How to create a voice skill
Learn how to create a voice skill for your company or brand with this introductory post. Consider this a voice 101.
What voice platforms should I be targeting?
There are 4 main voice platforms today:
- Amazon Alexa, out in the UK and US, and by far the leading voice only device on the market. This is where you should begin when creating a voice skill.
- Google Assistant, out in the US, playing catchup with Amazon, easy to get up and running and a good next place to develop your voice skill.
- Microsoft Cortana, available in Windows 10 devices, opening for developers soon.
- Apple Siri, living inside iPhone and iPad, but with limited use cases.
What are the key voice devices on the market?
Where should I begin to learn how to create a voice skill?
Amazon Alexa
Google Assistant
Cortana
- Microsoft Cortana dev center
- Microsoft Bot Framework preview, not voice specifically, but the bot framework allows you to build conversational interfaces so you can interface with text inputs such as Skype, Slack, SMS, Facebook Messenger and more.
Siri
How can I learn how to create a high quality voice skill?
- Read Designing Voice User Interfaces: Principles of Conversational Experiences, by Cathy Pearl
- Watch Designing for Voice Interactions, Cathy Pearl presentation
- Design for Voice Interfaces, by Laura Klein
What about bots?
Bots allow you to build ‘skills’ that allow users to use text commands to communicate with your services or brand.
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