APL Standard Commands


The following table lists the standard Alexa Presentation Language (APL) commands. The "Reinflation support" column indicates whether the command takes time to run and therefore has a reinflation strategy. The "Widget support" column indicates whether you can use the command in a widget.

Command Description Reinflation strategy Widget support

AnimateItem

Runs a fixed-duration animation sequence on one or more properties or bound values of a single component.

Yes

Yes

AutoPage

Progress through a series of pages displayed in a Pager component.

Yes

Yes

ClearFocus

Removes focus from the actionable component that is currently in focus.

No

Yes

ControlMedia

Controls a media player to play, pause, change tracks, or perform some other common action.

No

Not supported

Finish

Closes the current APL document and exits.

No

Yes

Idle

Do nothing. Use the Idle command as a placeholder or to insert a calculated delay in a longer series of commands.

No

Yes

InsertItem

Adds an item to an inflated document and adjusts the layout to reflect the change in structure.

No

Not supported

Log

Sends a log message to use in a debugging context, such as the authoring tool Live Preview Mode or other debugging tools.

No

Yes

OpenURL

Open a specified URL in a web browser or other application on the device.

No

Yes

Parallel

Run a series of commands in parallel.

No

Yes

PlayMedia

Plays media on a video player.

Yes

Not supported

Reinflate

Reinflates the current document with updated configuration properties. Alexa rebuilds the entire document, following the same process as when initially displaying the document on the screen.

No

Not supported

RemoveItem

Removes an item from an inflated document and adjusts the layout to reflect the change in structure.

No

Not supported

Scroll

Scrolls a ScrollView, Sequence, or GridSequence forward or backward by a set number of pages.

Yes

Yes

ScrollToComponent

Scroll forward or backward through a ScrollView, Sequence, or GridSequence to ensure that a particular component is in view.

Yes

Yes

ScrollToIndex

Scroll forward or backward through a ScrollView, Sequence, or GridSequence to ensure the child component with the specified index.

Yes

Yes

Select

Select a single command from an array of commands and data.

No

Yes

SendEvent

Send an Alexa.Presentation.APL.UserEvent request to your skill.

No

Yes

Sequential

Run a series of commands in order, waiting for the previous command to finish before starting the next.

Yes

Yes

SetFocus

Change the actionable component that is in focus. See focused for the actionable components that can receive and lose focus.

No

Yes

SetPage

Change the page displayed in a Pager component to a specified page.

Yes

Yes

SetValue

Change a dynamic property or bound value (bind) for a component.

No

Yes

SpeakItem

Read the speech content of a single component on the screen. The component scrolls or pages into view if it isn't already visible.

Yes

Not supported

SpeakList

Read the speech content for each item in a range of items inside a common container. Each item scrolls into view before Alexa reads the item.

Yes

Not supported


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Last updated: Nov 28, 2023