bjnord

bjnord

Build Talking Apps for Alexa: Device setup (chapter 1)

@habuma Hello: The only Alexa device I have is my Kindle Fire, which has the Alexa app installed. I can say “Alexa” to it and do the usual things (“What time is it?” etc.). It’s linked to my personal Amazon account (e.g. I can see all my Kindle books). I was able to create my Amazon Developer account (linked to that same personal Amazon account), do the “ask new” and customizations etc., and then do the “git push” to deploy.

I can see “starport-75” Skills on the Alexa web console, and I can interact with it just fine on the web. But when I tell the Kindle Fire “Alexa, open star port seventy five” she says “OK” and then opens an app called “Star Sport & Sub” in the app store.

My question is how I troubleshoot this. How do I see what devices I own that are associated with my Amazon developer account, which should be able to use skills I deploy? How would I associate a device with my Amazon developer account if it isn’t already? etc. I poked around on both sides and I can’t see anyplace to see or make the association.

Thanks,
Brent

Marked As Solved

habuma

habuma

Author of Build Talking Apps for Alexa

That’s a really good question…one that I’m going to attempt to answer (but may fail to adequately address). While I have SEVERAL Alexa devices in my house (and even a handful that I carry around with me), I do not own a Kindle Fire, so my experience with that particular device will be entirely speculation.

Assuming that your Kindle Fire is associated with the same Amazon account that you developed and deployed the skill with, it SHOULD just work. But, I can see a few gotchas that might prevent it from working.

When you asked Alexa to open “Star Port Seventy Five”, she may have misheard what you said as something else that (at least to Alexa) sounded like “Star Sport & Sub”. After all, those two things are named such that they sound similar. Moreover, the Kindle Fire doesn’t quite have the same level of sophisticated array of microphones that a real device would have, so the likelihood of being misheard is greater.

One thing you might try doing is going into the Alexa Companion app or https://alexa.amazon.com and go to the “Skills” section. From there find the “Star Sport & Sub” skill and disable it. This will give you a slightly better chance of hitting the right skill the next time you try.

If you’re still struggling, you could try changing the skill’s invocation name to something completely different to see if you have better luck.

Of course, it might also be that the device isn’t associated with the same account that the skill was deployed with. So, as you asked, how can you know? The best way to find out, I’d think, is to sign into https://alexa.amazon.com or into the companion application on iOS or Android and go to the “Devices” section (on the website, I think it’s under “Settings” if I recall correctly). Be sure to sign into the Alexa website or companion app with the same credentials as you signed into developer.amazon.com when setting up the ASK CLI. If the Kindle Fire is listed, then it’s probably a matter of Alexa mishearing what you said. If the Kindle Fire isn’t listed, then that device must be associated with some other account.

One other thing: You say that the only Alexa device you own is the Kindle Fire, but you could have a few others you didn’t think about. If you have the Alexa companion app installed on your phone, it can also be used as an Alexa device. If you have an Apple Watch or iPhone, you can also install Voice in a Can and use it as an Alexa device. I’ve also tinkered a little with an app called Ally for iOS which turns your phone into an Alexa device. And then there’s the Developer Console, which gives you the chance to speak to Alexa (or type at her if you prefer) that serves as a device.

Also Liked

habuma

habuma

Author of Build Talking Apps for Alexa

Awesome! So glad to here that you sorted it out!

Testing-wise (and automated testing notwithstanding), I tend to test my skills using whatever Echo device is nearby. While you don’t need a real device to test, there’s nothing nearly as rewarding as hearing the results on a real device. I also frequently use the Alexa app on my phone if I don’t have a device nearby (such as when I’m away from home). In short, it sounds like you’ll be able to test with the Kindle Fire, but if you continue to enjoy this kind of thing, I’d recommend a small investment in an Echo Dot or some other device.

Where Next?

Popular Pragmatic Bookshelf topics Top

brianokken
Many tasks_proj/tests directories exist in chapters 2, 3, 5 that have tests that use the custom markers smoke and get, which are not decl...
New
mikecargal
Title: Hands-On Rust (Chap 8 (Adding a Heads Up Display) It looks like ​.with_simple_console_no_bg​(SCREEN_WIDTH*2, SCREEN_HEIGHT*2...
New
edruder
I thought that there might be interest in using the book with Rails 6.1 and Ruby 2.7.2. I’ll note what I needed to do differently here. ...
New
herminiotorres
Hi! I know not the intentions behind this narrative when called, on page XI: mount() |> handle_event() |> render() but the correc...
New
alanq
This isn’t directly about the book contents so maybe not the right forum…but in some of the code apps (e.g. turbo/06) it sends a TURBO_ST...
New
curtosis
Running mix deps.get in the sensor_hub directory fails with the following error: ** (Mix) No SSH public keys found in ~/.ssh. An ssh aut...
New
New
mert
AWDWR 7, page 152, page 153: Hello everyone, I’m a little bit lost on the hotwire part. I didn’t fully understand it. On page 152 @rub...
New
dtonhofer
@parrt In the context of Chapter 4.3, the grammar Java.g4, meant to parse Java 6 compilation units, no longer passes ANTLR (currently 4....
New
mcpierce
@mfazio23 I’ve applied the changes from Chapter 5 of the book and everything builds correctly and runs. But, when I try to start a game,...
New

Other popular topics Top

Devtalk
Reading something? Working on something? Planning something? Changing jobs even!? If you’re up for sharing, please let us know what you’...
1052 22283 402
New
PragmaticBookshelf
Machine learning can be intimidating, with its reliance on math and algorithms that most programmers don't encounter in their regular wor...
New
PragmaticBookshelf
Brace yourself for a fun challenge: build a photorealistic 3D renderer from scratch! In just a couple of weeks, build a ray tracer that r...
New
PragmaticBookshelf
From finance to artificial intelligence, genetic algorithms are a powerful tool with a wide array of applications. But you don't need an ...
New
PragmaticBookshelf
Rust is an exciting new programming language combining the power of C with memory safety, fearless concurrency, and productivity boosters...
New
PragmaticBookshelf
Tailwind CSS is an exciting new CSS framework that allows you to design your site by composing simple utility classes to create complex e...
New
husaindevelop
Inside our android webview app, we are trying to paste the copied content from another app eg (notes) using navigator.clipboard.readtext ...
New
First poster: bot
zig/http.zig at 7cf2cbb33ef34c1d211135f56d30fe23b6cacd42 · ziglang/zig. General-purpose programming language and toolchain for maintaini...
New
New
CommunityNews
A Brief Review of the Minisforum V3 AMD Tablet. Update: I have created an awesome-minisforum-v3 GitHub repository to list information fo...
New

Sub Categories: