With “Alexa Live”, Amazon is starting this year's developer event for everything to do with the company's digital language assistant. A lot of news should not only make the work of developers easier, but also bring new things for customers. ComputerBase was able to speak to Amazon in advance about the new features.
More and more users and developers are relying on skills
Both the number of developers of Alexa skills and the interactions of users with Alexa skills continue to grow rapidly. Amazon now has more than 900,000 registered developers, 100,000 of whom were new in the last year alone. They have so far released more than 130,000 skills for Alexa, which can be used on more than 140,000 different devices that Alexa now support.
In a year-on-year comparison, interaction with Alexa via skills has increased by 40 percent, which according to Amazon was also, but not only, due to the global pandemic. Growth should continue through improved skills and new interaction options that make use easier.
Widgets for skills are coming this year
A first innovation, which will also bring new interaction options for users, are Alexa widgets. Starting today, Amazon allows developers to use the Alexa Presentation Language (APL) to create widgets for interaction that can be placed on the home screen by the user via a widget gallery. These widgets allow, for example, quick access to important functions and, thanks to background updates, can continuously display current content without the user having to call up the skill beforehand. The function is to be released to all users later this year. Amazon is currently not planning its own approval process for the widgets, which developers have to go through, but does provide a design guide.
Direct access to functions within skills
In order to further increase interaction, users will in future be able to create routines that lead them directly to an action within a skill, instead of first opening the skill and then having to give further commands. Using an individual routine “What's up for today?”, The user could directly access individual, relevant content in a news skill instead of having to listen to all the news.
The mobile phone can be included
With “Send to Phone”, customers will in future be able to continue an action that was started on an Alexa-enabled device on their smartphone. With the combination of “Quick Links” and “Send to Phone”, developers can also program skills that both Alexa and the mobile phone use.
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Alexa Send to Phone (Image: Amazon)
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Alexa Send to Phone 
Alexa Send to Phone Paid skills start in the USA
So that developers can generate sales more easily through skills, skills can now be paid for. This function will initially only be introduced in the USA, although it can be assumed that it will be expanded to include additional regions later. Users can activate the content of a skill for a one-time fee. In-skill purchases are also activated in India and Canada.
purchases on Amazon in skills
The developers should also benefit from the innovations by being able to generate additional sales through the skills. In the last year, sales for developers via in-skill purchases have more than doubled. The “Alexa Shopping Actions” are therefore not limited to individual regions. This gives developers the opportunity to incorporate the option into their own skills for users to buy products directly from the skill via Amazon. Game providers, for example, can give their customers the opportunity to order the parlor game that matches their skill level via Amazon.
The options for re-ordering products via Alexa are also being expanded. While it was previously possible to reorder items such as batteries, printer ink or detergents via Alexa, the function will in future be extended to spare parts
Interactive content via Alexa skills
Another innovation allows skill developers to quickly join in To act interactively for users via a skill, in which the reaction times are to be significantly shortened. For example, iHeartRadio will introduce a function with which a user can pass on music requests to the moderator via Alexa, which he can respond to in the current program.
More natural dialogues in skills also in German
Developers can now also use German skills in a beta use “Alexa Conversations”, which uses deep learning to make the conversation much more natural, as possible questions and combinations are automatically intercepted, for which the developer would otherwise have to program his own constellations. Skills are also becoming more and more detached from a fixed command pattern and include the context in which the user executes a command in the evaluation. A new version of the Deutsche Bahn skill is already using Alexa Conversations to search for connections.
ComputerBase received information about this item from Amazon under NDA. The only requirement was the earliest possible publication time.