Alexa Skills Kit Turns One, Adds New Features for Skill Discovery
June 28 2016 - 9:00AM
Business Wire
Starting today, customers can enable an Alexa
skill by using only their voice—just say “Alexa, enable Jeopardy!”
or “Alexa, enable SkyScanner”
June marks the one-year anniversary of the
Alexa Skills Kit, Alexa Voice Service, and the Alexa Fund—Amazon
now has tens of thousands of developers working on Alexa skills and
Alexa-enabled products
Amazon now has over 1,400 Alexa skills—grows
catalog by 50% in just over one month
The Alexa smart home category continues to
grow—since the beginning of 2016, Alexa smart home API skills
selection has increased by more than 5x
(NASDAQ:AMZN)—One year ago, Amazon opened Alexa to developers,
making it simple and free for them to build Alexa skills and
integrate Alexa into their own products. Today, tens of thousands
of developers are building skills for Alexa, and there are over
1,400 new skills for Alexa—including Lyft and Honeywell, which were
added today.
As the selection of skills continues to grow, Amazon is
introducing new, simple ways to discover and enable Alexa skills.
The skills section of the Alexa app is now completely redesigned.
Starting today, customers can browse Alexa skills by categories
such as “Smart Home” and “Lifestyle” in the Alexa app, apply
additional search filters, and access their previously enabled
skills via the “Your Skills” section. Also available today, Alexa
customers can use their voice to enable skills: simply say “Alexa,
enable NBC News” or “Alexa, enable 7 minute workout” and access
them instantly.
“We are thrilled that tens of thousands of developers are
already building skills for Alexa, helping to grow our Alexa skill
selection by 50% in just over a month. And today, we’re excited to
introduce new features that make it even easier for customers to
discover those skills,” said Steve Rabuchin, Vice President, Amazon
Alexa. “This is a win for developers and for customers, and we
can’t wait to hear what they think.”
Some fun facts about the Alexa Skills Kit, Alexa Voice Service,
and Alexa Fund include:
- Since January 2016, selection of Alexa
smart home API skills has grown by more than 5x
- Amazon now has over 1,400 Alexa
skills—growing the catalog by 50% in just over one month
- Customers have made over 3 million
requests using the top 10 most popular Alexa skills
- There are now over 10,000 registered
developers using the Alexa Voice Service to integrate Alexa into
their products
- There are tens of thousands of 3rd
party developers currently working on Alexa projects
- The Alexa Fund has invested in 16
startups, with a focus on smart home and wearable products to date.
Over the next year, The Alexa Fund will be expanding investments
into startups that focus on robotics, developer tools, healthcare,
accessibility and more
- Some of the most popular Alexa skills
are Jeopardy!, Daily Affirmation, Magic 8 Ball, Fitbit, and The
Bartender
About Amazon
Amazon is guided by four principles: customer obsession rather
than competitor focus, passion for invention, commitment to
operational excellence, and long-term thinking. Customer reviews,
1-Click shopping, personalized recommendations, Prime, Fulfillment
by Amazon, AWS, Kindle Direct Publishing, Kindle, Fire tablets,
Fire TV, Amazon Echo, and Alexa are some of the products and
services pioneered by Amazon. For more information, visit
www.amazon.com/about.
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