Amazon has announced that Alexa skills developers can now sell Alexa skills in their voice apps, according to foreign media reports.
Those incentives, along with Alexa’s lead in the smart home market, have pushed the platform’s skills to more than 50,000.
However, unlike traditional purchase apps, Alexa skills are something that ordinary users can buy over and over again and don’t have to subscribe to.
Amazon says some of its top developers have already adopted the feature.
These include: You Rather Rather for Family, which allows users to buy a Premium version of the seven-day pass for testing; Volley’s Yes Sire, which allows users to keep scores earned in the game; Hypno Therapist, from Innomore, allows users to buy 10 hypnotherapy treatments from more than 70 treatment catalogs. When they run out, they must buy another set to stay healthy.
Amazon notes that SONY Pictures Television will also soon introduce the “Who Wants to Be a Millionaire” skill, which will let users purchase a disposable lifeline when they run into problems.
Alexa developers will be able to use skills in a similar way through the Alexa Skills Toolkit (ASK) command line interface (CLI) after adding one-time purchases and subscriptions.
Alexa skills are currently available for purchase in the US, and Amazon has not provided an international release schedule.
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