At Alexa Live we announced an improvement to name free interaction (NFI, preview), which gives you new tools to help ensure Alexa directs to your skill only those customers requests, questions, or statements that are a good match for the skill. By using these new tools, you can configure up to 5 suggested phrases that customers might use to launch your skill. You can also indicate intents in your skill that Alexa can consider when routing name-free requests.
To apply for the NFI preview, your Alexa skill must be live in an NFI-supported locale, with the preferred marketplace and primary language also set to an NFI-supported locale. Your skill must not be child-directed. We will select skills from among eligible applications on a rolling basis, based on skill performance and customer engagement metrics.
To ensure a consistent customer experience and preserve customer trust, certain skills will not receive name-free utterances from a customer unless that customer has previously engaged with that skill. For example, if your skill has a Mature rating, the customer must have previously enabled your skill. If your skill uses one or more APIs that require customer permission such as Alexa Notifications, Device Address, or Location Services, the customer must have enabled your skill and granted the appropriate permissions. If your skill requires account linking, the customer must have enabled your skill and linked an account. Further, any intent in your skill that allows in-skill purchase activity cannot be enabled for name-free utterances.
We highly recommend implementing CFIR, although it is optional at this time. CFIR lets you reject utterances you cannot serve at run-time and can thus help improve skill experience. For instance, while creating or updating your skill, you can indicate “Get Table” intent of your restaurant reservation skill for reservation-related name-free requests. Your skill can respond ‘CFIR=No“ to "Alexa, make a dinner reservation for me" request if all tables are booked.
