You can now use Alexa to send SMS messages
Amazon announced today it’s launching a new messaging feature for Alexa devices in the U.S. that will allow you to send texts – yes, SMS messages – to your friends and other contacts using your voice. Customers can now ask Alexa to send a message to a specific contact, and Alexa will figure out how to route it appropriately – using either the previously launched Alexa messaging system, or by sending it out as an SMS instead, if the recipient doesn’t have an Alexa device of their own.
There is one big caveat, however – the feature currently works only for sending SMS messages to Android phones.
https://techcrunch.com/2018/01/30/you-can-now-use-alexa-to-send-sms-messages-to-your-friends/?utm_content=buffer0f404&utm_medium=social&utm_source=linkedin.com&utm_campaign=buffer
Amazon announced today it’s launching a new messaging feature for Alexa devices in the U.S. that will allow you to send texts – yes, SMS messages – to your friends and other contacts using your voice. Customers can now ask Alexa to send a message to a specific contact, and Alexa will figure out how to route it appropriately – using either the previously launched Alexa messaging system, or by sending it out as an SMS instead, if the recipient doesn’t have an Alexa device of their own.
There is one big caveat, however – the feature currently works only for sending SMS messages to Android phones.
https://techcrunch.com/2018/01/30/you-can-now-use-alexa-to-send-sms-messages-to-your-friends/?utm_content=buffer0f404&utm_medium=social&utm_source=linkedin.com&utm_campaign=buffer
TechCrunch
You can now use Alexa to send SMS messages
Amazon announced today it’s launching a new messaging feature for Alexa devices in the U.S. that will allow you to send texts – yes, SMS messages – to your friends and other contacts using your voice. Customers can now ask Alexa to send a message to a specific…
There's finally a board game powered by Amazon Alexa
Game manufacturer Sensible Objects has released When in Rome, the first board game to incorporate Alexa.
Through your Amazon Echo device, Alexa teaches you the rules, keeps track of the score, and guides you through the game.
The game is pretty simple. Players sit around a world map, and each places their marker on a "home city" to start.
Players then travel around the map to various major cities. As your marker enters each city, Alexa asks you questions about that city's weather, customs, food, culture, and more. The questions range from easy ("Is San Francisco foggy?") to difficult ("Which of these is not a real pub?").
Sensible Objects recommends it for ages "5 to 99." It's possible for young kids to play, but since it's a game about world trivia, older kids and adults will likely be the biggest fans.
https://mashable.com/2018/02/18/amazon-alexa-board-game/#OmH4F9DT2mqS
Game manufacturer Sensible Objects has released When in Rome, the first board game to incorporate Alexa.
Through your Amazon Echo device, Alexa teaches you the rules, keeps track of the score, and guides you through the game.
The game is pretty simple. Players sit around a world map, and each places their marker on a "home city" to start.
Players then travel around the map to various major cities. As your marker enters each city, Alexa asks you questions about that city's weather, customs, food, culture, and more. The questions range from easy ("Is San Francisco foggy?") to difficult ("Which of these is not a real pub?").
Sensible Objects recommends it for ages "5 to 99." It's possible for young kids to play, but since it's a game about world trivia, older kids and adults will likely be the biggest fans.
https://mashable.com/2018/02/18/amazon-alexa-board-game/#OmH4F9DT2mqS
Mashable
There's finally a board game powered by Amazon Alexa
Alexa, who's winning?
Hey BotCube community,
Easter is coming tomorrow, and we've prepared something inspiring for you today.
Here's an interview with Yancey Grantham, who's been our customer from day one. We talked to him through the challenges he faced creating multiple Alexa skills that are now getting thousands of users.
He also shared some insights on how to build skills people love, where he gets ideas, and how he implements them in Storyline.
P.S. there's also an interactive preview of his latest skill, My African Adventure, so you can see how to build a skill like this in Storyline.
Enjoy and Happy Easter! :)
https://medium.com/storyline-blog/creating-alexa-skills-yancey-grantham-my-african-safari-f5816946bd55
Easter is coming tomorrow, and we've prepared something inspiring for you today.
