What is the Alexa Connect Kit?

Alexa Connect Kit (ACK) is a managed service that makes it easy to integrate Alexa into your product. With ACK, you don't need to write an Alexa skill, manage a cloud service, or develop complex network and security firmware to connect your product to Alexa. Instead, you integrate the ACK module into your product and pay a one-time fixed cost. ACK provides the managed services, software, and tools you can use to develop and manage your Alexa-connected products on an ongoing basis. Your customers benefit from Alexa device control and other features, such as Amazon's Frustration Free Setup (FFS) and Wi-Fi Simple Setup (WSS).

How the Alexa Connect Kit works

The following diagram shows the high-level components of an ACK-based smart device:

ACK-built product components

The following list shows the high-level components of a product built with the Alexa Connect Kit:

• ACK Module — An Amazon-managed system-on-a-module that you integrate into your devices. The ACK Module is a wifi and Bluetooth Low Energy (BLE) hardware system-on-module that runs Amazon-managed firmware. The ACK module runs Amazon-managed firmware that provides connection with Alexa and the ACK managed services, and communicates with your device’s host microcontroller unit (HMCU) over a universal asynchronous receiver-transmitter (UART). You purchase the ACK module in a development kit from a third-party and integrate it into your device. For details, see Obtain the ACK Development Kit.

• HMCU — The HMCU runs the device's HMCU application.

• HMCU Application — The HMCU application runs the device-specific logic that governs device behavior.

• Additional MCUs and peripheral hardware — Your ACK product might use one or more additional microcontroller units (MCUs) and peripheral hardware.

ACK services and components

The following list shows the high-level components of the Alexa Connect Kit:

• ACK Console — ACK provides the ACK developer console to manage and configure your ACK-based products and devices. Use the developer console to view registered devices, create and edit virtual products, view and edit the Alexa interfaces associated with your product, and download resources, such as the ACK Device SDK.

• ACK Device SDK — The ACK Device SDK for Embedded C contains a library, samples, and documentation for developers to build Alexa-connected HMCU applications for ACK. For details, see ACK Device SDK.

• Alexa-enabled device or Alexa app — An ACK-based device relies on the Alexa app or an Alexa-enabled device, such as an Amazon Echo Dot, to enable Alexa voice interaction and device control by the customer.

• ACK Managed Services — As your service provider and data processor, Amazon delivers you cloud-based ACK managed services and partner and device-specific backend functionalities, such as Alexa capability management and tools for you to define, collect and store logs and metrics for your ACK devices.

• Alexa Services — Alexa services convert customer utterances into directives, support WSS, and provide access to other Alexa capabilities and features. These are not specific to ACK.

ACK benefits

A product integrated with ACK has the following benefits:

• Alexa control — Customers can control your product with the Alexa app or an Alexa-enabled product, such as an Amazon Echo Dot or an Alexa Built-in device.

• Wifi Simple Setup (WSS) — Register products with WSS, which is a feature of Amazon's Frustration Free Setup. WSS makes it easy for your customers to register their devices with Amazon and Alexa services. WSS can offer zero-touch setup, barcode registration, and customer-guided setup for device registration. For details, see Understand Wifi Simple Setup.

• Alexa companion app support * — Support for your product's custom Alexa companion app. This is an optional feature for commercial manufacturers.

• Amazon Dash Replenishment Service * — Enable Amazon's Dash Replenishment Service (DRS) for your devices. For details, see Dash Replenishment Service.

• Logs and metrics * — Define, collect, store and view logs and metrics for your ACK devices using the tools Amazon makes available through the ACK managed services. You are a controller of the data you collect and store from your ACK devices. Amazon is a processor of this data, and can only use the data to provide you with ACK managed services.

• Over the air firmware updates * — Update ACK module and host microcontroller firmware over the air.

How your customer interacts with your ACK-based device

Alexa interfaces define the Alexa utterances your customers use with your product, and the Alexa app control page that they interact with.

When a customer says "Alexa, turn on my kitchen light", the Alexa service interprets the utterance and sends a Alexa.PowerController.TurnOn directive to the ACK service, which routes it to the ACK module. The ACK module forwards the directive to the HMCU. The device's HMCU application receives it using functionality provided by the ACK Device SDK, and device-specific logic turns the light on. The device's HMCU application lets the ACK Device SDK know it has processed the directive.

Here are some example products and associated Alexa smart home interfaces and utterances. For ideas about how to combine Alexa interfaces in different products, see Get Started with Device Templates.

Support for Alexa smart home interfaces

The Smart Home Skill API contains Alexa capability interfaces that your device can support. Each ACK-based device supports one or more Alexa interfaces. For example, if your device is a smart light, you might support the Alexa.PowerController and Alexa.BrightnessController interfaces. If your device is a coffee maker, you might support the Alexa.PowerController and Alexa.ModeController interfaces. For details about the Alexa Smart Home Skill API, see Understand the Smart Home Skill API.

The following table shows the Alexa Smart Home interfaces that ACK supports.

Support for international languages

When you build an ACK product, your customers automatically get support for utterances in their own language, for the smart home interfaces that support international languages.

• For the list of smart home interfaces that ACK supports, see Support for Alexa smart home interfaces.
• For the languages and locales that the smart home interfaces support, see List of Alexa Interfaces and Supported Languages.

