Alexa Skill Beta Test Troubleshooting

Andrew Cargill Oct 23, 2020
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Prototype Testing & Certification
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After working diligently on your skill, you've finally reached the beta testing stage. However, once you did, your emails either aren't getting through to your beta testers or they're having trouble interacting with the skill. Below, we'll walk through the causes of each scenario and guide you through the solutions.

Scenario 1: Beta Testers Did Not Receive the Invitation Email

If a beta tester didn't receive your email invite, then it's likely that either the email provided is incorrect, or that the email may have ended up in the user's junk-mail folder. To troubleshoot this, as a beta test administrator, you should take the following first steps:

  1. Verify with the beta tester that the email address you have on file for them is correct and active.
  2. Ask the beta tester to check their spam or junk-mail folder. 
  3. Verify with the beta tester that their Amazon account and Echo devices are associated with that same email address that they provided for the beta test.

If you have confirmed with the beta tester that the email address on file is indeed correct, then you have two troubleshooting options, as the beta test administrator:

Option 1: Use the Built-In Beta Test "Send Reminder" Feature

  1. Log into your Alexa Developer Console.
  2. Click "Manage Beta Test" next to the skill in question.
  3. Click "Send reminder" next to that beta tester.

Option 2: Manually Email the Beta Tester an Invite URL

It's possible that a given beta tester's email client or provider is blocking emails before they reach the participant's inbox. To avoid that possibility entirely, you have the option to provide the beta tester with a direct beta test invite URL yourself. To do so, follow the following steps:

  1. Log into your Alexa Developer Console.
  2. Click "Manage Beta Test" next to the skill in question.
  3. Click "Copy Invite URL".
  4. Using your own email client, email the beta test participant with the direct beta test invite URL.

Scenario 2: Invitation Email Is Received but the Beta Tester Cannot Enable or Interact with the Skill

If your beta tester has successfully received the beta test invite, but is having trouble either enabling or interacting with the skill, this is typically caused by one, or both, of the following two possibilities:

Possible Cause 1: Beta Tester's Alexa App Is Associated with a Different Amazon Account

If the email address provided by the beta tester does not match the email address associated with their Alexa account, then the tester will not have access to the skill. This is more common in a company or university setting where beta testers may have provided work or university email addresses while their Amazon accounts are instead associated with personal email addresses. To resolve this, you may do the following:

  1. Ask the beta tester to provide you with the email address associated with the Amazon account used to sign into their Echo devices.
  2. Log into your Alexa Developer Console.
  3. Click "Manage Beta Test" next to the skill in question.
  4. Input the corrected email address into the "Enter tester email addresses" box.
  5. Click "Add".

Possible Cause 2: Beta Tester's Echo Device Language Is Not Supported by the Skill

In order to be able to interact with a skill, the skill store of that tester's Alexa app must correspond to an existing language version of the skill. Please note that Alexa considers the various English language versions to be distinct from one another. For example, "English (US)" is separate from "English (UK)" which is separate from "English (IN)" etc. Beta testers can find which skill store they're associated with by following the steps below:

  1. Open the Alexa app.
  2. Tap the "More" button in the bottom-right.
  3. Tap "Settings".
  4. Scroll down and tap "About".
  5. Under "Host Name" you'll see a value like "alexa.amazon.com", "alexa.amazon.co.uk", etc. 
  6. Refer to the chart below to determine which skill language version the tester's account can interact with:

Alexa App Host Name Skill Language Version
alexa.amazon.com.au English (AU)
alexa.amazon.ca English (CA)
alexa.amazon.in English (IN)
alexa.amazon.co.uk English (UK)
alexa.amazon.com English (US)
alexa.amazon.ca French (CA)
alexa.amazon.fr French (FR)
alexa.amazon.de German (DE)
alexa.amazon.it Italian (IT)
alexa.amazon.co.jp Japanese (JP)
alexa.amazon.com.br Portuguese (BR)
alexa.amazon.es Spanish (ES)
alexa.amazon.com.mx Spanish (MX)

If the tester's account is associated with an Alexa language version that your skill does not support, the simplest solution as a skill developer would be to add that language model to your skill.

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