Amazon rolls out new Alexa dashboard and device address API
Amazon on Wednesday introduced a new API that lets Alexa developers incorporate location information into their Alexa skills.
The Device Address API enables skills to request and access the configured address in a user's device settings. Developers can either request a full address or just the country and postal code.
Before the skill can access that information, the user must enable the skill via the Alexa app, where they will be prompted to provide consent. If a user enables the skill via voice, they won't be prompted for the information, and the information won't be provided.
Three brands are already using the new API, including AccuWeather, which uses it to provide customers with local weather-related information. Just Eat uses it to assist in food ordering, and Real, a chain of stores in Germany, provides customers with local news, opening hours, and discounts for local stores.
Meanwhile, to better understand your user metrics, Amazon also introduced a new Alexa dashboard. Developers can get an overview of metrics like their total unique customers, total sessions, total utterances and total utterances by intent. They can dig down into areas like the number of successful end session types or average number of sessions per customer.
Amazon continues to cultivate the Alexa ecosystem, integrating the voice-activated assistant with a growing number of products while encouraging developers and third parties to build more skills.
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