Since October 2017, Indian customers have used Alexa enabled devices to access thousands of voice experiences, called “skills”, built by developers worldwide. Today, we’re excited to announce that developers can start building Alexa skills for customers in India using the new Hindi voice model on the Alexa Skills Kit (ASK). Developers will get a head start and will be able to submit skills for certification as we prepare to offer engaging experiences for Alexa users in one of the most spoken languages in the country. Commercial hardware manufacturers who want to develop Alexa Built-in products for Hindi-speaking customers in India can request early access to the invite-only Alexa Voice Service (AVS) developer preview.

Create New Skills for Alexa with the Alexa Skills Kit

Alexa Skills Kit (ASK) is a collection of self-service APIs and tools that make it fast and easy for developers to create new voice-driven capabilities, or skills, for Alexa. Developers don’t need experience with speech recognition or natural language understanding to build a skill—Alexa does all the work to hear, understand, and process the customer’s spoken request so developers don’t have to.

How to Build Alexa Skills for Hindi Speaking Customers

It’s easy to start building voice experiences for Alexa in the new Hindi language model. Before you begin building your skill in Hindi, be sure to select Hindi (IN) as your language model in the Alexa Developer Console. However, if you’re new to the skill building process, check out this detailed walkthrough to get started. To build a skill in the Hindi voice model, get started with the following:

• Try our basic fact skill sample
• Go through a complete, step by step guide to create a new skill in Hindi
• Browse through our technical documentation to understand the nuances in building a skill for the Hindi language model
• Watch our video series to learn how to build voice enabled experiences for Alexa in Hindi

Add Hindi to Your Existing English (India) Skill and Reach New Customers

If you’re an Alexa developer and want to engage with new Hindi-speaking customers in India, you can update your existing published skill in India for Hindi by following these simple steps.

Watch On-Demand Webinars to Start Building Skills in Hindi

Alongside our Technical Evangelist (Sohan Maheshwar) and Solutions Architect (Karthik Ragubathy) you will learn how to reach new Hindi speaking customers by building new Hindi skills and updating your existing skill to the Hindi model.

Share Feedback and Make the Skill Building Process in Hindi (IN) Better

Join our Slack channel to get connected with your peer developers building for Hindi. If you have any questions or feedback on the HI_IN model, please contact us.

Integrate Alexa into Your Devices with the Alexa Voice Service (AVS)

AVS enables device makers to integrate Alexa directly into their products to bring the convenience of voice interaction to any connected device. AVS provides a suite of resources, including APIs, hardware development kits, software development kits, and documentation. Device makers like Dish TV, Mybox, Sony, boAt and more will soon be able to leverage these resources to launch Alexa built-in products with the Hindi-language model for India. Commercial device makers that wish to add Hindi to their devices can request early access to our invite-only developer preview now through the AVS Developer Portal.