If you are thinking of creating your own skill with Alexa and the code is not your thing, you are in luck since you can do it without having to take more than a few simple steps that are easy to carry out. This is possible thanks to its Blueprints service, so we are going to tell you what it is, what it is for and how to create your custom orders in Alexa to be able to use this voice assistant on your speaker or device and make the most of your possibilities.
In addition to creating them, we show you how you can customize them, use them, share them with other people you know and even publish them so that customers can use them. You even have the possibility of including advertising to take advantage of them. If you are still not sure how to do it, we will indicate it below, discover how to make and use custom Skills in a few minutes by following the instructions that we mention below.
Many possibilities are presented to you, as many as possible in your imagination, and you can optimize them whenever you want. Find out!
What is Skills Blueprints
Alexa Blueprints is a tool from the Amazon service by which you can create your own Skills for it without having to have extensive development knowledge or writing any code . It is a new way of creating new skills through predefined templates with a series of fields that you have to fill in to obtain personalized actions or responses . The creation of these is greatly simplified and is an option suitable for any user. It has different categories so that you have different types of actions or responses in a more orderly and simplified way.
Its categories are:
- Fun and games
- House
- Communities and organizations
- Learning and knowledge
If you have a device compatible with your Amazon voice assistant or you have a speaker, you can take advantage of its possibilities by creating your own custom Skills thanks to this tool, we will tell you what it is for and what it can do for you.
What is it for
In each of its categories you will find various templates that can be configured in different ways to make the most of each one according to your needs and preferences. So you can get almost everything you want without having to spend a lot of time doing it, making them adapt to you .
You can do things like create personalized questions and answers, schedule and keep track of pending tasks, create funny jokes, decide for you who has to do something, tell you how many days are left for an appointment or important event, give welcome guests, compliment or compliment other people or whatever comes to mind. We can think of many things you could do, but you’d better find out for yourself.
How to create Skills Blueprints
Creating your own Skills with this solution is very simple, since you will find different templates. You just have to choose the one that best suits your needs , previously choosing the category that best suits you and filling in the different fields. Each of them has a text and an explanation so that you know well how it affects your Skill if you use it. In this way, you just have to follow the steps that appear to adapt them to your needs. To do this, it is important that first of all you are clear about what you want to do and follow the corresponding steps.
Therefore, we will tell you how you should do step by step to create your skills in Alexa and configure them according to your needs with this service. The first thing you have to do to start the process is to enter this website and choose the corresponding category (between highlighted or those indicated above).
Configure them
Once you have decided what you want to do, provide a short and memorable name. Remember to enter the account with which you are interested in using the skills, since they are only associated with the account in which you created them, which must coincide with the one used to configure your device. It is very important that you dedicate time to its selection, because once you choose a name it cannot be used in other future Skills.
Before selecting the name, cover the fields of the selected template. To do this, in each of the selected options (explained first so that you know what you can do) you will fill in the contents of questions to activate from the speaker and answers. For example, if you give jokes you can use the default ones, change them or add a new one. So with each of the categories and options that interest you. When you finish adapting it to your needs and give it to create, it will take a few minutes and you just have to try.
After creating, Amazon will ask you to register as an Alexa developer so it can be published. You just have to follow that step (of updating account) and it would be done. It will take a short time. Later you can also share and publish. Check that you have done it, in which case you can already use it on your device with Alexa.
How to use them
Once you’ve created one, you just have to activate Alexa and say the unique name assigned to the skill. Just doing this will run with the actions and interactions that you have programmed. For example, if you have created one of My Pranks, you will have to give the command “Alexa, open my Pranks”. If you have created one to ask where a specific place is, you just have to say the name of it and you will get the answer to your needs.
If not, you have to check that you have created and configured it correctly , going back to the web to make the corresponding modifications. You can view them to check their name or adjust them in Skills you have made . If you have made a mistake when it comes to customizing your new ability, you should do the same. We do not recommend deleting to re-create a new one because the name you have assigned it will not be able to be used again, so it is better that you keep it and optimize it to your liking.
As you may have noticed, you have surely been able to verify that the functionalities or possibilities are not the same as the Skills already created by others or that you can do knowing code, but it does allow you to do many things and may be more than enough for you. It is very simple, as you have seen, you just have to create and once this is done give the corresponding order for them to work.
Share and publish
To share and publish them you have it very simple. You will have to go back to the page, go to where you have done and in your actions (on the right side of the page, next to each one) various options will appear. Below edit and delete you will find the possibility to share with others and publish.
If you give to share with others , it will ask you if it is intended for children under 16 years of age. Choose the option that corresponds to each other or not.
Once this is done, you can share by email, Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest or by copying the link . Recommend not sharing them if they have private information. Although you can revoke access at any time, once someone can access it they will find it. Confirm that you comply with the content guidelines and give to share. The program or service you have chosen will appear. You can do it with the ones you want. If you go back to your Skills, you can revoke the consent from there, under where it says status, in visibility. You must give Revoke. If you do, only you will have access.
If you give it to publish , your personalized Skills may appear in the Alexa Skills Store in Spain for other people to know, use and value. When you publish them, anyone can use them, while when you share, only the people who you have given access to your link (and those with whom they have shared it) can. Once it is published, it can be reviewed and rated with up to 5 stars.
To do this, start. Subsequently, you have to configure the name of the Alexa Skills Store, its opening phrase, who created it and other relevant details so that it passes the Amazon review process. You must comply with the content guidelines.
In the details will appear the category, keywords (it is optional, but we recommend it to increase its visibility), an icon (you can upload your own or use the icon creator to make one). Include a brief and detailed description.
In politics, you must indicate if it is for children under 16 years of age, if it has advertising, URL (link) of conditions of use if you have one and then you will give it to review and send. There will appear all the data included so far, you must check that they are correct and then you will see the option to publish in the store at the top right of the page (or below). Once you hit it, it will go through the review process. You will find out when it is published, they will also notify you by email.
The review process takes up to 2 business days. You will not be able to edit it once you have submitted it. To modify it after having sent it for review, you must withdraw the submission, edit and resubmit it for review. If you have shared the skill, you must revoke the sharing in order to publish it.