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Amazon Alexa Continues to Get Smarter: Over 1,000 Third-Party Skills Now Available

Developers are reaching new audiences by using the Alexa Skills Kit to build skills for Alexa, the cloud-based voice service that powers millions of Alexa-enabled devices, including Amazon Echo

Skills for Alexa include Capital One, Domino’s, Fitbit, KAYAK, PGA Tour, Samsung SmartThings, Uber, Big Ass Solutions and Nutritionix

SEATTLE--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Jun. 3, 2016-- (NASDAQ: AMZN)—Amazon today announced that developers have now released over 1,000 skills for Alexa, the cloud-based virtual assistant behind Amazon Echo, Echo Dot, Amazon Fire TV, Amazon Tap, and other Alexa-enabled devices. With every new skill, Alexa gets smarter, giving developers a new way to delight their customers with voice-enabled experiences.

Creating an Alexa skill is easy and fast. Developers can use the Smart Home Skill API within the Alexa Skills Kit (ASK) to easily extend smart home capabilities for Alexa. They can also create custom skills with ASK by designing their voice UI and simply building cloud-hosted code that interacts with Alexa cloud-based APIs to process customer requests. Alexa does the work to hear, understand, and resolve the customer’s spoken request, and then maps the service call to the developer’s endpoint.

“Less than a year ago we released the Alexa Skills Kit, making it possible for any developer to create voice experiences for Alexa,” said Rob Pulciani, Director, Amazon Alexa. “Today, we have a vibrant community of tens of thousands of developers who are learning about the service, bringing useful and innovative skills to every aspect of Alexa customers’ lives, and introducing their own users to the magic and simplicity of hands-free, voice-driven interactions. We’re excited about the 1,000 skills that are already available, and can’t wait to see what developers create with the next ten thousand.”