Custom "User Generated" Questions and Answers Skill ?

[Snafs]

Hi, this is my 1st post from a new UK Echo user who is finding their feet with the new device and having great fun in the process.
I do have one wish, if such a thing is already possible or, could be made possible as a skill, or perhaps the tools to do this are already there.
I am thinking of the Echo user being able to input (in a programming type of way) a list of words/questions for Echo to listen for, and for it to then reply with your own personal answer.
I am thinking mainly for the elderly who will find this device very useful if they are not happy or unable to use a computer. Or even perhaps young children, or disabled perhaps?

If we stick to elderly for this scenario. Say you have an elderly parent, you may wish to be able to have the echo give specific answers to help them.
They may ask for your phone number, or where things are in the home if they have memory issues as most elderly do.

This would vary from person to person of course, and would be very comforting if, say you elderly parent got the right answer, when he/she asked the 'question they always ask' of the device, as opposed to Alexa saying I don't know.

I may be asking a lot, but in theory it sounds simple.
A list of words/phrases to look out for, and a list of appropriate answers that are custom just to you and your home.

Is this at all possible?

[DParker]

Yes, you can develop your own Alexa skills.

https://developer.amazon.com/alexa-skills-kit

[Snafs]

Thanks for the quick reply.
I guess I have 2 questions, or make that 3

1: Do you need to be a programmer to create something like that, where all you really wish to do is custom/personal questions and answers?

2: If you were to make such a skill/code, is it private just to you, or does it have to become an official public skill on Amazons site?

3: Related to the second question, if you make such a skill does it have to be shown/sent to Amazon for it to work on your echos, or can it just be kept a in your home only skill?

It could be a skill for grandma, and she often asks "Alexa, what's Snaffs Phone Number?" for example, or something even more personal to the family, where are my pills, when is bobs birthday etc.

Not the type of information you would wish to be public.

[DParker]

Thanks for the quick reply.
I guess I have 2 questions, or make that 3

1: Do you need to be a programmer to create something like that, where all you really wish to do is custom/personal questions and answers?

Yes, to at least some degree.  But when you said...

"I am thinking of the Echo user being able to input (in a programming type of way) a list of words/questions for Echo to listen for, and for it to then reply with your own personal answer."

...I assumed that was what you were looking for anyway.

2: If you were to make such a skill/code, is it private just to you, or does it have to become an official public skill on Amazons site?

You can host Alexa skills on your own server, and direct Amazon to invoke them whenever they receive a request for the skill(s) you're hosting.  That offers the benefit of being able to develop the code in your choice of language, and access resources availble via your server in response to the skill request.  But it's also a lot more complicated if you don't already know how to setup such a service.  The simpler solution is to develop what Amazon calls a "Lambda function" and let Amazon host it for you on their servers (for free).

3: Related to the second question, if you make such a skill does it have to be shown/sent to Amazon for it to work on your echos, or can it just be kept a in your home only skill?

While Amazon must know about the skill in order to invoke it on your behalf, you do not have to make it publicly available to others.

[strayfish]

Say you have an elderly parent, you may wish to be able to have the echo give specific answers to help them.
They may ask for your phone number, or where things are in the home if they have memory issues as most elderly do.

I'm thinking along similar lines - in this case for an elderly neighbour who is severely visually impaired. Interesting topic - back in the morning when I can see straight myself!

[jwlv]

Say you have an elderly parent, you may wish to be able to have the echo give specific answers to help them.
They may ask for your phone number, or where things are in the home if they have memory issues as most elderly do.

This could be accomplished with a custom skill.
For example, the skill could be named "Assistant." The user would say, "Alexa, ask Assistant what is Ben's phone number?" In the custom skill, there needs to be a phonebook of sorts that can match the spoken name (in this case Ben) with the associated phone number and have Alexa speak back "Ben's phone number is xxx-xxxx." So far, I don't know if such a skill exists.

It would be much nicer if Echo can make phone calls on its own, but that is up to Amazon to make that technology (e.g. "Alexa, call Ben"). It is possible for a skill to do that (e.g. "Alexa, ask Assistant to call Ben"), but it would need to ring back your phone number and then when you answer, it'll connect the call to the other party. In this way, the call would not proceed on the Echo speaker. Essentially it's like a speed dial for your phone. But if you have your phone near you anyway, you can just speak to Siri or Google to do the same. For a developer to make this type of skill, there would be significant costs for the developer in connecting two phone calls. It could end up being very costly for the developer and it could also be lucrative depending on what they charge customers for such a service.

[jwlv]

Thanks for the quick reply.
I guess I have 2 questions, or make that 3

1: Do you need to be a programmer to create something like that, where all you really wish to do is custom/personal questions and answers?

2: If you were to make such a skill/code, is it private just to you, or does it have to become an official public skill on Amazons site?

3: Related to the second question, if you make such a skill does it have to be shown/sent to Amazon for it to work on your echos, or can it just be kept a in your home only skill?

1. You do need some programming experience. If you've never wrote a single line of code before, it'll likely be way over your head.

2. Any skill you make is private to your Amazon account unless you go through the publishing process. The publishing process requires Amazon's staff to look over your skill to make sure it follows their guidelines. If you want to keep it private just don't publish it and it would be considered a work in progress (test/beta skill). The only Echo devices that can see a test/beta skill are those that are registered to the same Amazon account that you created the skill on. You can keep a skill private (unpublished) indefinitely so that it remains for your own personal use.

[Snafs]

Thank you all for all the help and suggestions so far.
I'm very pleased to hear there is a way of doing what I was asking about.

Re my programming, well, I'm NOT a programmer with modern languages.
Years ago, I did used to write things in BASIC (many different types of) and also have fiddled a little with LSL (Linden Scripting Language)

But if I'm honest, I'm far happier if there is something that works, like a template which I can then edit.
I would have imagined custom questions and answers would be such a common thing, that there would be something, in code pre-setup, where you can simply change the questions and answers to your own and add more.

If there is something like that, as opposed to starting from scratch, then it would make it a lot more practical for me to consider.

[strayfish]

Yes, you can develop your own Alexa skills.

https://developer.amazon.com/alexa-skills-kit

Thanks for this - I don't know if I'll be up to the job but I'm going to give it a try.