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Developers have released over 1000 skills for Alexa, says Amazon

Developers have now released over 1,000 skills for Alexa, the cloud-based virtual assistant from Amazon, using the Smart Home Skill API within the Alexa Skills Kit (ASK), says the retail giant.

A quick look at what some developers are building:

  • Capital One – Is using ASK to give its customers voice access to banking information, so they could hear how much money they have in their accounts or make credit card payments.
  • Domino’s – Customers can order and track their pizza hands-free using Alexa.
  • Fitbit – Is leveraging ASK to provide users with voice access to their health and fitness stats. 
  • Kayak – Is using ASK to give customers a way to access their travel details with their voice.
  • SmartThings – An open platform for the smart home, is using ASK and the Smart Home Skill API to offer customers voice-activated control of their home.
  • Uber – Letting users order a ride using Alexa.

Developers can create custom skills with ASK by designing their voice UI and building cloud-hosted code that interacts with Alexa cloud-based APIs to process customer requests. 

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