Wrapping Up

Not all Alexa skills are self-contained applications. Much like many browser-based Javascript applications, Alexa skills might be a front end to one or more backend services.

Among the services offered by the Alexa platform is the unified preference service, a service that provides some essential information about the user and the settings for the device they are using. Using the unified preference service, your skill can fetch a user’s name, phone number, or email address—as long as the user grants permission for the skill to do so by responding to a permissions consent card displayed in the Alexa companion application.

Similarly, Alexa skills can consume services hosted outside of themselves, including REST services that are secured with OAuth 2. Account linking enables a skill to prompt the user with an account linking card in the Alexa companion application, with which they can link their external account to their Alexa profile and allow a skill to perform operations in the external service on their behalf.

The Star Port 75 Travel skill is really starting to take shape. With what we applied in this chapter, it now knows its users by name and schedules their interplanetary excursions. It almost feels as if we could really use it to plan our next vacation to Mercury. (Be sure to pack lots of sunscreen!)

In the next chapter, we’re going to do something a little different by learning how to apply the Speech Synthesis Markup Language (SSML) to change how Alexa speaks, adding a little personality to her responses and making her seem even less machine-like.