Search code examples
alexa-skills-kitalexa-voice-servicealexa-slot

Can Amazon Echo (Alexa) recognize custom brands?


I was asked to write a Skill in which users have to ask for a specific product.

Examples:

  • Alexa, what is the price of the Fujifilm Instax Mini 7S Camera?
  • Alexa, how many TOSTITOS® Tortilla Chips are left?

Question: Can I add custom brands / product names to Alexa's vocabulary? I guess Amazon can recognize some products, but how about new brands that amazon hasn't seen yet?

If this can't be done, it makes no sense of building that Skill. Is there any alternative? Did Google solve this problem in Google home?

Thanks!


Solution

  • Alexa skills has some predefined slots which could help you https://developer.amazon.com/docs/custom-skills/slot-type-reference.html#list-slot-types, I'm not sure how specific you need it by your example Fujifilm Instax Mini 7S Camera, but still it would be the easiest way.

    If you need more, or different, brands you can also check in that link how to have a slot with custom values, pretty much you define that in the developers console where you configure your Skill