Amazon Alexa Releases 10-Item Skill Guide for Developers

Amazon Alexa released a guide with 10 things every Alexa skill should do: (1) do one thing really well; (2) use a memorable invocation name and utterances; (3) focus on intents rather than commands; (4) simplify choices; (5) pass the one-breath test; (6) include a variety of responses; (7) handle the unexpected gracefully; (8) be enhanced using analytics; (9) provide contextual help; (10) be beta tested. Breaking out guidelines, it said Friday: “If you can say the response out loud without taking a breath, the response is probably the right length.” Another example was Alexa telling a user: “I heard you say pizza pie. I’m sorry, I don’t know how to help you with that.” The skill acknowledges it heard the user, and it repeats the words captured so the user understands why it missed. “This gives the user an opportunity to try their question again, or ask a different one,” it said.