Amazon held Alexa’s live event to show what’s coming in the near future. It has announced various tools and features for the developers in the event held in 2022. In the announcement, Amazon introduces new SDK and APIs for skills developers with new abilities that help to improve user experience of Alexa’s customers.
Features and Tools announced during Alexa Live Event 2022 are listed as:
1. Alexa Ambient Home Dev Kit
2. Alexa Connect kit SDK for Matter
3. Alexa Voice Service SDK 3.0
4. Universal Device Commands and Agent Transfers
5. Alexa Routines Kit
6. Alexa Shopping Kit
Now we will look at Alexa Live Event 2022 feature briefly :
1. Recently released - “Alexa Ambient Home Dev Kit”:
Amazon announced its new feature to merge together its services and APIs is Ambient Home Dev Kit. From the past, Amazon has been doing a great job of making developer's jobs easy by implementing services within APIs.
This feature includes a set of APIs to provide pleasant experiences to customers by extending the functionality of voice assistants.
a. Home State APIs:
By using Home State API, customers can learn more about their desired states according to their interests such as “Home”, “Vacation”, “Dinner Time” and “Sleep”.
b. Safety and Security APIs:
In the announcement done in the Alexa Live 2022, “ Alexa Guard Features” are extended by “Safety and Security APIs”. The announcement made gives developers a chance to add more ways to build and enhance safety features in apps.
Its work is similar to Alexa Guard as it alerts users by sound events detected by Echo. Also, it protects homes by smoke alerts, CO alerts, Thief alerts; increasing home awareness with more space.
c. API for Device and Group Organization
To create a smart home, it is necessary to adjust customers with Alexa and apps. The API for Device and Group Organization allows customers to spend more time across multiple apps by creating exact copies of their device groups.
For Example, when you create a new device group named Smart TV within your app, the Smart TV group will automatically appear in your Alexa App and you can easily switch On or Off your device using voice command.
d. Multi Admin Simple Setup For Matter API
As the new update includes cloud connectivity, it is easy to add your app or smart home services as an additional matter using Cloud-Based APIs. It will give you and your customers more flexibility by enabling Multi-Admin Simple Setup for matter.
e. APIs for credentials:
To simplify the Multi-Admin Simple Setup, there is a need to launch APIs for credentials. It enables customers to share their credentials with Alexa , Apps and services. Customers can select apps and service providers to share their credentials with and set up their devices easily.
2. “Alexa Connect kit SDK for Matter”
Matter is yet to launch, is a new standard which allows connected devices to communicate using IP address and wi-fi. It makes it easy to operate smart home devices with each other and also increases compatibility for your customers.
“Alexa Connect kit SDK for Matter” is a new software package that supports matter over WiFi. It extends the existing Alexa connect kit, which allows device makers to turn their products into Alexa enabled devices. The new update includes cloud-connectivity and over-the-air, logs and metrics.
Using this feature results in increased interoperability of Matter to customers. This feature gives device maker tools that are necessary to gain experience according to customers interest.
3. “Alexa Voice Service SDK 3.0”
Nowadays use of multi-model devices like Smart TVs, PCs, smart displays and tablets is at rapid growth with increased Alexa’s active customer base; results in increased use of the number of Alexa enabled devices with screen.
The newly announced Alexa Voice Service SDK 3.0 enables developers and device makers to develop multimodal experience for their devices. It combines two existing SDKs i.e the Alexa Smart Screen SDK and the AVS Device SDK into a single toolkit.
This feature allows Alexa to Alexa communication. Also people can ask Alexa to make a call to another Alexa enabled device and enjoy voice or video calls with family and friends.
4. “Universal Device Commands(UDCs) and Agent Transfers(ATs)”
Day by day Alexa is improving itself by sharing devices with other voice assistants. UDCs and ATs make it easy for the customers to interact with multiple voice assistants.
UDCs are commands that allow customers to order a command with any compatible voice assistant’s wake word without an initial request given by the assistant. They are connected to agent transfer that will allow voice services to transfer requests to other services better designed to handle requests.
5. “Alexa Routines Kit”
For the last few years, Alexa’s functionality has been hitting the sky. There are no limitations to Alexa capabilities and features. One of them is the Alexa Routines Kit. Few days back, as you gave Alexa a command, you had to wait for a while to process the action before giving the next command.
But Are you aware of the fact that it becomes now more simpler using the Alexa Routine kit?
Yes, correct. In 2022, after the Alexa live Event, Amazon introduced the Alexa Routine kit. In this feature, you can add several commands, starting from the time you wake up to the time you go to bed, at once.
Rather than “Good Morning” and “Good Night” commands, in case of productivity, security and communication Routines are more useful.
6. “Alexa Shopping Kit”
In the event recently held, Amazon announced “Alexa Shopping Kit”. By using this feature, people can research, discover and purchase the products available on Amazon. It helps Developers to monetize their skills.
Alexa feature for elderly people
Other than these features, Amazon also announced the contest for the developers, who can build new Alexa capabilities to help senior citizens for the age above 55 years. This feature of Alexa helps elders living far from the family members. This Alexa device is designed to help older people and their caregivers when face-to-face meetings are impossible.
The Alexa Together feature helps your loved ones to live independently. This feature connects you and your loved ones through Echo. It provides services like daily check-ins alert or emergency service when fall is detected.
In the recent announcement done by Amazon it said, its “new circle of support feature” allows older people to use “Alexa’s Together feature”. Alexa’s this feature can select another 10 people who can be in touch with the old-age people. These people can be anyone from the family members i.e siblings, cousins, friends or close neighbors, who can stay with the old people.
Conclusion:
We know that in the coming future, Alexa will be everything. From doing small chores to handling everything related to us simply by voice command. According to announcements made, Alexa is updating its features that will be more simple to its customers.
We hope the above details are helpful to you to remain updated about Alexa’s features and new modifications. If you are planning to design and develop an alexa skill, then we are happy to help you.
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