July 21, 2022
Amazon has unveiled the Universal Device Commands, which will cover basic controls for a device. Controls include adjusting the volume, turning off a timer that turns off, or stopping an audio stream.
The new feature, unveiled at Amazon’s Alexa Live developer event, will help put users in charge of Alexa’s controls building on the company’s ambient computing technology.
“We’re really starting to see this vision for Alexa and ambient intelligence become a reality. I’d argue that every brand needs to have an ambient strategy at this point. There are certain things that we believe any voice assistant that’s on a device should be able to control, “said Aaron Rubenson, Amazon’s vice president of Alexa Voice Service & Alexa Skills.
Amazon also announced a number of new and improved developer kits to keep Alexa’s user momentum alive, including the Alexa Connect Kit SDK for Matter, Alexa Ambient Home Dev Kit, Alexa Voice Service (AVS) SDK 3.0 and Alexa Routines Kit (ARK).
Alexa Connect Kit SDK for Matter extends Alexa Connect Kit’s cloud connectivity and managed services to Matter devices.
Alexa Ambient Home Dev Kit includes a new collection of APIs and services that provide developers with a variety of Alexa smart home features.
Alexa Voice Service (AVS) SDK 3.0 combines the Alexa Smart Screen SDK and the AVS Device SDK to optimize the development of voice and multimodal experiences.
Alexa Routines Kit (ARK) helps skill builders to offer pre-built routines to their customers when they interact with their skills.
The sources for this piece include an article in ZDNet.
