Amazon Alexa Development: From Beginner to Intermediate

Set up your AWS and Amazon developer accounts to create Lambda functions for Alexa skills, publish and test them, and leverage the 12-month free tier with region selection.

Sign in to your Amazon developer account and AWS to access the unified console for Alexa development, explore the dashboard, and prepare to build skills.

Learn to build AWS Lambda functions from scratch or via blueprints, configure roles and environment variables, and connect to Alexa skills through the developer portal.

Explore a simple hello world skill for Amazon Alexa, and follow through the lambda interface and the basic code that makes it run when invoked.

Set up your Amazon Web Services and developer accounts by creating a new function, integrating skills, and importing development code to get your environment ready for Alexa development.

Upload the prebuilt archive as the hello world lambda function in amazon alexa development, then watch the instructor explain the code in the next video after the upload completes.

Explain how to set up a simple 'Hello world' lambda function for an Alexa skill, register launch and intent handlers. Test the basic dialogue from launch to hello world.

Define the intent schema and utterances, build the interaction model, and publish your Alexa skill; then test it first in the developer console and then on a physical device.

Learn how to test a hello world Alexa skill using the simulator and beta testing, verifying interactions through the interaction model and utterances on both simulator and physical devices.

Test a hello world skill on an Amazon Echo Dot by syncing the physical device, setting up the Alexa app, and linking your Amazon developer account to run.

Modify the hello world sample in an Alexa project by updating prompts and responses with static data, such as answering when the first movie came out as 1993.

Explore debugging and iterative refinement of an Alexa skill's action model, focusing on one change at a time, testing the endpoint, and handling case sensitivity in responses.

Create a Silicon Valley facts Alexa skill by exploring the skills kit, expanding the interaction model, and using Amazon beta tools to build your second skill.

Designing skills with a purpose teaches you to define who the skill helps, map user before/during/after interactions, and craft wake words and scripts for a useful Alexa experience.

Design scripts to map user and skill conversations, writing concise, natural interactions with clear options to gather information, prompt intents, and guide users.

Outline the shortest route to completion and map paths and decision trees for your Alexa skill. Identify intents and utterances, then follow the design checklist to stay up to date.

Apply a design checklist to market and improve your Alexa skill. Build natural language conversations with robust interaction design and gracefully handle unexpected utterances.

Learn to set up a second chatbot by creating a Lambda function from a prebuilt Alexa skill blueprint, and configure it in the Amazon developer portal.

Start building a lambda function for an Alexa skill by configuring the SDK, setting up data structures, defining handlers, and wiring a launch request with intents in JSON format.

Develop and test a lambda function for an Alexa skill by implementing launch, help, and cancel intents, managing data arrays, and generating randomized spoken responses.

Explore creating the interaction model, configuring the skill with an endpoint and lambda function, and testing using the simulator to validate intents, utterances, and responses.

Explore adding slots in an Alexa skill by creating a sample slot practice, defining a number slot, and updating the interaction model with intents and utterances for testing.

Explore using a Numbers API with a lambda function to fetch data for a number slot in an Alexa skill, parse the API response, and present trivia facts.

Fix a missing colon to get code working, then make a web call to an API for an Alexa skill and review interaction model and price data, cents per acre.

Create a simple calculator skill with the invocation name 'simple calculator', handling queries like what's two plus four or six times ten, using the Alexa skills kit to streamline coding.

Sign into the console, configure the Alexa skill blueprints, and create a simple calculator linked to Lambda, then set the skills trigger and save the application ID.

Copy and paste a lambda function to implement subtract, multiply, and division, and test the Alexa skill while focusing on the interaction model for the next video.

Create an Alexa skill's intent schema and utterances using slots and number types to support add, subtract, multiply, and divide, test in the simulator, and handle case sensitivity and spelling.

Test our Amazon Alexa skill by configuring the lambda function name, invoking simple math queries, and validating responses on a physical device.

