Index of Skill Types
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After you've become familiar with what the Alexa Skills Kit (ASK) has to offer and learned about voice interaction models, you're ready to choose the type of skill to develop. ASK categorizes skills into types based on their voice interaction model and capabilities or features. For skills with a pre-built voice interaction model, users communicate with Alexa by using a set of pre-defined utterances. For skills with a custom voice interaction model, you define the utterances that you want users to say to Alexa.
The following table lists the available skill types alphabetically. Follow the link to each skill type for full details.
Note: Not all skill types are available in all locales. For more information about prebuilt skill types, see List of Alexa Interfaces and Supported Languages. For information about custom skill types, see Develop Skills in Multiple Languages.
| Skill type | Voice model | Description | Common APIs and other reference |
|---|---|---|---|
| Automotive | Pre-built and Custom | Develop skills adapted to the automotive environment. | VehicleData, Navigation Management |
| Business | Pre-built | Develop skills that give users voice access to their business calendars and meetings, or enable them to search for and reserve meeting rooms. Alexa for Business also includes skills for Hospitality and Residential. | Calendar, MeetingClientController, Reservation.Room |
| Cooking | Pre-built | Develop skills for cooking appliances. | TimeController, TemperatureController |
| Custom | Custom | Develop skills with a custom voice interaction model. Use Alexa Presentation Language (APL) to add visuals for Alexa-enabled devices with a screen. | Request and Response JSON Reference |
| Entertainment Device | Pre-built | Develop skills that enable users to control smart home entertainment and audio visual (AV) devices, such as smart TVs and speakers. | KeypadController, ChannelController |
| Flash Briefing | Pre-built | Develop Flash Briefing skills to provide Alexa customers with news headlines and other short content. | Feed |
| Games | Custom | Develop game skills driven by voice interactions. You can add visuals to your skills for Alexa-enabled devices with a screen. | APL, Alexa Web API for Games |
| Knowledge | Knowledge | Develop skills that enable users, such as employees and customers, to ask Alexa questions about an organization's spreadsheet data without invoking a skill name. | Knowledge Skill Templates |
| List | Custom | Develop skills that read and update a user's Alexa lists. | List Events in Alexa Skills, Shopping and To-Do Lists |
| Music, Radio, and Podcast | Pre-built | Develop skills that enable users to control audio content streamed through Alexa-enabled devices. | Media.Playback, Media.PlayQueue |
| Networking and Wi-Fi | Pre-built | Develop skills to model a home Wi-Fi network and the devices connected to it. Enable and disable internet and network access for individual devices. | ConnectedDevice |
| Smart Home | Pre-built | Develop skills that enable users to control their smart home devices. | PowerController, ThermostatController |
| Smart Home Energy | Pre-built | Develop skills that enable users to manage their energy usage with the Alexa energy dashboard. | AutomationManagement, DeviceUsage.Meter |
| Smart Home Security | Pre-built | Develop skills that enable users to control smart home security devices, such as cameras, locks, motion sensors, and other devices. | LockController, SecurityPanelController |
| Video | Pre-built | Develop skills that enable users to control video devices and consume video content. | PlaybackController, VideoRecorder |