Adding a simple alexa skill, doable in time? getting started with alexa

Question

I have some devices I want to give my clients. E.g. they take it home.

basically I want them to be able to ask the device like an echo dot:

Ask MYAPP, what song is Number One

Ask MYAPP, what song is Number Two

.. etc

and then it reads the name of a song.

My question is: I have never worked with alexa or amazon service.

How long will it take to get it certified?

Do i need to get it certified?

is there an issue with playing a song?

I don't own a device, can I test it well enough without owning one?

is the alexa skill api easy and I get this done rather quickly or is it difficult to get started?

what's a good place to help get me started? i quickly looked at creating a skill set and the procedure seems heavy weight. Is there maybe a forum or some chat where the gurus hang out?

Answer 1

Since this question is referred as related to some current #alexa-skill questions, I like to give some updates to the different points where Amazon has improved the Alexa environment within the 5 years after the initial answers:

• Do I need to get it certified? Beside publishing a skill to all Alexa users, there are some other possibilities. You could add further users to your account (but be aware then they see all skills and depending on the roles might also do changes). Another option on skill level access is beta testing, but this is very limited. Last option is Alexa for business, where a skill can be distributed to devices of an organization - this is quite complex, but offers additional context and the option to limit accessibility of the skill to just the organization.

• is there an issue with playing a song? besides integrating the audio in SSML, you have the Audio Player Directive, but be aware, that while your audio length has no limits, you leave the skill session. With Alexa Presentation Language Audio (APL-A) you keep the dialog session and have more audio capabilities as on SSML, but still face length limits. Staying inside the skill while not having audio length limits is possible when using APL (Video-)Player component with size 0, but this limits your skill to screen devices.

• I don't own a device, can I test it well enough without owning one? The previous answer is not valid, since echosim.io is offline since April 5, 2021. But nowadays the development console has a very good simulator. Additionally you can use a local simulator with Visual Studio Code & ASK Toolkit testing

• is the alexa skill api easy and I get this done rather quickly or is it difficult to get started? In the last view years, Amazon extended the options on how to build & host a skill. With Alexa-hosted you do not need to care about AWS and connecting Alexa cloud with AWS or your own hosting solution and make use of all Skill features. If you need a simpler logic, you could use Alexa Blueprints, which covers the logic and you just provide the content (if you found a matching blueprint for your needed logic) - btw this is also an additional option for the certification question, since a blueprint is normally just for your account and you can share your blueprint instance with others, too.

Answer 2

• How long will it take to get it certified? - Once you submit the app it will take max 7 business day to get certified (Most of my apps certified in 2 days) - Please read here for certification checklist

• Do I need to get it certified? - Yes, it should get certified for your app to be available on Amazon Alexa skill store. If it is not in skill store then other people cannot download to their device and will be available only in your account. To test app you don't need certification as you can try it from your Amazon account

• is there an issue with playing a song? - You can play any audio files but current limit of audio file is 90 seconds. Please read more here
• I don't own a device, can I test it well enough without owning one?- You don't need a device to test it. You can use echosim - https://echosim.io/ to test your app. Alternatively you can use Raspberry PI as you can enable Raspberry PI as an Alexa enabled device

• is the alexa skill api easy and I get this done rather quickly or is it difficult to get started? - It is very easy to do. trust me I have learned and created an app in a week or so

• what's a good place to help get me started?- First you need an Amazon account ( I believe you already have). Please find below links for simple end to end samples,

https://developer.amazon.com/alexa-skills-kit/alexa-skill-quick-start-tutorial

https://developer.amazon.com/blogs/post/Tx3DVGG0K0TPUGQ/New-Alexa-Skills-Kit-Template:-Step-by-Step-Guide-to-Build-a-Fact-Skill

There are couple of courses available in Udemy as well