It’s simpler to add skills to Alexa now

Amazon on Thursday announced a new way to add skills to its Alexa voice assistant. The new method doesn’t require you to have coding or technology skills, making it easier for skills to be added. It’s called Alexa Skill Blueprints and will allow users to customize a bunch of questions. You can add questions that let your pet sitter or babysitters take directions, add jokes and more.

“You don’t need experience building skills or coding to get started. My family created our own jokes skill in a matter of minutes,” said Steve Rabuchin, VP of Amazon Alexa. “My family created our own jokes skill in a matter of minutes,” Rabuchin added. The company is providing templates that will let others create their skills and custom questions and responses.

Using Alexa Skill Blueprints is as easy as filling in the blanks, Amazon said.

Using Alexa Skill Blueprints is as easy as filling in the blanks, Amazon said. You can have fun to customize responses to questions like “Alexa, what is the best city?” or “Alexa, who has the best sense of humor?” You can also use Skill Blueprints to create an interactive adventure story with your child as the lead character, “ the company noted.

These are questions designed for trivia games, short stories, jokes, bedtime stories, house guests and more. If you have a very big house, you could probably have Alexa answer questions about where things are in your home. Alexa Skill Blueprints will be available in the US from today, but it’s unclear when other countries will get it.