Taking on One of Alexa’s Biggest Problems
Although Alexa has undeniably been a big hit, skills discovery continues to be a problem for users of the AI voice assistant.
Unfortunately, very few of these skills are getting the visibility they need. As a result, there are a lot of exciting Alexa skills gathering dust in the Skills Store while users continue to use Alexa for only basic tasks.
Widgets for Skills
Featured Skill Cards
With featured skills cards, Alexa users will be able to interact with some select skills right from their home screens. The idea is to give third-party skill developers a way to entice, engage, and acquire customers for their skills without waiting to be discovered organically.
Although featured skill cards are another brilliant attempt at taking on Alexa’s skill discovery problem, only Echo Show owners will feel any potential impact.
Personalized Skills Suggestions
Skills Suggestions Via Popular Phrases
Soon, customers will get skills suggested to them as part of Alexa’s response whenever they use a discovery-oriented phrase. Phrases like “Alexa, I need a workout” or “Alexa, let’s play a game” will soon trigger skill suggestions since they are discovery-oriented.
Previous Attempts to Solve the Problem
While this was helpful to some extent, other features like Alexa’s notorious “By the way..” suggestion wasn’t well-received by all users. Alexa would intermittently suggest skills—some of which were irrelevant to the context—even after a user had ended a conversation with the voice assistant. Many Alexa users are now seeking ways to disable the feature, effectively defeating its purpose.