Here's an interview with Yancey Grantham, who's been our customer from day one. We talked to him through the challenges he faced creating multiple Alexa skills that are now getting thousands of users.
He also shared some insights on how to build skills people love, where he gets ideas, and how he implements them in Storyline.
P.S. there's also an interactive preview of his latest skill, My African Adventure, so you can see how to build a skill like this in Storyline.
Enjoy and Happy Easter! :)
https://medium.com/storyline-blog/creating-alexa-skills-yancey-grantham-my-african-safari-f5816946bd55
Medium
Creating Alexa Skills: Yancey Grantham, My African Safari
At Storyline I spend a lot of time speaking with Alexa skills developers who range from 7-year olds to creators in years.
Check out best Alexa skills built on Storyline in March 🚀
https://medium.com/storyline-blog/skills-of-the-month-march-2018-890591340fd1
https://medium.com/storyline-blog/skills-of-the-month-march-2018-890591340fd1
Medium
Skills of the Month — March 2018
Every month, we select the most exciting Alexa skills built on Storyline and share their story.
Meet Engagement tools in Storyline! 🚀
There are two most significant problems with Alexa skills right now: getting new users and retaining existing ones. With Engagement tools, our goal is to help you solve those issues.
Here's how it works:
If you activate Engagement tools, Storyline will ask your skill users for their phone numbers in different ways, store the phone numbers in your account, and allow you to broadcast text messages to bring them back.
Sounds simple, uh? It really is. Read more on how to use Engagement tools in our blog post:
https://medium.com/storyline-blog/meet-engagement-tools-in-storyline-4610a79fa677
There are two most significant problems with Alexa skills right now: getting new users and retaining existing ones. With Engagement tools, our goal is to help you solve those issues.
Here's how it works:
If you activate Engagement tools, Storyline will ask your skill users for their phone numbers in different ways, store the phone numbers in your account, and allow you to broadcast text messages to bring them back.
Sounds simple, uh? It really is. Read more on how to use Engagement tools in our blog post:
https://medium.com/storyline-blog/meet-engagement-tools-in-storyline-4610a79fa677
Medium
Meet Engagement tools in Storyline! 🚀
I’m super excited to share the massive update we’ve been working on for the last four weeks.
A new video tutorial is out! 🔥
Have you ever thought of creating an Alexa skill and making $1,000 a month?
One of your users did that in 15 minutes. Here's how.
Most people underestimate the market of skills with facts. They think those skills are annoying and don't deliver anything new. And they're right in 99% of the cases.
However, there are skills with facts that work well. Two things make them outperform their competition:
- A unique and compelling use case that people think about every day (e.g., motivation, affirmations, bible verses, ego boosts, business quotes);
- Fresh content every day;
- Smart use of SSML and audio.
In this tutorial, I show how to use our Google Spreadsheet integration to create an Alexa skill that grabs a random piece of content from a spreadsheet and reads it to the user. It's really simple.
Watch the video below and best of luck! 🙌
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HxeVJXDGGm8
Have you ever thought of creating an Alexa skill and making $1,000 a month?
One of your users did that in 15 minutes. Here's how.
Most people underestimate the market of skills with facts. They think those skills are annoying and don't deliver anything new. And they're right in 99% of the cases.
However, there are skills with facts that work well. Two things make them outperform their competition:
- A unique and compelling use case that people think about every day (e.g., motivation, affirmations, bible verses, ego boosts, business quotes);
- Fresh content every day;
- Smart use of SSML and audio.
In this tutorial, I show how to use our Google Spreadsheet integration to create an Alexa skill that grabs a random piece of content from a spreadsheet and reads it to the user. It's really simple.
Watch the video below and best of luck! 🙌
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HxeVJXDGGm8
YouTube
How to create a Random Daily Fact Amazon Alexa skill without coding?
