Index of Skill Types

After you've become familiar with what the Alexa Skills Kit (ASK) has to offer and learned about voice interaction models, you're ready to choose the type of skill to develop. ASK categorizes skills into types based on their voice interaction model and capabilities or features.

For skills with a pre-built voice interaction model, users communicate with Alexa by using a set of pre-defined utterances. For skills with a custom voice interaction model, you define the utterances that you want users to say to Alexa.

The following table lists the available skill types alphabetically. Follow the link to each skill type for full details.

Skill type Voice model Description Resources

Automotive

Custom or
Pre-built
(Connected Vehicle)

Develop skills that let users control features of their vehicle remotely, such as turn on the engine, lock or unlock the door, defrost the windshield. You can make the interaction more secure with voice codes.

Custom

Custom

Build and customize the voice interaction to deliver nearly any kind of skill experience, such as games, education, fitness, and shopping. Use Alexa Presentation Language (APL) to add visuals and tap interactions for Alexa-enabled devices with a screen.

Flash Briefing

Pre-built
(Flash Briefing)

Develop skills to provide Alexa customers with news headlines and other short content, such as comedy skits and interviews.

  • You can configure your news feed as JSON or RSS.
  • Update your feed as often as possible so that customers hear new content.

Games

Custom

Develop game skills driven by custom voice and visual interactions.

  • With Alexa Web API for Games, you can build voice-enabled games by using a combination of Alexa directives and familiar web technologies, such as JavaScript, HTML5, CSS, Web Audio, and Web Graphics Library.
  • With APL, you can design custom games that combine voice, audio, and visual elements with a combination of Alexa directives and APL documents.

Music, Radio, Podcast

Pre-built (Music)

Develop skills that enable users to find and play audio content streamed through Alexa-enabled devices.

  • Submit your audio catalog metadata to Amazon so that Alexa can match voice requests with your content.
  • Integrate your streaming service to enable access to music, radio, and podcasts from your catalog.
  • Voice interactions enable users to shuffle, loop, start, stop, pause, and search for audio content.

No-Code Radio

Pre-built (Music)

Radio providers can follow a no-code process to make their stations available to Alexa.

Smart Home

Pre-built
(Smart Home)

Build an Alexa smart home skill to control cloud-connected smart home devices.

  • Voice interactions enable users to discover and control your device with Alexa-enabled devices connected to your device over a local protocol, such as Matter, and through your cloud infrastructure.
  • Keep users updated on the current state of the device in the Alexa app.
  • You can also extend the pre-built voice interaction model with Multi-capability Skills.
  • For other smart home development options, see Alexa-Enabled Smart Home.

Smart Properties

Custom

Develop property skills to reflect your brand, such as Alexa Smart Properties for healthcare, hospitality, residential, and senior living properties.

  • Simplify tasks for guests with voice, such as finding property amenities, in-room lighting and temperature controls, hours of operation.
  • Complement the voice experience with visual content rendered on Alexa-enabled devices with a screen.
  • Develop skills that give users voice access to search for and reserve meeting rooms.

Video

Pre-built (Video)

Develop skills that enable users to find and consume video content on a smart home video device, such as a set-top box, game consoles, and smart TVs.

  • Video Skill APIs use the public IMDb catalog for live TV and video-on-demand content, or you can submit your private catalog metadata to Amazon.
  • In addition, you can pair your video skill with your Fire TV app.
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Last updated: Jul 15, 2024