Celebrating the 2020 Webby Award-Winning Alexa Skills

The winners of the 24th Annual Webby Awards were announced this month in a virtual ceremony dubbed “WFH: Webbys from Home.” The Webby Award in each category is selected by members of the International Academy of Digital Arts and Sciences (IADAS), The Webby People’s Voice Award is voted on by the online public. Both awards are coveted international distinctions of internet excellence.

The Apps, Mobile and Voice winners include apps and experiences across mobile, tablet, voice services, TV, Watch and automobile interfaces. There are nine categories that honor excellence in voice-enabled devices and smart assistants. The Alexa experience “Jimmy Fallon jokes on Alexa” from NBC Entertainment was a People’s Voice Winner in the Voice Feature/Best Writing category. Give it a try by saying “Alexa, tell me a Jimmy Fallon joke.” And we are excited to see that Alexa skills took home an impressive collection of awards in the voice categories for News, Games, Productivity, Education, and Health, Fitness & Lifestyle.

These Webby-award winning Alexa skills are a testament to the increasing popularity of voice-driven experiences. In fact, engagement with Alexa has nearly quadrupled over the last two years. And customers now interact with Alexa billions of times each week. These Alexa skills are designed to help people stay connected, entertained, and productive, like the Red Cross skill that helps people find locations where they can donate blood. Or the 1-2-3 Math skill that challenges kids on their addition and subtraction with increasing levels of difficulty.

What does this mean for developers and businesses? There are endless opportunities to create engaging voice-first experiences for customers at home, in the car, at work, and on the go. If you’re looking for a way to get started, check out the Alexa Skills Kit (ASK).

Congratulations to all the award winners and honorees!

The following Alexa skills and developers were selected as Webby Winners or voted Winners of the Webby People’s Voice Awards. Check them out to explore some of the best voice experiences of 2020.

NPR News Now by NPR
News (Voice)
Five minutes of NPR news, updated hourly. Includes video on compatible devices.

The Voicebot Chronicles by KQED
Best Writing
The Voicebot Chronicles is a groundbreaking interactive series about navigating a world where humans are increasingly talking with machines - and machines are talking back.

Food Network Kitchen – by Discover, Inc.
Food & Drink
Productivity (Voice)
Best Branded Voice Experience
Best User Experience
Get cooking with your favorite Food Network stars, award-winning chefs and cookbook authors — all from the comfort of your own kitchen.

Drivetime by Drivetime
Games (Voice)
Drivetime is the world’s first and only app that lets you safely play audio-only, voice-activated games while you drive. Commute got you down? Tired of the same old songs day after day? Now you can beat the boredom with Drivetime.

Wait Wait Quiz by NPR
Best Writing
Technical Achievement
This interactive game hosted by Peter Sagal and Bill Kurtis lets you answer fill-in-the-blank questions from this week's news. Keep playing week to week for a chance to have your name mentioned on an episode of the show.

1-2-3 Math by Sermo Labs
Education & Reference (Voice)
1-2-3 Math is a math challenge which tests your elementary mathematics skills, including addition, subtraction, multiplication, division, comparison, etc. There are three modes easy, medium and hard with increasing levels of difficulty.

Donate Blood by American Red Cross by American Red Cross
Health, Fitness & Lifestyle (Voice)
Use Alexa to find a convenient blood drive or blood donation center location based on your address, or where you have previously donated.

Wellow (by WW) by Weight Watchers
Best User Experience
Honoree, Technical Achievement
With Wellow, your personal health and wellness assistant on Alexa, you can track your food, look up SmartPoints® values for different items, quick-add meals, look up your tracked and remaining SmartPoints® budget, and get basic plan information.

The New York Times Briefing by The New York Times
News (Voice)
The news you need to know today from The New York Times.

Last Seen Exhibition by Alkira Software
Education & Reference (Voice)
The Last Seen Exhibition skill has been designed to act as an audio aid to enhance the experience of the Last Seen art exhibition. Through carefully crafted audioscapes and the first hand experiences as told by the participants themselves visitors will be given the opportunity to be transported into the "Last Seen" moment. The guide can be used during the exhibition to develop a deeper understanding and emotional connection to the art and can also be used by people who have low or no vision to visualise the painting via their own perspective. For people who couldn’t make it to the exhibition at all, the skill offers a peek into this fantastic art initiative.

In addition to the winners, these Alexa skills were named as honorees in the Webby voice categories.

Entertainment Weekly
News (Voice)
Skilled Creative

BMO
Productivity (Voice)
Bank of Montreal

Sleep Sounds by Sleep Jar

Health, Fitness & Lifestyle (Voice)
Invoked Apps LLC

Bamboo Luminaries
Education & Reference (Voice)
Bamboo Learning

CNBC
Technical Achievement
Best User Experience
CNBC

Highlights Storybooks from Bamboo
Best Writing
Bamboo Learning

Stephen King Library
Best Branded Voice Experience
Skilled Creative

TapeStories
Best Writing
Pop Rocket Labs, Neon Gold Innovations and PETA Deutschland

Home Tour by Glass House Guide
Technical Achievement
Glass House Guide

Deadly Questions
Best Writing
Clemenger BBDO Melbourne

Disney Stories
Best Writing
Disney Parks, Experiences and Products

With the Alexa Skills Kit (ASK), you can build your own Alexa skills, which are like apps for Alexa. Skills let customers use their voices to perform everyday tasks like checking the news, listening to music, playing a game, and more. The Alexa Skills Kit (ASK) is a collection of self-service APIs and tools for making Alexa skills. Get started today with our beginner resources.