12/10/2019
New Smart Home for AVS functionality has been released, including the following documentation changes:
The following interfaces also have new versions, enabling new functionality:
- SpeechSynthesizer 1.3
- support for user interruption of TTS
- support for cloud interruption of TTS
- support for captions of TTS
- AudioPlayer 1.4
- support for attenuation versus pausing of interrupted playback
- support for captions of spoken content
- support for device-reported player software information and playback telemetry, enabling enhanced audio streams and new music service providers
- additional metadata about the initiation of music playback
The Alexa Voice Service (AVS) Device SDK documentation moved from the GitHub repository, to the developer portal. The following documentation has been added:.
- Get started
- Quick Start Guides
- Configurations
- Optimizations
- Troubleshooting
11/14/2019
New API documentation has been added to support the Alexa Presentation Language (APL), which extends the AVS to enable multi-modal experiences on Alexa Built-In devices. See Alexa Multi-Modal API Overview for a summary.
Section 7 of the AVS Functional Requirements has been updated to include devices using APL to render Alexa visual responses.
9/25/2019
The AVS Settings paradigm has changed in favor of individually named messages for each setting. The Per-Interface Settings page describes the new approach baed on whether changes are initiated by the cloud or by the device, as well as validating whether settings are synchronized. The changed paradigm includes being able to report a state and values for settings like locale and time zone.
The System Interface page has been updated to include version 2.0, and the changes are listed on the page. As part of this change, the Settings interface has been deprecated. In addition, the Alexa.ApiGateway interface replaces the SetEndpoint functionality.
In coordination with the Settings paradigm described above, there is an additional settings-related functional requirement 8.3 that focus on allowing the customer to choose their preferred languages.
In addition, Alexa has a new Multilingual Mode which, if you use it in your product, must be supported in the companion app settings. Using multilingual mode, Alexa is able to understand customer utterances in multiple languages and reply in the language the customer is currently using. Details can be found on the updated System Interface page.
9/13/2019
The UX Design section was updated to include these changes:
7/12/2019
The Attention System UX page now includes the following guidance:
- Text displaying the attention state should not be personalized or presented in the first person.
- Touch-initiated products must use the Listening start and end audio cues.
- Linear voice chrome is preferred over circular voice chrome for devices with screens.
- Circular voice chrome examples have been added.
5/22/2019
The default base URLs for Alexa Voice Service connections have changed. As of May 22nd, 2019, the default base URLs for AVS have changed. We recommend that all new and existing clients adopt these new URLs; however, the legacy base URLs will continue to be supported.
Base URLs
| Region |
Supported Countries/Regions |
URL |
| Asia |
Australia, Japan, New Zealand, India |
https://alexa.fe.gateway.devices.a2z.com |
| Europe |
Austria, France, Germany, Italy, Spain, United Kingdom |
https://alexa.eu.gateway.devices.a2z.com |
| North America |
Canada, Mexico, United States |
https://alexa.na.gateway.devices.a2z.com |
Legacy Base URLs
| Region |
Supported Countries/Regions |
URL |
| Asia |
Australia, Japan, New Zealand, India |
https://avs-alexa-fe.amazon.com |
| Europe |
Austria, France, Germany, Italy, Spain, United Kingdom |
https://avs-alexa-eu.amazon.com |
| North America |
Canada, Mexico, United States |
https://avs-alexa-na.amazon.com |
5/10/2019
A new page has been added presenting attention system design guidance for calling and drop-in, messaging, and announcements on AVS products which include those functions. The Attention System - Calling, Messaging, and Announcements page includes behavior descriptions as well as visual and sound cues.
5/3/2019
To help tune products for Echo Spatial Perception, and to give more constant noise suppression performance across products, we have added AVS Functional Requirement 2.5: "The microphones used for Alexa interactions on your product SHALL have +/- 1 dB sensitivity matching."
4/16/2019
- A new design guidance page has been added describing the behavior, location, and appearance of buttons for Alexa Built-in devices.
- A new design guidance page has been added to suggest how Alexa Built-in devices should handle interrupt behavior and prioritizing customer interactions.
- The AVS Functional Requirements have been updated to reflect the new button and interrupt guidance:
- Added requirements relating to the Action button (1.3) and Alerts (5).
- Clarified requirements for wake word and interrupt guidance in voice-initiated products (2) and touch-initiated product (3.4).
- In the AVS UX Logo and Brand Usage page, the color called "black" was actually "squid ink". The color codes supplied were correct, but were referred to incorrectly. The color name has been updated.
3/21/2019
Alexa is now available in Canadian French. fr-CA is now a supported locale for Settings.SettingsUpdated events.
2/1/2019
- Clarified the UX guidance for visual and sound cues when Do Not Disturb is toggled on and off. In addition, DND information was added to the Multicolor Linear and Multicolor Single tabs of the LED example table.
- The recommended UX behavior of the Reminder Short response in the LED example table was expanded to cover what should happen when the device is unable to play a speech response. In addition, the sound cue was added to the table and can be stored on device as a fall-back.