New Works with Alexa standards for regional availability and feature completeness

As we continue to raise the quality bar for Works with Alexa certified devices, we are announcing updated certification requirements effective June 15, 2026, that reflect evolving customer expectations and strengthen device performance across global markets.
 

Expanded availability requirement

Since 2023, Works with Alexa (WWA) has required certified devices to maintain 99.93 percent availability annually (no more than 6 hours 8 minutes of downtime per year) and have no more than five outages annually across all regions. We are now refining these standards to provide greater clarity, regional accountability, and faster incident response. These standards will apply to all WWA-certified devices starting on June 15, 2026.

• Region-based Availability Standards: WWA-certified devices must now maintain 99.93 percent availability annually — no more than 6 hours 8 minutes of downtime per year — in each geographic region individually in which the skill is available (North America, Europe, and Far East for globally available skills). This availability measurement tracks developer-controlled service reliability only and excludes any AWS-owned service disruptions. The existing limit of no more than five developer-controllable outages annually across all regions continues to apply. (An "outage" is defined as a >95% drop in control success.) When availability thresholds are crossed in any region, WWA badging for ASINs in that specific region may be suspended. To reinstate WWA eligibility, the identified devices must maintain 99.93 percent availability for three consecutive months in the impacted region and continue to meet all existing WWA certification requirements. Click here for more details.
• Critical Outage Policy: In the event of a developer-controllable critical outage (defined as a >95% drop in control success rate), an email will be sent to the developer's technical contact on file with Amazon. In that email, the developer must acknowledge the disruption and provide Amazon with updates on the measures they are taking to resolve the service degradation. If a critical outage persists for 3 consecutive days, Amazon reserves the right to disable discovery of the skill in the skill store, protecting customers from persistently unreliable integrations. Click here for more details.

In summary, WWA badge suspension may result from any of the following: failure to maintain 99.93% regional availability annually in each geographic region or failure to resolve critical outages within the 6 hours 8 minutes annual downtime expectation. In addition, Amazon may suppress skill discovery from the skill store if a critical outage persists for three consecutive days without acknowledgment and updates from the developer.
 

Feature completeness standards

To ensure WWA-certified devices deliver complete functionality as marketed to customers, we are introducing a new feature completeness standard. This standard will apply to all new WWA-certified devices starting on June 15, 2026.

• Core Device Functionality: All core device functionality marketed on product packaging must work with Alexa. For example, a smart pet feeder with a sensor or camera must support its primary feeding management functions (portion sizes, feeding schedules, manual dispensing) through Alexa; it may not be certified only as a camera or sensor device. Alexa offers Capability Interfaces to model device behaviors with Alexa. If you are unsure of which device interface is the right fit for your device, then contact our developer support team or your Amazon representative.

Devices that currently hold the WWA badge are not immediately subject to these new feature completeness requirements. Compliance timelines for existing WWA-certified devices will be announced separately later in 2026, including a 6-month transition period to obtain compliance.

These updates reflect our commitment to maintaining reliable, fully featured smart home experiences across all markets where Alexa operates and where smart features are supported. Our developer support team is available to assist with implementation questions and ensure a smooth transition to these enhanced standards.