Amazon’s Multimodal Alexa Skill Challenge Finalists Are Out
Image Credit: Amazon
Last week Amazon announced in a blog post the finalists of the Alexa Skills Challenge: Multimodal, which began November last year. The challenge was open to developers worldwide and asked contestants to create an Alexa skill that used voice, visuals, and touch with the Alexa Presentation Language (APL). The APL was introduced in September of 2018 and is a design language that is able to create visually rich Alexa skills for Alexa devices with screens. There are ten finalists who have created skills that range from allowing users to make sound loops to an interactive Red Riding Hood story. The skills are currently available for use and will be evaluated based on their customer engagement from March 16th through March 26th. The winners of the challenge will then be announced on April 12, 2019. The Amazon blog post encourages Alexa users to try out the skills, which are listed here:
The grand prize winner will receive $20,000, and additional skills will be announced as bonus winners. Each skill makes use of multimodal design to incorporate touch and visuals into a voice first approach. Amazon stated that these skills were able to stand out among the hundreds of submissions because of their adaptability to work on different devices, easily glance-able and complementary information, the inclusion of a simple way to navigate large data sets and their both immersive and delightful experiences.
Skill Challenges Promote Alexa Engagement
Amazon has hosted many different skill challenges for developers over the years. Some of them include the Alexa Skills Challenge for Games in Europe, the Alexa Diabetes Challenge, the Alexa Life Hack Skill Challenge, the Alexa Skills Challenge: Kids, and the Alexa Skills Challenge: Tech for Good. All have offered a monetary prize and all point to a very clear trend of Amazon’s use of competition to promote Alexa developer engagement.
Amazon Alexa Games Skill Challenge Winners Announced for Europe