** IMPORTANT**
Storyline has become Voiceflow! You can view our new YouTube channel here: https://youtu.be/f2DaEt9CSb8
Try Voiceflow: https://voiceflow.com
Voiceflow Community: https://www.facebook.com/groups/voiceflowgroup/
JSON Viewer Chrom extension:…
Storyline has become Voiceflow! You can view our new YouTube channel here: https://youtu.be/f2DaEt9CSb8
Try Voiceflow: https://voiceflow.com
Voiceflow Community: https://www.facebook.com/groups/voiceflowgroup/
JSON Viewer Chrom extension:…
We're so excited to share that Eco Hacks Alexa skill built on Storyline has got to the finals of Amazon Alexa Skills Challenge: Life Hacks! 🎉
Congrats, Brannon Veal, you rock! :)
You get a brand new Storyline t-shirt, $5,000 USD, and promotion of your skill in the Alexa Skill Store 🙌
Thanks for proving that everything is possible.
P.S. we really like the video Brannon made about the skill - it's just awesome.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jjuxA8U8Myo
Congrats, Brannon Veal, you rock! :)
You get a brand new Storyline t-shirt, $5,000 USD, and promotion of your skill in the Alexa Skill Store 🙌
Thanks for proving that everything is possible.
P.S. we really like the video Brannon made about the skill - it's just awesome.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jjuxA8U8Myo
YouTube
Eco Hacks
Eco Hacks is a simple game that provides environmental hacks in the form of truth or dare.
It is estimated that with the current rate of population growth and natural resource use, we will reach the limits of our planetary system by 2100. Eco Hacks is a…
It is estimated that with the current rate of population growth and natural resource use, we will reach the limits of our planetary system by 2100. Eco Hacks is a…
Just released a new blog post celebrating 1,500 skills published to the store through Storyline! 🎉
https://medium.com/storyline-blog/skills-of-the-month-may-2018-410b0cdf4d61
https://medium.com/storyline-blog/skills-of-the-month-may-2018-410b0cdf4d61
Medium
Skills of the Month — May 2018
With 1,500 skills published to the Alexa skills store through Storyline, we’ve learned a lot.
We've just posted an interview with Brannon Veal - the creator of Eco Hacks Alexa skill.
Brannon dropped some knowledge bombs on how he's managed to create an Alexa skill that got to the finals of the Alexa Skills Challenge: Life Hacks and won $5,000 from Amazon :)
Check it out! 🙌
https://medium.com/storyline-blog/creating-alexa-skills-brannon-veal-alexa-life-hacks-challenge-finalist-df8d2c05b344
Brannon dropped some knowledge bombs on how he's managed to create an Alexa skill that got to the finals of the Alexa Skills Challenge: Life Hacks and won $5,000 from Amazon :)
Check it out! 🙌
https://medium.com/storyline-blog/creating-alexa-skills-brannon-veal-alexa-life-hacks-challenge-finalist-df8d2c05b344
Check out the most exciting skills built on Storyline in June ⭐️
https://medium.com/storyline-blog/skills-of-the-month-june-2018-4ec88ac12222
https://medium.com/storyline-blog/skills-of-the-month-june-2018-4ec88ac12222
Medium
Skills of the Month — June 2018
I’m stoked to announce our new series of weekly community posts called Show Storyline.
Amazon is rolling out a new feature "Answer Update"
The new feature in Amazon Alexa will notify users when the voice assistant learns the answer to questions it didn't previously know.
The idea is to allow people to better take advantage of Alexa’s quickly improving Knowledge Graph.
Usually, when Alexa doesn't know the answer to a question, it replies with statements such as "I don't know, but I am always learning". However, with the new Answer Update feature, Alexa will be able to answer those questions when it finally figures them out.
In order to activate the service, you need to say "Alexa, enable Answer Updates". Saying "Alexa, turn off Answer Updates" disable it.
https://voicebot.ai/2018/08/06/amazon-alexa-testing-answer-updates-feature-that-will-notify-users-when-it-learns-a-new-answer/
The new feature in Amazon Alexa will notify users when the voice assistant learns the answer to questions it didn't previously know.
The idea is to allow people to better take advantage of Alexa’s quickly improving Knowledge Graph.
