Amazon has added a new Alexa capability called "Skill Connections" to avail developers the functionality of another skill in their own skillset with minimal code changes.

The new skill connections will enable developers to do more for their customers, by using the functionality already available on other skills, thus customers will not have to invoke the other skills, as they've made it possible with only minimal code changes in their own skills.

According to Amazon, when you use skill connections, you can pass useful information to the other skill with the request. For instance, if your skill sells last-minute show tickets, you can pass the theatre address and show time as part of the taxi reservation request.

The company have provided the developer preview, with printing skill from HP, food reservations provided by OpenTable, and taxi reservations provided by Uber. While Epson and Canon are planning to provide for print related services.

And if you'd like to take advantage of services provided by other skills, or if you'd like to provide services for other skills to use, you can apply to participate in the preview by filling in the short survey here. Once you are accepted into the preview, you can send requests for any of these actions from within your skill, and Alexa will automatically route the request to the right service provider.

The overriding idea behind the Connection is to allow less-popular skills tap into the near-universal Alexa functionalities, making it a more capable and frictionless assistant in the process.

Alexa "Skill Connections" to avail developers the functionality of another skill with minimal coding



Amazon has added a new Alexa capability called "Skill Connections" to avail developers the functionality of another skill in their own skillset with minimal code changes.

The new skill connections will enable developers to do more for their customers, by using the functionality already available on other skills, thus customers will not have to invoke the other skills, as they've made it possible with only minimal code changes in their own skills.

According to Amazon, when you use skill connections, you can pass useful information to the other skill with the request. For instance, if your skill sells last-minute show tickets, you can pass the theatre address and show time as part of the taxi reservation request.

The company have provided the developer preview, with printing skill from HP, food reservations provided by OpenTable, and taxi reservations provided by Uber. While Epson and Canon are planning to provide for print related services.

And if you'd like to take advantage of services provided by other skills, or if you'd like to provide services for other skills to use, you can apply to participate in the preview by filling in the short survey here. Once you are accepted into the preview, you can send requests for any of these actions from within your skill, and Alexa will automatically route the request to the right service provider.

The overriding idea behind the Connection is to allow less-popular skills tap into the near-universal Alexa functionalities, making it a more capable and frictionless assistant in the process.

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