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
Would you buy Google Assistant for $2000? Or maybe Alexa for $400?
Here are two articles about interesting collaboration Amazon and Google with producers of musical equipment
Google
https://techcrunch.com/2018/08/23/bang-olufsens-pricey-beosound-line-gets-google-assistant/
Amazon
https://www.theverge.com/circuitbreaker/2018/8/28/17790932/bose-home-speaker-500-soundbar-700-announced-pricing-features
Here are two articles about interesting collaboration Amazon and Google with producers of musical equipment
https://techcrunch.com/2018/08/23/bang-olufsens-pricey-beosound-line-gets-google-assistant/
Amazon
https://www.theverge.com/circuitbreaker/2018/8/28/17790932/bose-home-speaker-500-soundbar-700-announced-pricing-features
TechCrunch
Bang & Olufsen’s pricey BeoSound line gets Google Assistant
Google Assistant and Amazon Alexa are no longer solely the domain of super cheap smart speakers. Google, in particular, has been courting third-party hardware makers pretty aggressively in an attempt to put the consumer AI on as wide a range of products as…
Samsung is opening up Bixby to third-party developers this November
https://www.cnbc.com/2018/09/04/samsung-bixby-software-developers-kit-sdk.html
btw, a month ago Samsung announced their first home speaker powered by Bixby.
https://thenextweb.com/tech/2018/08/09/samsung-debuts-its-funky-galaxy-home-bixby-powered-speaker/
https://www.cnbc.com/2018/09/04/samsung-bixby-software-developers-kit-sdk.html
btw, a month ago Samsung announced their first home speaker powered by Bixby.
https://thenextweb.com/tech/2018/08/09/samsung-debuts-its-funky-galaxy-home-bixby-powered-speaker/
CNBC
Samsung to challenge Amazon's Alexa by letting developers make apps for its Bixby voice assistant
Samsung will allow third-party developers to build apps for Bixby later this year, the CEO of the technology giant's mobile division told CNBC, in a bid to boost the capability of its voice assistant.
Alexa is going to become a Kinect replacement for Xbox One.
https://www.theverge.com/2018/9/6/17826718/microsoft-xbox-one-alexa-features-support-voice-control
We saw the news about voice interface in VR games before, but consoles like Xbox are brand new field for voice.
https://www.theverge.com/2018/9/6/17826718/microsoft-xbox-one-alexa-features-support-voice-control
We saw the news about voice interface in VR games before, but consoles like Xbox are brand new field for voice.
The Verge
Microsoft brings Alexa support to Xbox One for Kinect-like voice controls
Available to testers today