Usually, when Alexa doesn't know the answer to a question, it replies with statements such as "I don't know, but I am always learning". However, with the new Answer Update feature, Alexa will be able to answer those questions when it finally figures them out.
In order to activate the service, you need to say "Alexa, enable Answer Updates". Saying "Alexa, turn off Answer Updates" disable it.
https://voicebot.ai/2018/08/06/amazon-alexa-testing-answer-updates-feature-that-will-notify-users-when-it-learns-a-new-answer/
Voicebot.ai
Amazon Alexa is Testing Answer Updates Feature That Will Notify Users When it Learns a New Answer
Amazon Alexa Answer Updates is a new feature that will notify users when it learns the answer to a previously..
Hello everybody! Do you remember, two weeks ago WhatsApp released a new Business API?
Here is a funny story from India. Indian railwaymen complain about poems and good morning wishes in official WhatsApp support channels😅
Official Whatsapp contact was created in order to receive messages like: "toilet is not working", "the station is not clean enough," but in addition to complaints, they began to receive pictures, wishes and even Hindi poems!
About receiving such forwards, a senior Railways official said: “We have asked the staff to delete these messages, which we receive daily. The most repeated messages include ‘sending a particular forward message to 15 people to ensure good luck in one’s life’. These messages are a nuisance and waste of our time.”
Apart from the helpline, the Railways is also active on Twitter. We hope that they won't have such problems there😊
https://indianexpress.com/article/cities/mumbai/railways-whatsapp-helpline-numbers-forwards-friendship-day-wishes-exceed-number-of-complaints-5294833
Here is a funny story from India. Indian railwaymen complain about poems and good morning wishes in official WhatsApp support channels😅
Official Whatsapp contact was created in order to receive messages like: "toilet is not working", "the station is not clean enough," but in addition to complaints, they began to receive pictures, wishes and even Hindi poems!
About receiving such forwards, a senior Railways official said: “We have asked the staff to delete these messages, which we receive daily. The most repeated messages include ‘sending a particular forward message to 15 people to ensure good luck in one’s life’. These messages are a nuisance and waste of our time.”
Apart from the helpline, the Railways is also active on Twitter. We hope that they won't have such problems there😊
https://indianexpress.com/article/cities/mumbai/railways-whatsapp-helpline-numbers-forwards-friendship-day-wishes-exceed-number-of-complaints-5294833
The Indian Express
Railways WhatsApp helpline numbers: Forwards, Friendship Day wishes exceed number of complaints
Usually, commuters report cleanliness issues to the station master, who logs the same in the complaint book of the station. Officials said the helpline allows immediate action to be taken on the complaints.
We have awesome news 💪
Amazon and Microsoft just released an update for their voice assistants. Now you can speak with Alexa on a Windows 10 PC, you just need to say "Cortana, open Alexa"
This is opening a whole new market for Alexa. Looking forward what is going to be next🤓
https://www.engadget.com/2018/08/15/alexa-cortana-public-preview/
Amazon and Microsoft just released an update for their voice assistants. Now you can speak with Alexa on a Windows 10 PC, you just need to say "Cortana, open Alexa"
This is opening a whole new market for Alexa. Looking forward what is going to be next🤓
https://www.engadget.com/2018/08/15/alexa-cortana-public-preview/
Engadget
The Alexa-Cortana crossover is now available to the public
Amazon and Microsoft are rolling out the Alexa-Cortana experience as a public preview.
Have you ever wondered how to pick a great skill invocation name?
Here you go 🙂
https://medium.com/storyline-blog/how-to-pick-a-skill-invocation-name-c12037b29ebb
Here you go 🙂
https://medium.com/storyline-blog/how-to-pick-a-skill-invocation-name-c12037b29ebb
Medium
How to Pick a Skill Invocation Name
This post was originally published by me at the Alexa blog. Yes, I write for the Alexa Blog now.
Everyone makes mistakes, even big companies.
Today YC by mistake sent acceptances to everyone who applied to their Startup School, even if they weren't selected for the program.
To cover this fault, they opened the program for everyone who applied.
