What Happened
Amazon’s virtual assistant Alexa is getting new skills every day, but it hasn’t been very easy for users to find and activate the skills they want for their Echo devices. This pain point was largely alleviated as Amazon revamped the skills section of the Alexa mobile app, putting all skills into 20 browsable categories – including Connected Car, Smart Home, Shopping, and Travel & Transportation – and adding new search tools to make Alexa skills more discoverable. In addition, Amazon is allowing users to activate new Alexa skills by voice command. Users can now access their previously enabled skills via a new “Your Skills” section.
Since its low-key launch in November 2014, Amazon Echo has turned out to be a sleeper hit, ushering voice-based conversational interfaces into smart home devices. Early adopting brands such as Capital One, Domino’s, Kayak, and StubHub have already created branded Alexa skills to better serve customers at home. In fact, Amazon says now there are more than 1,400 skills available for Alexa users to explore.
Why Brands Should Care
As the list of Alexa skills grows longer, it was getting increasingly difficult for branded skills to cut through the clutter and stand out, and this revamp brings some much-needed structure and search capabilities for Alexa skills. Therefore, it is important for brands to properly name and tag their Alexa skills, make sure their skills are filed under the right category, and keep a close eye on this development to ensure the discoverability of their Alexa skills.
For more information on how brands can develop authentic brand voices and navigate the new interface, check out the Conversational Interfaces section in our Outlook 2016.
Source: Amazon Developers
Header image courtesy of Amazon Developers
