Amazon Alexa Blueprints in Canada with Dr. Teri Fisher

AiC Episode 136

In this episode, Teri will talk about Amazon Alexa Blueprints which enable people to create their own personal Alexa skills and responses in minutes.

Enjoy!

Blueprints are a way for anyone, including people with no coding experience, to create their own custom Alexa skills. They are like templates and there are more than 30 of them available to Canadians. To set up Blueprints, start by going to your Alexa app and clicking on the bottom right icon that says, “More” Click on Blueprints and you will get some data on what Blueprints is about. If you click on ALL, you will see the 30+ Blueprints that are available for use.

Below, Teri will talk about some of the 30+ Blueprints and share what we can do with some of them:

Custom Q&A

Allows you to customize Alexa’s responses to questions.
When you click on it, it gives you a sample of some things that you can do.
You can set it up so that Alexa can give a customized answer to a certain question.

Hallmark Valentine’s Greeting

It allows you to create some Valentine greeting cards with personalized images and messages.

Countdown

It allows you to set a customized countdown for a particular event, time, or date.
In this Blueprint, you will find an example where when you say, “Alexa, open New Year’s Countdown”, Alexa will say, “Time to get started. Hey everyone. Get ready for [The following year]” and proceed to do to the countdown to that year.

Story Quiz

This one enables users to create a story and test their memory.
It can be a fun one to do with kids and there is a sample Story Quiz in the Blueprint to guide you.

Flashcards

This one can come in handy especially now that people are going back to school.
You can create flashcards and use them to test yourself, and use Alexa to help master any subject.

Listening Quiz

With this Blueprint, you can create a skill that enables you to listen and recall things.
It can be helpful in prepping you for content.
You just have to put in the content and Alexa will test you on the content by saying it to you.

All About Mum

You can use this one to surprise your mum with a personalized story narrated by Alexa.
It allows you to create an interactive story with a timeless lesson or games.

Whose Turn

You can use this to create a skill that will help you determine whose turn it is to do something.

Trivia

You can use this to program a trivia game on any topic that you like.

What to Do

If you have a number of things that you need to get done, you can put them in a list, and Alexa will randomly choose for you which one to do.

Facts

You can use this to create a personal list of facts on any topic that you want and when you ask Alexa to open the facts, she will give you those facts.

Family Jokes

This one enables you to create a list of your favorite family jokes when you need a laugh.

How Many Days

With this Blueprint, you can create a skill where you give Alexa an important date and she will count down the days to that event.
If you’ve got a big event coming up like a wedding anniversary, birthday, or anything like that, this skill will act as a great reminder.

Adventure

You can use this to create an adventure story where your child is the hero.
You can start a new story from scratch or use an already custom-built one in the Blueprint.

Compliments

This one will enable you to compliment people through Alexa by creating your own list of compliments.

Holiday Story

This will allow you to create a story with a particular person as the main character.

Houseguest

This is great for people who rent out their homes or have an AirBnB.
It helps in guiding guests when they visit the home or Airbnb.

Yes No Maybe

This one asks Alexa any Yes or No questions, and Alexa gives a randomly selected response.

Fortune Teller

If you want to create a skill that will give you a glimpse into the fortune, then this is the Blueprint to use.

Santa’s Letter

This allows you to write and send a letter to Santa, and then you can check back every day to track its progress to the north pole.

Sci-Fi

You can create an interactive story with a Sci-Fi theme using this Blueprint.

Birthday Trivia

This is a fun one for a birthday party. You can create a trivia game about the birthday boy or girl, which can be a lot of fun for a party.

Five Item Rush

This one allows you to create a game where you can score your friends in this wacky categories game.

Dad Jokes

You can create a list of dad jokes using this one.

Burns

This one will allow you to create your own custom burns and use them to burn family members and friends.

Fairy Tale

Used to create a prince and princess-themed tale.

Three Word Sort

You can use it to train your brain in a topsy-turvy sorting game.

Quiz

This one enables you to challenge your friends with open-ended questions.

Inspirations

With this one, you can curate a list of your favorite motivational quotes.

Task Tracker

This one is very useful for creating and managing your checklists to help you stay organized.

Baby Sitter

If you hire baby sitters, then this is great for answering any questions your baby sitter may have about your child when you’re not around.

Sidekick

This one is all about Alexa having your back with funny responses.

Chore Chart

This is useful for scheduling and tracking weekly chores for your entire household.

All About Dad

This one enables users to create a personalized story narrated by Alexa to surprise their dads.

Roommate

It’s almost similar to the Baby Sitter Blueprint in that it enables you to create a skill that will help your roommates by providing them with all the important information they should know.

Pet Sitter

You can use it to create a personalized skill that helps your pet sitter care for your favorite animal.

How to Use the BluePrints

When you click on one of the many Blueprints, you will see a button at the bottom that says, “Make Your Own”
When you click on that, you’ll go through and follow the steps Alexa gives you on the app. It will tell you to customize the skill and fill in some blanks to answer questions.
Once you’ve done that, it will take you through how you add custom things to the database of information that you want Alexa to share with you.
The process is very self-explanatory and it will guide up to the point where you will launch the skill in your own device.

List of resources mentioned in this episode:

Other Useful Resources:

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