What lesson should we learn? Be careful when you make a broadcast to your users, the other way it can be a pretty expensive mistake!
Today YC by mistake sent acceptances to everyone who applied to their Startup School, even if they weren't selected for the program.
To cover this fault, they opened the program for everyone who applied.
What lesson should we learn? Be careful when you make a broadcast to your users, the other way it can be a pretty expensive mistake!
Hot news🔥🔥🔥
Slack just raised $427 million in their new round and now it worth more than 7 billion!
https://www.producthunt.com/news/315-slack-raises-a-427-million-series-h?utm_source=browser_notification&utm_medium=browser_notification&utm_campaign=315-slack-raises-a-427-million-series-h
Slack just raised $427 million in their new round and now it worth more than 7 billion!
https://www.producthunt.com/news/315-slack-raises-a-427-million-series-h?utm_source=browser_notification&utm_medium=browser_notification&utm_campaign=315-slack-raises-a-427-million-series-h
Today we decided to make a small digest of what happened for the last two days.
Facebook is on fire! FB decided to show the world a piece of information regarding its own speech recognition feature "Aloha" for Facebook and Messenger apps: https://voicebot.ai/2018/08/21/first-sighting-of-the-facebook-aloha-voice-assistant-appears-in-messenger-along-with-voice-messaging-in-instagram/
Maybe new Alexa competitor? What do you think?
Google Assistant’s latest feature delivers just the ‘good news’😇 Just say "Hey Google, tell me something good" to receive your daily dose of stories about people who are solving real-life problems: https://www.blog.google/products/assistant/hey-google-tell-me-something-good/
And one more news related to Facebook:
Facebook’s advertising platform permits discrimination by removing 5,000 options that can be used to exclude certain religious and ethnic minority groups: https://techcrunch.com/2018/08/21/facebook-is-removing-over-5000-ad-targeting-options-to-prevent-discriminatory-ads/
Facebook is on fire! FB decided to show the world a piece of information regarding its own speech recognition feature "Aloha" for Facebook and Messenger apps: https://voicebot.ai/2018/08/21/first-sighting-of-the-facebook-aloha-voice-assistant-appears-in-messenger-along-with-voice-messaging-in-instagram/
Maybe new Alexa competitor? What do you think?
Google Assistant’s latest feature delivers just the ‘good news’😇 Just say "Hey Google, tell me something good" to receive your daily dose of stories about people who are solving real-life problems: https://www.blog.google/products/assistant/hey-google-tell-me-something-good/
And one more news related to Facebook:
Facebook’s advertising platform permits discrimination by removing 5,000 options that can be used to exclude certain religious and ethnic minority groups: https://techcrunch.com/2018/08/21/facebook-is-removing-over-5000-ad-targeting-options-to-prevent-discriminatory-ads/
Voicebot.ai
First Sighting of the Facebook Aloha Voice Assistant Appears in Messenger Along with Voice Messaging in Instagram
Jane Manchun Wong, a developer with a penchant for reverse engineering and finding hidden features in applications before official release,..
A few weeks ago, our friend Julian from CognitionX shared his research in chatbots and voice bots market.
Highly recommend to read it🤓
https://drive.google.com/file/d/1Kfo-w7BlE0a0AYAZ7Lm_qNJv_UNkRLzc/view
Highly recommend to read it🤓
https://drive.google.com/file/d/1Kfo-w7BlE0a0AYAZ7Lm_qNJv_UNkRLzc/view
Google Docs
Chatbots_and_Voicebots-v111.pdf
Have you seen this cute puppy?
I'm sure, pretty soon this nice animals like Aibo will receive lots of features characteristic to voice assistants and will become very popular within the next 5 years.
https://tcrn.ch/2Lo8IUD
I'm sure, pretty soon this nice animals like Aibo will receive lots of features characteristic to voice assistants and will become very popular within the next 5 years.
https://tcrn.ch/2Lo8IUD
TechCrunch
Sony’s adorable new Aibo comes to the US
Packed with charm, AI and cloud technology, Sony’s rebooted robot dog doesn’t come cheap. on the Gadgetshow