Today we are excited to announce the Reminders API, which you can use to enable your Alexa skills to set and manage reminders for your customers. The new API is available to developers in all locales supported by Alexa.

Make Your Skill More Engaging and Better Retain Customers

Reminders have become an important part of our daily routines for various types of events and tasks. Now you can offer reminders to customers using your Alexa skills, and make your skills more engaging for customers. KAYAK skill is a great example of providing active assistance and increased value to customers with Reminders API. “The Reminders API allows us to immediately alert users when a flight they tracked has landed. Since flight arrival times can change, we now have the flexibility to send a reminder at the right time, which adds even more value to the experience,” says Matthias Keller, chief scientist at KAYAK.

Build New Skill Experience that Focuses on Reminders

Without the Reminders API, customers need to remember to invoke the right skill at the right time to get information they need. With the Reminders API, they can enable skills to set reminders for later by granting permissions and reduce frictions. This change in customer experience allows skill developers to build new skill experiences. For example, you can build skills that help customers remember important appointments, workout classes, restauratnt reservations, or events they signed up for that may occur no show fees if they forget.

How the Reminders API Works

To create a reminder for your skill, you must acquire two sets of permissions to protect customers from unwanted reminders. First, you need the global reminders read/write permission, which is acquired during skill enablement. Second, you need an explicit customer permission for setting each specific reminder.

The Official NHL skill is a great example of the Reminders API implementation. The skill clarifies the reminder details and asks for customer permissions. “The Official NHL skill utilizes the new Reminders API to allow fans the ability to set a reminder 30 minutes before each time their favorite team takes the ice. This added feature to the Official NHL Skill enables us to offer customized engagement for hockey fans every night of the season.” says Chris Foster, Digital Director at National Hockey League.

Try Reminders API Today

You can add reminders capability to your skills by integrating the Reminders API through the Alexa Developer Portal. Chetan Damani, CEO and Vytas Kancleris, CTO at Tvguide.co.uk said that it was easy to add Reminders API to their skill. “Once users find something they want to watch, they can simply set up a reminder to be notified a few minutes before a show starts. Our development team found it fairly easy to implement. We are hoping to see a big uptick in usage as well as improved customer experience when we are live,”

Review our documentation to get started.