Amazon released the Alexa Voice Service (AVS) in June 2015, giving third-party device makers the ability to integrate Alexa directly into their connected products. Today, tens of thousands of developers are building with AVS, adding cloud-based intelligence, hands-free voice control, and the magic of Alexa to products across a variety of applications.

You may have noticed that we recently updated the AVS Developer Portal to better serve our community’s growing and diverse needs by making new self-service content publicly available, simplifying product capability management, adding new Analytics tools, and refreshing our overall look and feel. While it feels nice to add a fresh coat of paint to our Developer Portal, we remain hyper focused on improving our site experience with new tools that make it easier to design, build, launch, and ultimately manage Alexa-enabled products.

Below are some of the updates we have recently rolled out across the AVS Developer Portal:

Improved Product Capability Management

You can configure and manage the Alexa features on your registered device easily using the “Capabilities” tab in the Product Registration and Management flow. For example, you can enable or disable the Display Cards feature for your Alexa-enabled devices based on the presence or absence of a screen. By selecting the appropriate capabilities for your device, you will gain access to specialized interfaces that your device requires to implement the feature. As we add new features, you will see the list of Capabilities grow, empowering you to integrate the features into your product faster.

To update your Product Capabilities, login to your Amazon Developer account, click the “Alexa” tab and then select “Get Started” under the Alexa Voice Service. You will see a list of your registered products. Click “Manage” next to the product you’d like to edit or update, and then click “Capabilities” in the left-side navigation.

New Metrics and Reports

We have added new metrics to our Analytics Dashboard: active users and dialog frequency. These metrics help you assess how many of your customers registered with Alexa are active in a given time period and how often they talk to Alexa. These metrics are in addition to the registration and de-registration metrics we launched in March 2017.

• Active Users: See the number of active users interacting with Alexa on your product. Filter by product type to see which product shows the highest activity rate.
• Dialog Frequency: View the average number of times your active customers engage with Alexa on your device during a given period of time. Use this data to drive ongoing engagement marketing programs and encourage customers to try new Alexa features.

To access the enhanced Analytics Dashboard, login to your Amazon Developer account, click the “Alexa” tab and then select “Get Started” under the Alexa Voice Service. You will see a list of your registered products. Click “Analytics Dashboard” in the secondary navigation.

Enhanced Site Navigation

The Developer Portal underwent a small redesign this summer that categorized AVS developer resources into four easy-to-remember stages: Learn, Design, Build, and Launch. The new flow aims to make it easier to locate self-service content for each stage of the development process. We’ll continue to add new technical resources, tutorials, how-to-articles, videos, and development tools to the Developer Portal. You can be among the first to be notified when new resources and tools are added to the Developer Portal by following our Quick Start Guide.

Click the links below to access the new AVS resource pages on the Developer Portal:

• Learn - AVS Overview
• Design - AVS Overview
• Build - AVS Overview
• Launch - AVS Overview

What Is the Alexa Voice Service?

AVS enables developers to integrate Alexa directly into their products, bringing the convenience of voice control to any connected device. AVS provides developers with access to a suite of resources to quickly and easily build Alexa-enabled products, including APIs, hardware development kits, software development kits, and documentation. Through AVS, device makers can add a new intelligent interface to their products and offer customers access to a growing number of Alexa features, smart home integrations, and skills. Just ask, and Alexa will respond. Visit the AVS Developer Portal to get started.

Have questions? Visit us on the AVS Forum to speak with one of our experts.