What are Alexa Skills and How Can They Help You

You may have seen the commercials for Amazon Echo or Echo Dot and thought it was pretty cool. But you may have also wondered what the true value would be. How often would you really need to check the weather report?  It’s like that big jacuzzi tub in your bathroom. It was cool as a concept but in practice, you don’t really use it that often.

Man, are you wrong.

If you are only checking the weather or performing other rudimentary tasks with your Echo, then you need to up your smart home game. You can be excused though. Most people with their new digital assistant are unaware of her sheer awesomeness and the power she wields.

How does she do it? Amazon Skills.

What the Hell are Alexa Skills?

Ok, you’ve come to grips with the fact that you have a digital device sitting on your counter that listens and obeys your every command. That’s great. A little creepy, but great! But now you are telling me that she can gain more skills?

Yes. Amazon has enabled a killer feature for the Alexa-based platform and opened it to a world of possibilities – Alexa Skills.

You can think of Alexa Skills as an Amazon app platform for the Echo in the same way that Apple started their own app ecosystem. No, you can’t use Alexa to play Flappy Bird, but the concept is the same.

Alexa Skills provides you the opportunity to expand the capabilities of any Alexa-enabled device. That means the whole Alexa family can grow older and wiser with you, including your Amazon Echo, Echo Dot, Amazon Tap, Amazon Fire TV, etc.

Where Do You Find Alexa Skills

Ok, cool, you are all in on teaching your Alexa device new tricks. But, where do you find these so called Alexa Skills? Um, where you find everything…Amazon!

Actually, there are three main ways to get your girl some new Skills.

• Amazon – If you go out to Amazon and search around a bit you’ll find the Skills market. Here you’ll find all sorts of skills organized and categorized for your downloading pleasure.
• Amazon Alexa App – As part of the setup with your Alexa device you need to download the Alexa App. If you touch the little hamburger in the top left of the app’s main screen you’ll see Skills listed as one of the menu items.
• Alexa herself – Yes, you can enable apps on Alexa simply by asking her to do so. For example, “Alexa, enable This Day in History”. She quickly responds that she has enabled it and tells you what the command is. Awesome!!

How to Use Alexa Skills

Using the newfound skill is rather straightforward. Each skill has a list of commands posted alongside the skill when you enable it. When you are ready to use that skill simply say the words and your lil digital assistant will accommodate.

What’s Next with Alexa Skills

One of the really cool features with Alexa Skills is the fact that anyone can develop new skills. While this is pretty damn cool on the surface it also opens the platform up to chaos.

Just like the abundance of apps that pop up in the Apple app store, so too will Skills for Alexa. Before you know it you’ll drown in the sheer amount of Skills available or never find the one you want.

The good news is that Amazon has implemented a certification process for new Skills submitted to the market. This should limit the number of bad Skills getting added. If you are interested in developing your own skills, check out the Skills Developer website for more information.