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Amazon’s new Alexa developer policy now bans all ads except in music and flash briefings

Amazon has quietly introduced a change to its Alexa Skills Developer agreement aimed at further restricting advertisements within Alexa’s voice apps, which it calls “skills.”

Previously, the developer agreement stated that it would ban apps that used the Alexa app home cards – the cards that appear in the Alexa companion app – that can describe the skill in question or enhance the voice interaction with details provided as text-based content. Now the agreement simply bans skills that contain “any advertising for third-party products or services,” according to the updated documentation.

Amazon carves out an exception for streaming music, radio and flash briefing apps (news briefings) where advertisements are not the core functionality of the skill. But other than that, ads are now largely banned on the Alexa platform.

The change has irked some Alexa developers who already feel that it’s too difficult to make money from their Alexa skills, as is. Others, however, are confident that Amazon will eventually introduce its own monetization platform – perhaps through in-app purchases, paid skills, or ways to leverage Amazon Pay (its payments platform) in their skills.