4

I want to use amazon alexa api for my website/ mobile application. I would like to know if it is possible to use and how to integrate alexa, given that I develop my custom skill.

vidyasagarr7
  • 513
  • 2
  • 6
  • 12
  • 1
    Possible duplicate of [How To Use Amazon Skill Set Without Amazon Echo Device](http://stackoverflow.com/questions/35448945/how-to-use-amazon-skill-set-without-amazon-echo-device) – Sam Hanley May 18 '16 at 14:14

2 Answers2

3

You can use the Alexa Voice Service. You will need to collect the user's audio and then submit it to Amazon. The voice snippet does not need to contain the hotword (e.g. Alexa). You should be able to use most features that don't involve the device and aren't asynchronous. For example, you can utilize the alarm or timer features nor the music streams.

Jim Rush
  • 4,143
  • 3
  • 25
  • 27
3

It sounds like you are asking how to allow the user to talk to your website or mobile app.

An Alexa custom skill is something you create to extend Alexa's vocabulary, so to speak. It isn't an alternative to using a mouse or keyboard with an existing app.

A website and a mobile app are, or can be, two different ways for a user to access the functionality you provide. Think of an Alexa skill as a 3rd way to access that functionality. A user could ask the Alexa device (Echo, Dot, iPhone Lexi app, etc) to get or perform the same things that your website does.

So for example, if your website explains how your widgets work, then you could create a widget Alexa skill that would allow Alexa user's to ask about your widgets.

The Alexa Voice Service is something entirely different. It is an API to enable adding Alexa voice to a different piece of hardware. For example, my friend Thaddeus created an Alexa Voice Service app called Lexi that runs on an iPhone. This allows a user to talk to Alexa using their iPhone. However, it doesn't add any new capability to Alexa. It only allows me to do things on my iPhone that I can already do on my Echo.

Ron Lisle
  • 1,164
  • 6
  • 11