Audio Streaming | Testing on Amazon Echo | Alexa

Question

I'm working on Amazon Echo (Alexa) now days, and quite new to it. I'm using AWS-Lambda function as endpoint, and testing my custom skill on simulator or Echoism.io. The skills without audios are working fine in this scenerio

The problem is, i'm creating an audio list, and want echo/alexa to play that. I've read that simulator doesn't support audio streaming at the moment. but i'm unable to stream it on Echoism.io as well.

I'm writing the simplest possible code on lambda from this link

But audio is not streaming. I've updated audio link and also have added logs (cloud watch). Function is being called and returning the response. but no audio.

Please help. Can we do it?

Answer 1

I don't know the exact answer to your question (yet). I just thought this may help you. We built a tool for local skill development and testing.

BST Tools

Requests and responses from Alexa will be sent directly to your local server, so that you can quickly code and debug without having to do any deployments. I have found this to be very useful for our own development.

We also have a sample project Streamer with audio streaming to demonstrate BST features.

Take a look at this tutorial: BST Emulator

If you are on Python we also have this: BSTPy. This will proxy your Python lambda (expose it as a local http service).

Let me know if you have any questions or need more help.

Answer 2

Unfortunately I confirm @Fayza Nawaz answer is correct (upvoted).

The test simulator doesn't support audio player (via AudioPlayer). The web test simulator (ironically today have been launched the new interface: https://developer.amazon.com/blogs/alexa/post/8914b24e-8546-4775-858c-becd800a3c2f/the-new-alexa-skills-kit-developer-console-is-now-generally-available) doesn't support both finite length audio files or continuous audio streaming :(

I opened a similar issue here: Alexa Skill AudioPlayer: Console test Support poor support/bugs

BTW, I tested also EchoSim and I confirm it doesn't works.

Another minus is that I can NOT test any (audio-based) Alexa skill with a physical device (Amazon Echo) because I'm from Italy and Amazon not allow me to purchase a device from Italy, even if I'm perfectly aware Amazon Alexa doesn't support now Italian language and my skill is in English. That's very sad ...

Answer 3

So, simple answer to my question in NO. i asked the same question on Alexa developer forum, and got this email from Alexa team:

Hello Faiza, audio streaming is not supported on the service simulator or echosim. You will need to use an Echo devices.

Kim C.

Alexa Skills Team

I tested my skill on Echo device, and it worked fine.