Learn how we made our CRISPx Alexa Briefing Skill

What is an Alexa Flash Briefing?

The Alexa Flash Briefing delivers news and information via content that a user is subscribed to within the Alexa app. It’s easy to create your own custom flash briefing via the Alexa Skills Kit.

The Alexa Skills Kit (ASK) is a collection of self-service APIs, tools, documentation, and code samples that makes it fast and easy for you to add skills to Alexa. ASK enables designers, developers, and brands to build engaging skills and reach customers through tens of millions of Alexa-enabled devices. With ASK, you can leverage Amazon’s knowledge and pioneering work in the field of voice design.

What You’ll Need

Amazon Developer Account (it’s free)
Feed source (RSS or JSON)

In our Flash Briefing, we wanted to create a daily text-based feed that would contain CRISPx tips and tricks about design, marketing, packaging and more.

The Basic Steps

Sign up for Amazon Developer Account
Set up RSS feed
Add a new Alexa Skill
Fill out skill information
Submit for certification and wait
Add the skill to your Alexa App once it passes certification

Alexa Flash Briefing Skill API: https://developer.amazon.com/alexa-skills-kit/flash-briefing

We decided to keep it simple and use our WordPress powered website to create the RSS feed. WordPress features a number of built-in feeds. We created a new post category called “tips” for the basis for our RSS feed content.

The WordPress codex provides a comprehensive guide of all the various built-in feeds available through the platform.

Our feed url: https://crispx.com/category/tips/feed

We whipped up our first post, then jumped into the Amazon Developer Account to start building our custom flash briefing skill.