Test your Alexa skill in the simulator, typing or speaking, validate a simple calculator like one plus one equals two, and use the full invocation name to access your skills.

Introduce Alexa development basics with sample files, showing slots and utterances, voice-to-text parsing, and a lambda function to trigger Twilio text messages.

Sign up at Twilio.com to obtain a free phone number and the two pieces of ID, then use your account ID and token to verify and enable texting with Alexa.

Set up a text message lambda function triggered by an Alexa skill, configure Twilio messaging, name the function, and prepare code integration for future steps.

Explore the text message lambda function that sends text messages via the Twilio API, using credentials and from/to numbers, triggered by Alexa voice inputs.

Sign into the Amazon developer site, create a new Alexa skill with the Alexa skills kit, name it Twilio text call, set the invocation name to texting, and save.

Build the Alexa interaction model by defining an intent with destination and text slots, configure slot types and utterances, then connect to AWS Lambda and test the code.

Test text messaging with Twilio by sending utterances and invocation commands to an iPhone, verify messages trigger notifications, and explore testing via simulator.

Implement a text message challenge: add three friends with phone numbers and slots in the content schema, then run Alexa in background to send texts.

Navigate the lambda management console, add an else statement, and modify the destination list in the interaction model to enable sending messages to your 3 closest friends.

Build a wiki history feature in an Alexa skill by querying Wikipedia with a date, using the about intent and day/month slots to read main points.

Set up an AWS lambda function for an Alexa skill by configuring the Alexa skills kit trigger, and uploading a zipped archive of two JSON files to create the function.

Set up your Amazon developer account, create a skill with an interaction model, and configure the skill name and location, preparing content schema, slot types, and simple utterances for Alexa.

Add and configure the interaction model with intents and utterances, using built-in slots for day and date. Test locally and adjust region settings for testing in North America.

Test wiki interactions using one-shot and dialect models with a voice simulator to verify requests, responses, dialogue flows, and smoke tests on hardware.

Create an Amazon Alexa skill that displays Twitter trends by connecting the Twitter API and presenting location-based topics via the main command.

Set up the Twitter trends lambda function within the Alexa development project, configure modules and the Alexa skill API, and integrate Twitter tokens to archive at nine o'clock.

Connect twitter to alexa by creating an app named alex's trending and pasting consumer key, consumer secret, access token, and access token secret into the lambda function to get trends.

Develop the intent schema and utterances for an Alexa skill, enabling a simple, area-based trending topics response and prepare for testing in the next video.

Test Alexa skills by simulating Twitter trends with the open news command to fetch top topics and hashtags in your area.

Deliver a final Alexa skill that provides 10-second workout bursts across cardio, abs, chest, or yoga, with push-ups in 10 seconds and steps to publish to the Alexa store.

Set up the fitness ten lambda function for an Alexa workout skill, handling 10-second exercises like chest, abs, cardio, and yoga, with workout type routing and speech responses.

Learn to set up the Amazon developer skill, create a new skills kit, configure interactions, and prepare for integrating content in the next video.

Define an intent schema with custom destinations, slots, and utterances, build a destination list for workouts, and test the model to validate the Alexa skill flow.

Test an Alexa fitness skill by guiding cardio or yoga choices and correcting utterances to avoid invalid responses, then implement a chest workout prompt of 10 pushups in 10 seconds.

Publish your Alexa skill by completing global fields, crafting concise and full descriptions, adding keywords and icons, and answering privacy and certification questions before awaiting Amazon approval.

Build your own Alexa skill from scratch, publish it in the store, and test it on all Echo devices; pull information from different api sources and organize content uniquely.

Complete the final project for Amazon Alexa development by building an audio-focused skill with music prompts, using a virtual simulator and hosting MP3 clips under 90 seconds on S3.

Thank you for taking the Amazon Alexa development course and exploring voice devices. Discover the future of Alexa and Google Home and learn to build cool applications.