10 reasons to make your skill for voice assistant

The number of voice applications for Alice, Google Assistant, Maroussi and others like them is growing rapidly. Who and why develops skills, skills, actions? Someone does it to order, someone - in the hope of donating users or Alice's prize. What is the enthusiasm of other authors on? By the example of my own manufacturing skills, I share my motives and suggest discussing this topic.

Developing a voice application is a time-consuming task. Usually, the creator has several reasons to invest his time in it. The order of the reasons in the list below is random.

Reason # 1. Leveling up and PR skills of the developer

The absence of a customer gives freedom to experiment. For the skill “ One, Two, Three! Multiplayer game ”I chose unfamiliar technologies. He shared the experience gained during development on the hub - and even received a job offer from the reader.

Reason number 2. Prizes and recognition at hackathons

Using chatbot designers to develop a spectacular skill for a hackathon is not so difficult. The action “Plus-minus voice list ” I made for the hackathon for developing Google-action games, where I had a great time and got a nice backpack and other buns for the 2nd place.

Reason number 3. Test

Skills can be quickly appreciated. The Vojt-Kampf test skill was made according to the requirements of the future employer, as a test task. Other skills ready at that time became a good proof of competence.

Reason number 4. Tool for yourself

You can use the skill yourself. In some cases, the voice interface is really convenient. Skill “ Fizruk, count! ”I regularly use it myself when I do exercises to the music and score from the Irbis column.

Reason number 5. Data collection

Voice assist users are a good source of inquiries. In the skill and action “ People’s Dialogues ”, I gave users the opportunity to independently fill in the knowledge base of the bot and accumulated a dataset of dialogs with interesting questions and answers to them.

Reason # 6. Promotion of other projects

Voice applications are another channel that is logical to use to interact with users of existing services. The “ Live Retelling ” skill is an additional channel for users of the pet project of the same name, which I started a lot earlier.

Reason number 7. Communication and Acquaintance

The community of developers of voice applications consists of interesting, enthusiastic people. Skill “ KVN. Biathlon ”was made as part of the beta testing of the new Yandex.Alisa functionality, while communicating with the creators of the assistant and other enthusiasts.

Reason number 8. Checking Ideas

The application in the voice assistant can be demonstrated to a large audience and receive feedback. The skill, and then the action, “ Round Square Video Game ” was created to test the idea of ​​voice-controlled video games. The idea was published on a habr , and then presented on a hackathon as part of a conference of conversational artificial intelligence.

Reason number 9. Self expression

Access to the audience is important for creative people who can learn new formats of interaction. In the skill “ The Meaning of the Life of a Voice Assistant ” I published an essay of my own composition. This audio story is available to all Yandex.Alice users, even without subscribing to a music service.

Reason number 10. Training others

Facilitated by visual designers, the entrance to the programming of voice applications allows you to use them for educational purposes. I drew my girlfriend, who became interested in designing voice interfaces, to create the “ Association for a Time ” skill . Participation in a joint project gave her additional motivation and experience.

And what inspired you to create your own skill for voice assistants? I suggest the authors of skills and action take part in a small survey for reasons as well as the level of training as a programmer. Add your own options in the comments.