Best Practices for Custom Interfaces


This page contains best practices for using Custom Interfaces.

Avoid long periods of silence

Avoid long periods of silence by playing music or sound effects. This keeps the user aware that the skill is still in session. If possible, limit expected periods of silence to less than 5 seconds.

Reset the gadget

Before closing the skill, send a directive to reset the gadget to its default state. The default state depends on your gadget. For example, if your gadget has lights, turn the lights off.

This means that you should, at a minimum, reset the gadget when the user ends the skill by saying "Stop" or "Cancel" (these are standard built-in intents).

Note that you cannot handle cases in which the user ends the skill by saying "Exit" or "Quit". In these cases, the session ends immediately. The skill will receive a SessionEndedRequest, which your skill cannot return a response to.


Was this page helpful?

Last updated: Feb 14, 2022