram, we give an overview of the involved