Amazon Opens Alexa Voice Service to Third Party Hardware Makers
A free set of APIs allows developers to add Alexa to their devices-any device with a speaker, a microphone, and an Internet connection can integrate Alexa with just a few lines of code
Developer preview starts next month
SEATTLE--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Jun. 25, 2015-- (NASDAQ: AMZN)-Alexa is the cloud-based voice service that powers Amazon Echo, a new category of device designed around your voice. Today, Amazon announced that hardware developers can use the Alexa Voice Service (AVS) to integrate Alexa into their Internet-connected devices with only a few lines of code. No experience with natural language understanding or speech recognition is required. The Alexa Voice Service is free-learn more and sign up to be notified when the preview for developers is available at https://developer.amazon.com/AVS.
Examples of what developers can create with the Alexa Voice Service include:
A Wi-Fi alarm clock that lets a customer talk to Alexa- What's the weather today? or What's on my calendar today?
A car that enables a driver to press the Alexa button on the steering wheel and request anything from Alexa, such as Read my book or Remind me to pick up flowers after work.
A movie ticket machine that lets a moviegoer say Buy six tickets for the next showing of Jurassic World.
A countertop weather station that enables customers to get more information by asking What will the weather be next weekend? or What was the rainfall in June last year?
A TV that makes finding tonight's game simple-just pick up the remote and say Turn on the baseball game.
A home sound system that lets customers turn on music just by saying Play my barbeque playlist on the back deck.
Today, we're excited to open up the Alexa Voice Service to any device maker that wants to add Alexa into their products-for free, said Greg Hart, Vice President, Amazon Echo and Alexa Voice Services. We've made adding Alexa incredibly easy for developers-any device with a speaker, an Internet connection, and a microphone can integrate Alexa with just a few lines of code. From start-ups to established companies, we can't wait to see how developers integrate Alexa.
Alexa is the brain behind Amazon Echo, a new category of device designed around your voice. Echo is hands-free and always on-ask for information, music, news, weather, and more from across the room and get results or answers instantly. Alexa is built in the cloud and leverages AWS to continue to learn and add functionality over time-in the last seven months Alexa has added Pandora, Audible, traffic, sports scores and schedules, control of connected devices like WeMo and Philips Hue, IFTTT, and more. When a developer uses the Alexa Voice Service to integrate Alexa into their device, their product also gets the benefit of updated capabilities that are added to Alexa, thus constantly improving the device over time.
Here are a few of the hardware makers who are using AVS to integrate Alexa into their products:
Wink, the quick and simple way to connect you and the products you rely on in the home, is using AVS to enable customers to control and monitor their connected home using only their voice. Amazon is helping us create an even more simple and intuitive way to control your smart home-with your voice, said Nathan Smith, CTO of Wink. By integrating Alexa into our platform, customers will be able to manage their home-everything from turning on lights, locking doors, controlling temperature, and opening blinds-just by asking. We see huge potential and are excited to make the smart home even more accessible.
Scout Alarm, a new breed of home security that customers can install and manage themselves, is using AVS to enable customers to manage their home security using voice. We're thrilled to use the Alexa Voice Service to integrate Alexa with Scout to support voice control capabilities, said Dave Shapiro, CTO at Scout. Alexa opens new ways for our customers to interact with their security system-ways not yet seen in our industry. By simply speaking to Alexa as they leave the home, customers can arm their system, or remotely check in on the security of their home using voice commands. Advanced home security has never been this simple, easy or available to more people; we are excited that Scout customers get to experience the convenience of Alexa.
Toymail, the creator of Wi-Fi connected toys that send and receive voice messages for families, is using AVS to enable families to exchange voice messages using Alexa. Toymail creates toys that help families stay connected with loved ones, without more screen time, said Gauri Nanda, Co-Founder of Toymail. Using Alexa Voice Service, Toymail customers can use their voice, in addition to our mobile app, to deliver fun messages and content to family members anywhere, anytime. For example, a dad can ask Alexa from the kitchen Tell Ben: ten more minutes before dinner.' And, we're excited to add Alexa to our Mailman toys-just say Alexa, read a story' and the family can enjoy a bedtime audiobook together via the Mailman's speakers.'
