Two Voice Devs

A surprising amount of major #VoiceFirst development requires accessing other resource files your Alexa skill or Google Assistant action may need. From audio files to your privacy policy, there are all sorts of files that need to be available, and it can sometimes be confusing when they're not. Allen and Mark discuss some of the most likely scenarios and where to start looking for solutions.

Mark and Allen are joined by friends from around the world via Twitter Space in a live episode to discuss what 2021 looked like for Amazon Alexa and Actions on Google Assistant development, and what 2022 looked like in the #VoiceFirst arena. 

Happy Holidays, everyone! Mark and Allen take a quick look back to see what gifts the #VoiceFirst developer community has gotten for Amazon Alexa and the Google Assistant.

While your first experiments with #VoiceFirst development may be a solo project, bigger and more elaborate projects will be done as part of a team. While we've often talked about the role of conversation designers as part of that team - what are the other team members? Allen and Mark share our experiences being part of different teams, both in how they work and how large they are, and what roles,...

Mark and Allen continue their dive into some of the words we use as we develop #VoiceFirst. In this episode: Jovo Multivocal ASR NLP NLU Intent Slot Slot type / Entity / Entity Type / Custom Entity Alexa Conversations Action Builder scenes Context Fallback No match In Skill Purchases Account Linking APL Display Templates Cards Web API for Games Interactive Canvas

We use a lot of strange terms in the #VoiceFirst world, so Mark and Allen start diving into some of what them mean and what they mean to us as developers.   In this episode:  Smart Speakers  Smart Displays  VoiceFirst  Ambient  Ubiquitous  Amazon Echo  Google Home  Amazon Alexa  Google Assistant  FarField microphone  Wake word  Perso...

We just want to take a moment to thank members of the #VoiceFirst community, those who make developing for Alexa and the Google Assistant better, and especially you, our listeners, for being here during the past year.

The concept of an Intent in the #VoiceFirst world seems straightforward - it is what a user is trying to express. But how Amazon Alexa has implemented the concept is slightly different than how the Google Assistant and Dialogflow have. Allen and Mark explore some of these differences as Allen works to prepare multivocal, a development library, for use with Alexa. Find out more: multivocal.info

It is difficult to believe that the Google Home launched just over 5 years ago, and Alexa just celebrated its 7th birthday. Allen reminisces about his first steps writing for the Google Assistant with info about how he created a #VoiceFirst presentation, where his voice changed the slides, and how things have evolved since.   Learn more:  http://ifttt.com  http://slides.com  ht...

Ever have an idea that you just can't shake? Mark had an idea for an APL processor based on the PostCSS processor, but it wasn't quite working out the way he expected it to, so he and Allen chat about it a bit. But in between when they first discuss it, and when they return to record another episode - he's resolved the problems and released it. Get some insight into both phases of this process. Mo...

Sometimes you get into a funk, and you need a little bit of self-care to just deal with a week. Maybe you like talking to a friend when you're in that kind of mood. For Mark and Allen, a chat is just the sort of thing to lift their spirits. Even more so when they're talking about coding and how to tackle a design problem for one of the #VoiceFirst open source projects they work on - Speech Markdow...

Mark and Allen continue talking about the most recent hardware announced from Amazon and how this may mark a change, for both Alexa and the Google Assistant, towards a more widget-focused environment. What do you think this means in a #VoiceFirst world?

Mark is joined by fellow Alexa Champion Darian Johnson to talk about Darian's various hardware projects, from a smart mirror to an Enterprise computer, and the latest hardware announcements from Amazon and Alexa, including the Echo Show 15 and their robot Astro.   For more about Darian and his projects: Pre-Launch Page for the Newt: https://www.crowdsupply.com/phambili/newt Newt technical blo...

Amazon has been going all-in with Alexa Presentation Language recently, and Mark has been taking a deeper dive into it and working on some custom components. Allen and Mark discuss some of the basics of APL. Sites mentioned: apl.ninja

That's "Phonemes And More", as in the SSML Phoneme tag, and some other tags that are now available for the Google Assistant. Allen and Mark discuss how these tags are useful for developers when trying to create great responses that sound "just right".  Websites mentioned: ssml.guru

Mark has updated his Picture Guesser skill with some new features, and he and Allen discuss what went into these new features. What developer components do you use to "plus up" your skills and actions?

Do your messages and prompts to your users just drone on and on? Are people begging your voice agent to stop talking and get back to work? Do you fall asleep testing your skill or action? Mark and Allen discuss how to make messages and prompts more exciting!

Inspired by a design presented at VoiceLunch US/Canada, Mark and Allen discuss how we would implement the design - consisting of keeping a "score" about user's to our skill or action, adjusting the score sometimes, and presenting different prompts based on this score. While the design seems straightforward, there are a number of interesting approaches  to the implementation.   How would...

Both the Google Assistant and Alexa have routines - ways you can create your own phrases to do things. But what do developers need to do to make routines better for their users? Mark and Allen explore the differences between the two platforms and what developers need to know.   Pages mentioned:  https://amzn.to/38zzFT9

Most voice skills and actions will need to work with a database or contact another service, and the most common way to do that is with an API. Web API calls are pretty common, but there are some tricks and issues when it comes to voice. Mark and Allen discuss their approaches to using APIs in their apps.

Conversations don't always go to plan, and your conversation designers may specify how to handle error recovery. But what are the basic tools we have to do so? Allen and Mark discuss what code to write to handle when things go wrong.

When we have a list of information to display on the web or on a mobile device, there are a variety of tools that we can use to manage that list. But when it comes to voice - how do we make sure that list sounds correct (and something a user will listen to)? Allen and Mark discuss the tools that developers have to manage lists.

Recently, Amazon announced the latest class of Alexa Champions, and Google announced the first GDEs for a new project category. Outstanding achievements for those named... But what are the Alexa Champions and Google GDEs? Allen (a GDE in five program areas) and Mark (an Alexa Champion and Bixby Premiere Developer) discuss what these programs are and how GDEs and Champions are expected to give back...

At "Alexa Live" last week, Amazon bombarded us with a pile of new features that developers will soon be able to take advantage of. Mark and Allen talk about which features jumped out at them, and what they're looking forward to learning more about. Which features are you most interested in? https://developer.amazon.com/en-US/alexa/alexa-live/release-roundup

Mark and Allen, with a little help from our friends, celebrate one year of Two Voice Devs by looking back at some of the things that have stood out for us in the past year.   Most of all, however, we want to thank all of you for watching, listening, and sending us feedback. Here's to the next year!