When you implement the Alexa.ModeController, Alexa.RangeController, and Alexa.ToggleController interfaces in your product, you can provide additional language support for your customers. You can provide friendly names for your mode settings and preset values in foreign languages. For details, see Add support for international languages.

ACK Analytics Service

You can use the ACK Analytics Service to collect, store, and analyze data about the performance and use of your ACK products. The ACK Analytics Service enables collection of Product Logs, Product Metrics, Heartbeat Metrics, and Registration Metrics associated with your ACK products. You can choose whether to enable collection of logs and metrics for your ACK products when designing the firmware for your ACK Product. If you choose to collect logs and metrics for your ACK product, the ACK Analytics Service identifies a standard set of Product Logs and Product Metrics and default Heartbeat Metrics and Registration Metrics. You can define the specific Product Logs and Product Metrics you wish to collect when designing the firmware for your ACK product in the ACK Portal. If you choose to collect logs and metrics but do not define Product Logs and Product Metrics for your ACK products, the ACK Analytics service will collect only the default Heartbeat Metrics and Registration Metrics.

Logs and metrics from your ACK products are stored in the ACK Analytics Service. You can request access to your logs and metrics at any time. If you request assistance from ACK support engineers to help troubleshoot or resolve issues with your ACK products, we may use your logs and metrics to fulfill that request.

Product logs

You can choose to collect Product Logs to help you root cause and troubleshoot device issues with your ACK products. Logs are used to collect detailed information about events occurring within your device’s system that may not be captured by metrics. If you choose to collect Product Logs, they will be stored in the ACK Analytics Service.

You define Product Logs you wish to collect when configuring the firmware for your ACK product. Generally, Product Logs should be defined to include the information necessary to help you debug device issues. To simplify development, ACK Analytics Service pre-defines the schema for Product Logs, such as the schema shown in the table below, but you define the payload of the log type(s) you wish to collect, how to command your devices to upload its logs for debugging purposes, and how frequently logs are sent to the ACK Analytics Service. The schema for your device will be available in the ACK Portal when designing the firmware for your device.

Product metrics

You can choose to collect Product Metrics to collect information about how your ACK products are being used by end users and to detect if your devices are experiencing issues. If you choose to collect Product Metrics, they will be stored in the ACK Analytics Service.

You define the Product Metrics you wish to collect when configuring the firmware for your ACK product. For example, you can define Product Metrics to correspond to the capabilities your device offers for end customers, such as on/off or various modes of your device. Product Metrics will be uploaded to the ACK Analytics Service each time the event being measured occurs. The ACK Analytics Service pre-defines the schema for Product Metrics, such as the schema shown in the table below, but you define the payload of each field to collect the information you wish to collect. The schema for your device will be available in the ACK Portal when designing the firmware for your device.

Heartbeat metrics

You can choose to collect Heartbeat Metrics, which are engagement metrics that provide key information to help troubleshoot your ACK products and further understand customer usage patterns with their devices. Heartbeat Metrics for an ACK product are PowerOn (is the device receiving power) and Wi-Fi Connected (is the device connected to Wi-Fi). If you choose to collect logs and metrics for your ACK product, these Heartbeat Metrics, as described in the table below, will be collected from your ACK products and uploaded to the ACK Analytics Service each time an event is captured from the device.

Registration metrics

You can choose to collect Registration Metrics, which are metrics that identify the registration status of your ACK products. You can use this metric to monitor the rate of registrations of your ACK products over time and identify potential issues if the registration status shows a sudden and unexpected change. If you choose to collect logs and metrics for your ACK product, Registration Metrics, as described in the table below, will be collected from your ACK products upon registration of a device and any subsequent de-registration or re-registration of a device and stored in the ACK Analytics Service.

Data management

Through the ACK Analytics Service, you can access, delete, and manage the retention period of the logs and metrics stored from your ACK products.

• Access – You can request a copy of the logs and metrics associated with your ACK products in the ACK Portal, either (a) for an individual device, or (b) for groups of your ACK products. You can define the group of ACK products based on capability or a particular log or metric. To submit a data request from the ACK developer Portal, navigate to the Product page and then choose the Data settings tab. If you request a copy of data for a particular device, you will receive an email with a link to the requested data within five business days. The link expires after seven days.
• Delete – You can delete the logs and metrics associated with your ACK products either for all devices at once or for an individual device. Requesting deletion will delete all logs and metrics associated with the device but will not de-register the device.
• Retention – You determine how long to store logs and metrics from your ACK products in the ACK Portal. The default retention period for logs and metrics is 365 days but you can set your preferred retention period in the ACK Portal upon configuring the logs and metrics for your device or at any time thereafter. Shortening the retention period will automatically delete logs and metrics older than that period.

Data access and security

If you open a troubleshooting ticket for help with your ACK product, Amazon ACK support engineers will be granted access to logs and metrics associated with your devices to complete the support request. This access will last until the troubleshooting request is closed.

Logs and metrics from your ACK products are encrypted in transit and at rest using industry standard encryption protocols.

Next steps

• Obtain the Development Kit for ACK. For details, see Obtain the ACK Development Kit.
• Learn how to use your development kit. For details, see Get Started with the Development Kit for ACK.
• Start to prototype your product. For details, see Prototype Your Product.
• If you are a commercial manufacturer that would like to move forward with a project, see Contact us about your project.

Related topics

• Module Life Cycle