Certification Requirements

When you submit your skill to the Alexa skill store, it must pass a certification process before it's published live to Amazon customers. Before you submit your new skill for certification, you should perform your own quality assurance testing. Verifying that your skill passes tests ensures that the skill has a robust voice user interface and helps the skill pass the certification process.

If you are doing a beta test with a limited group of customers, you should also follow this checklist to ensure those customers also have a good experience.

Submission checklist

This checklist summarizes the testing you should do to prepare your skill for the certification process.

  1. Ensure your skill meets the Alexa policy guidelines. The policy guidelines help ensure that your skill is appropriate for all customers. Adherence to these guidelines guards the privacy and welfare of Alexa users.

  2. Ensure your skill meets the security requirements for your method of hosting the service for your skill. Customer trust is important to us. To protect customer data, your skill must meet Amazon's security requirements.

  3. If your skill allows users to make a purchase on Alexa, ensure that you follow the requirements for skills that allow purchases.

  4. If your skill processes Protected Health Information(PHI), ensure that you follow the requirements for skills that are HIPAA-eligible.

  5. Perform all required functional tests. These tests verify that the information presented in the Alexa app accurately reflects the core functionality of your skill. This improves the experience when customers initially enable and begin using your skill.

  6. Perform all required voice interface and user experience tests. These tests verify the quality of your voice user interface. Interacting with a voice interface is a new experience for most customers. A robust interface with useful supportive prompts makes the experience feel more like a conversation.

  7. If your skill includes reminders, ensure that you use the test instructions to describe how you have implemented reminders functionality in the skill.

Last updated: Jan 12, 2021