Amazon to allow developers to create Alexa routines for users

SAN FRANCISCO: At Alexa Live 2022, Amazon has announced new features for skill developers and device makers, including tools that will allow developers to create Alexa routines and suggest them to users. The company said developers can now use the Alexa Ambient Home Dev Kit to integrate their devices and services with other products more seamlessly with user permission.

Alexa Ambient Home Dev Kit is a new collection of services and APIs that seeks to unify the ambient smart home experience for our customers. “At Alexa Live, we announced the first five APIs that will be included as part of the Alexa Ambient Home Dev Kit — Home State APIs, Safety and Security APIs, API for Credentials, API for Device and Group Organisation, and API for Multi-Admin Simple Setup for Matter,” the company said in a blogpost.

Home State APIs help customers achieve the desired state in their home, which can include Home, Vacation, Dinner Time, or Sleep, and keep modes synced between Alexa and your devices and services to deliver a unified experience. Safety and Security APIs extend Alexa Guard’s features in your own apps and services by leveraging alerts based on sound events detected by Echo devices, such as smoke and CO alarms, providing customers with increased home awareness and coverage in more spaces.

API for Credentials makes it easy for customers to set up their Matter devices by eliminating the need to manually enter their Thread network credentials. API for Device and Group Organisation allows you to automatically synchronise device and group names between Alexa and your apps, freeing your customers from spending time manually replicating their device groups or rooms across multiple apps.

API for Multi-Admin Simple Setup for Matter makes it easy for customers to add your app or smart home service as an additional Matter admin using this cloud-based API, providing customers with a hassle-free way to connect their preferred Matter Admins to their Matter devices.

Meanwhile, Alexa Connect Kit SDK for Matter is a new software package that brings the benefits of ACK’s managed services to Matter devices, including cloud connectivity and over-the-air (OTA) updates for device lifecycle management, logs, and metrics. Using the ACK SDK for Matter means you can deliver the increased interoperability of Matter for your customers and receive the benefits of managed cloud connectivity features to build differentiated products.