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The skills (usually) must follow a specific syntax involving the word "ask". So, for example, if you're using the Domino's skill to buy pizza, you say something

The skills (usually) must follow a specific syntax involving the word "ask". So, for example, if you're using the Domino's skill to buy pizza, you say something like "Alexa, open [pizza brand] and place my Easy Order", or "Alexa, ask [pizza brand] to track my order." which are significantly more unwieldy (and more importantly, hard to remember) than "Alexa, order a pizza." I frequently have to chain several, distinct "Alexa" commands together to achieve my desired end state. For example, if I want to turn on all the lights in my house, set their brightnesses to 100%, and set their colors to soft white, I have to send that as three distinct commands. Being able to create a shortcut, such as "Alexa, Lumos" or whatever would save roughly 30 seconds per instance. Edit: I forgot to mention that some larger skills are exempt from this, once Amazon has added additional integrations. For example, for my thermostat, I can say "Alexa, set the AC to 78" rather than "Alexa, ask [brand] to set the temperature to 78". I still haven't discovered the special syntax to set the AC to Away mode yet.

TeMPOraL 8y ago
> which are significantly more unwieldy (and more importantly, hard to remember) And also, they're kind of brainwashing users as well. You find yourself repeating a commercial brand's name out loud, all the time. I'm sure third parties love it.
grahamburger 8y ago
> Being able to create a shortcut, such as "Alexa, Lumos" You can do exactly this. I have several set up for my house. They're called 'routines' and can be triggered either with 'Alexa, [keyword]' or at a specific time of day. You can also chain multiple commands together without saying the wakeword each time. For example 'Alexa, turn on downstairs lights. Downstairs lights white.' You have to enable this feature in the settings so that it will continue to listen briefly after the previous command.

TeMPOraL 8y ago

> which are significantly more unwieldy (and more importantly, hard to remember) And also, they're kind of brainwashing users as well. You find yourself repeating a commercial brand's name out loud, all the time. I'm sure third parties love it.

grahamburger 8y ago

> Being able to create a shortcut, such as "Alexa, Lumos" You can do exactly this. I have several set up for my house. They're called 'routines' and can be triggered either with 'Alexa, [keyword]' or at a specific time of day. You can also chain multiple commands together without saying the wakeword each time. For example 'Alexa, turn on downstairs lights. Downstairs lights white.' You have to enable this feature in the settings so that it will continue to listen briefly after the previous command.