Voice User Interfaces (VUIs) take up more mental resources than Graphical User Interfaces (GUIs), because information is auditory and presented serially, whereas in a GUI information is visual and presented at once.

Today we released updates to the Smart Home Skill API to enable you to design skills that target cloud-connected cooking devices. Here is an overview of how to connect your microwave to Alexa.

Today, we announced that Alexa devices are coming to Canada. Starting today, you can use the Alexa Skills Kit to build skills for customers in Canada using the new English (Canada) language model.

If you are new to skill development, check out this detailed walkthrough to get started.

Today, we announced that Alexa devices are coming to India. Starting today, you can use the Alexa Skills Kit to build skills for customers in India using the new English (India) language model.

Today we announced that we now enable companies to control entertainment devices with the Smart Home Skill API in the Alexa Skills Kit. Here is an overview of how to connect your TVs, AV Receivers, IR Hubs, and even connected speakers to Alexa.

Today, we are incredibly excited to announce a new feature for Alexa developers to take advantage of: entity resolution. This enables you to define synonyms for the Alexa Service to resolve rather than having to figure this out in your code.

This is part six and the final blog 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, part four, and part five. 

Today we announced the Video Skill API, a new addition to the Alexa Skills Kit. Companies can now teach Alexa how to interface with their video content and services. And you can build experiences that allow your customers to easily find and consume video content without invoking a specific skill.

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 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.

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.

Alexa skills are, by design, inherently stateless. But there are many times when you need to make decisions on what to do next based on what happened previously.  In short, you need to do some state management.

This is part four 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 and part three.

Today, we are excited to announce five new SSML tags in the US, UK, and Germany that you can use with Alexa, including whispers, expletive bleeps, and more.

We’ve been listening to the developer community, and one of the most requested features we receive is the ability to preserve your login status when using the Node.js authentication service. With today's update, the Node.js service will now save the refresh token it gets from LWA to disk.