The free Alexa Voice Service will be available as a developer preview starting next month-learn more and sign up to be notified when it is available at https://developer.amazon.com/AVS.
Amazon also today introduced the Alexa Skills Kit (ASK), a collection of self-service APIs and tools that make it fast and easy for developers to create new voice-driven skills and capabilities for Alexa. With a few lines of code, developers can easily integrate existing web services with Alexa or, in just a few hours, they can build entirely new experiences designed around voice. For example, an Internet-connected sprinkler system can integrate its sprinklers with Alexa, so a custo
Most recent headlines
06/10/2025
France T l visions, France's leading broadcaster, has received the 2025 EBU ...
04/09/2025
Monumental Sports & Entertainment (MSE), in collaboration with Dalet, has been a...
30/08/2025
WASHINGTON The Federal Communications Commission has adopted its FY 2025 Regulatory Fees Order that establishes the regulatory fee rates for the broadcast stati...
29/08/2025
Australian Red Cross and SBS launch training to help workplaces in the fight aga...
29/08/2025
The National Film and Video Foundation (NFVF), an agency of the Department of Sp...
29/08/2025
L3Harris Technologies has concentrated decades of expertise across the entire enterprise to develop affordable and reliable best-of-breed solutions to rapidly c...
29/08/2025
BURBANK, Calif. The CW Network and the Pac-12 Conference have announced a new media rights deal that will extend their broadcast partnership beginning with the ...
29/08/2025
NEW YORK Gracenote has released a new analysis of its global video dataset showing that the number of FAST channels grew nearly 14% from Q1 2025 and 76% since 2...
29/08/2025
SAN JOSE, Calif. Harmonic has announced a series of improvements to its live sports streaming solution that the company said will improve fan engagement, protec...
29/08/2025
NEW YORK and LOS ANGELES Fox Corp. and YouTube TV last night announced a renewal of the full portfolio of Fox networks, including Fox News Channel, Fox Business...
29/08/2025
Budapest, Hungary, August 2025 - The integration of Microsoft Teams Rooms (MTR) with Lightware's Taurus universal matrix switchers delivers a new level of f...
29/08/2025
Frequency, the engine behind many of the world's best-known streaming television channels, today announced it will launch Studio Live, a next-generation uni...
29/08/2025
In an era when AI and cyber resilience are essential, Scality will mark the 10th anniversary of Scality Day on October 16, 2025 in Paris. This flagship global e...
29/08/2025
Disguise's In-House Creative and Technical Teams Pre-Visualised, Programmed and Delivered Content for the Experience, All Powered by EX 3+
Technology solu...
29/08/2025
Disguise will be demonstrating the latest workflows for TV, film and live events on a number of partner booths at the show
Disguise, the industry-leading tech...
29/08/2025
STOCKHOLM, Sweden Accedo will showcase Accedo Compose, its AI agent-powered modular orchestration layer that assists streaming providers in transitioning client...
29/08/2025
LOS ANGELES Cineverse has announced that it is working with Xperi to bring four of its streaming channels to automobiles for the first time as part of the DTS A...
29/08/2025
DALLAS & ATLANTA Gray Media has announced an agreement with the sports streaming service Victory+ to simulcast 17 Dallas Stars NHL games in 15 television market...
29/08/2025
NEW YORK AND CULVER CITY Comcast NBCUniversal and Amazon have announced new and extended distribution agreements that will expand the content available on their...
29/08/2025
FOOTHILL RANCH, Calif. RED Digital Cinema will feature its Cine-Broadcast Module supporting live broadcast workflows during IBC2025, Sept. 12-15, at the RAI Ams...
29/08/2025
29 Aug 2025
Kyivstar Rings Opening Bell at Nasdaq Marking Landmark Listing and ...
29/08/2025
More than half of all NFL games live on Sky for the first timeFriday 29 August 2025
Sky Sports has announced a new three-year deal with the NFL, extending its ...
29/08/2025
Back to All News
RIV4LRIES: The Trailer of the New Series With Samuele Carrino ...
