Today we announced that we now enable video providers to control content with the Video Skill API, a new addition to the Alexa Skills Kit. Here is an overview of how to create video skills for Alexa so that your customers can easily find and consume video content without invoking a specific skill.

We’re pleased to announce our collaboration with CareerFoundry on the company’s first specialized course for voice, Voice Design with Amazon Alexa.

When done right, adding audio files to your skills can enhance the voice experience. Follow these tips to check and set your skill’s audio volume.

We're excited to share the Amazon Alexa Voice Design Guide, a resource built on the experiences of the Amazon Alexa team, the skill builder community, and established industry practices.

Today we’re excited to share that this feature now includes usage information about your smart home skills and flash briefings.

Simplicity is at the core of all Hive devices, which made integration with Alexa a natural next step, says Elvin Nagamootoo, Hive product lead. Using the Alexa Skills Kit (ASK), the Hive team built a smart home skill and a custom skill.

This is part five of our Makers Academy series for Ruby developers. Learn more about this free training on the Alexa Skills Kit and read part one, part two, part three, and part four.

We are excited to announce a new addition to the Smart Home Skill API, the ability to define appliance categories. By defining appliance categories, both you and your customers can easily identify the types of smart home devices with which they are interacting.

With the increased popularity of Alexa-compatible smart home devices, we’ve seen a surge in the number of smart home skill submissions. In this post, we’ll highlight key requirements, common issues we’re seeing, and helpful reference material for skills implemented using the Smart Home Skill API.

If you’re a Dish Network subscriber, or you’re thinking about becoming one, finding the perfect show or movie just got a lot easier with Alexa voice control. Dish Network subscribers can now voice control their TV experience with the Hopper DVR set-top box and the Echo Family of Devices.

Customers expect a delightful experience on Alexa, and it is our top priority to maintain that experience. With that in mind, today we are clarifying our policy on advertising in Alexa skills.

Many Alexa skill developers use AWS Lambda and Node.js for your Alexa skill’s web service. If your skill still uses Node.js v0.10 functions, you need to migrate to one of the newer Node.js versions (4.3 or 6.10) by May 30, 2017.

Soon you will be able to enable notifications for select skills and Amazon.com shopping updates on most devices with Alexa. Companies like AccuWeather, The Washington Post, and Just Eat will be among the first to update their skills with notifications. AVS and ASK dev tools are also coming soon.

Today, we’re excited to announce we’re teaming up with Coding Dojo to train hundreds of Alexa developers in person in the US in 2017.

The 60dB team wants to reach listeners where they are. That’s why the Amazon Echo and other Alexa-enabled devices were the next logical step for 60dB—even before porting the app to other mobile platforms.