We are excited to announce that now anyone can create and publish an Alexa skill in minutes, with no coding required, using Alexa Skill Blueprints. Skill Blueprints enable anyone to create and share customized Alexa skills simply by filling in the blanks to one of dozens of easy-to-use templates. Now, anyone can publish skills created using Alexa Skill Blueprints to the Alexa Skills Store in the US for customers to discover, use, and review. We're also excited to announce new Skill Blueprints built specifically for content creators, bloggers, and organizations, so they can reach anyone with an Alexa-enabled device - with no coding required - adding to the more than 80,000 skills already available to customers in the Alexa Skills Store.

Businesses, Brands, and Organizations Can Now Use Blueprints to Reach Customers in New Ways

Alexa Skill Blueprints make it easy for anyone, including businesses, brands, organizations, and content creators to create and publish an Alexa skill for a variety of scenarios:

• Personal trainers, gyms, and fitness studios can use the Personal Trainer blueprint to provide their customers with curated routines and motivational messages.
• Tutors can use the Flashcards, Facts, and Quiz blueprints to help students use Alexa to help them learn new concepts, retain information, and prepare for that next exam.
• History buffs can use the Quiz blueprint to create a fun and interesting quiz for their community.
• Budding authors can share their talents for the written word and publish their short stories or poems with our category of Storytelling blueprints, including the Fable blueprint and many more.

Share Your Live and Recorded Audio with Alexa

Universities and spiritual organizations can use the new University and Spiritual Talks blueprints to make their live and recorded audio content accessible on Alexa-enabled devices. You just add your audio feed URL to the Skill Blueprint, and customize the welcome and exit messages for your skill, then submit your skill for certification. Once your skill is reviewed and published to the Alexa Skills Store, customers can access your live and recorded content, just by asking Alexa.

Create a Flash Briefing Skill in a Flash

It's now easier than ever to share your latest content updates, with a flash briefing skill. With flash briefing, Alexa provides customers with a customized audio feed of their selected news and other short form content from popular broadcasters, local weather information, and more. Now, news agencies, local sports teams, and other content creators can use the new Flash Briefing blueprint to share their latest updates. You can add your recorded audio feed URL to the Skill Blueprint directly, upload recorded audio files, and even record live audio directly within the Blueprints Portal. Once you’ve published your Flash Briefing blueprint skill to the Alexa Skills Store, customers can add your content into their flash briefing, just as they do today for other flash briefing skills.

Give Your Blog a Voice

With the new Blog blueprint, bloggers who used WordPress and have installed the Amazon AI Plugin for WordPress can deliver their blog posts as audio on Alexa. The Amazon AI Plugin for WordPress is a sample application that enables WordPress bloggers to easily convert their blog posts into speech by leveraging Text-to-Speech (TTS) and translation tools provided by Amazon. Bloggers can generate an audio feed (RSS feed) for text-based blog content, and simply add this to the new Blog blueprint to create and publish their own Alexa skill.

How to Get Started with Alexa Skill Blueprints

Follow these three steps to start creating your skill with Skill Blueprints:

• Select your Skill Blueprint. Visit blueprints.amazon.com to browse dozens of Skill Blueprints across 6 categories.
• Unleash your creativity by adding your own content. Each blueprint comes with pre-filled content that can be used as-is or customized as you like. You can create, modify and test the skill until you are satisfied with your content.
• Complete your skill and decide whether to keep your skill personal to Alexa-enabled devices associated with your Amazon account, share it with friends and family, or publish it so anyone can discover, use, and review your skill.

There is no limit to the number of skills you can create. Visit blueprints.amazon.com to start building your Alexa skill today. Getting started is as simple as filling in the blanks. We can’t wait to see what you create.