29/08/2025
Get ready for an inspiring and emotional insight into the world of competitive Irish dancing with My Story: Tomi Champion of the World airing on RT 2 this monda...
29/08/2025
RT has today announced that David McCullagh is to be the new presenter of RT Radio 1's flagship Today programme, which airs every weekday at 10am, replaci...
28/08/2025
By Kristin Feeley, Director, Documentary Film & Artist Programs
If you want to tell untold stories, if you want to give voice to the voiceless, you've got ...
28/08/2025
Directed by Steven Bognar and Julia Reichert, Sundance Institute-supported Amer...
28/08/2025
Corridos have been a cornerstone of M sica Mexicana for generations, telling stories rooted in everyday life. Now, a new chapter is taking shape: motivational c...
28/08/2025
Los corridos han sido un pilar de la M sica Mexicana durante generaciones, contando historias enraizadas en la vida cotidiana. Ahora, un nuevo cap tulo est tom...
28/08/2025
Earlier this month, we promised our Verano Forever party would bring the heat, a...
28/08/2025
L3Harris will provide the Polish F-16V fleet with the Viper Shield electronic warfare system as part of an upgrade program....
28/08/2025
Bilbao, August 26, 2025 - AgileTV, an international television and video technol...
28/08/2025
Ken Wilkinson is an Emmy Awards nominated New York audio engineer who specialises in production sound mixing for film, commercial, episodic and documentary work...
28/08/2025
NEW YORK FuboTV today announced that it will launch Fubo Sports, a skinny bundle that focuses on sports with a subscription price of $56 monthly....
28/08/2025
NEVADA City, Calif. At IBC2025, Sept. 12-15 at the RAI Amsterdam, Telestream will debut its new Global Ingest strategy, introducing a next-generation ingest arc...
28/08/2025
Dr. Rhoda Bernard Releases Groundbreaking Debut Book on Accessible Arts Educatio...
28/08/2025
TAG Video Systems, the leader in software-based IP end-to-end workflow monitoring, deep probing, and real-time visualization, has named Oliver Gappa as Sales Di...
28/08/2025
AI-based voice enhancement will be among a series of innovations making their IBC 2025 debut on the DHD stand B46 in Hall 8 at the RAI Amsterdam Convention Cent...
28/08/2025
Telef nica Servicios Audiovisuales (TSA), the leading system integrator and service provider in the media sector in Spain, with the support of Appear, the globa...
28/08/2025
To fully immerse sailing fans in the world's biggest offshore yacht race, production company, Optical Media turned to LiveU's On-site Production solutio...
28/08/2025
Working with Calrec on its most recent overhaul, radio and television broadcaster, WNED has migrated to a fully IP infrastructure with multiple Type R consoles,...
28/08/2025
Cleeng, the Subscriber Retention Management (SRM ) inventor, has unveiled Cleeng Pro, the first-ever direct-to-consumer (D2C) subscription management platform t...
28/08/2025
Zixi, the industry leader in live broadcast-quality video over IP, today announced that French media distribution platform OKAST has selected Zixi to enable rel...
28/08/2025
Solution offers a streamlined, speaker-free architecture to optimize integration with premium external loudspeakers and advanced loudness metering
Nixer Pro Au...
28/08/2025
Cinegy, the premier provider of software-defined television technology, has announced a strategic partnership with Vision One Touch Film Production Services L.L...
28/08/2025
Telestream, a global leader in media workflow technologies, will debut its new Global Ingest strategy at IBC2025, introducing a next-generation ingest architect...
28/08/2025
Tier 1 operator selects Broadpeak to power high-performance, unified CDN solution across Norway, Sweden and Finland
Broadpeak, a leader in streaming and moneti...
28/08/2025
Leading video software provider, Synamedia, today announced that 24 Frames Digital, one of India's leading live event streaming service providers, has chose...
28/08/2025
Meet VisualOn at IBC2025: See What's Next in AI-Powered Video Streaming Join VisualOn at IBC2025 and discover how our AI-driven Optimizer and advanced media...
Amazon Opens Alexa Voice Service to Third Party Hardware Makers 
