Amazon's Blueprints let you make your own Alexa skills

Australian Echo owners can now build custom Alexa skills using Amazon's newly launched templating service: Blueprints.

Blueprints is a code-free way to create personalised skills for Alexa using a series of templates that just require you to fill in the blanks. These can include answers to simple questions, information for house guests, quizzes, stories, and more.

For example, you could create a chore chart that allows household members to hear their daily chores, log completed tasks, and get a score. After this is created, the skill can be accessed by saying "Alexa, open chore chart".

Another template can be prefilled with information about your house for guests. After asking Alexa to "open My Houseguest Guide", guests could then ask for information like where spare toilet paper is kept, how to turn on the TV, or the Wi-Fi password.

Skills are created through the Blueprints website, and are compatible with all Echo devices. They can be restricted to just your Amazon account, or shared with friends and family via email or instant message.

Read our review of the Amazon Echo here.

Alex Choros

Managing Editor + Group Telco Editor | X | Instagram | Threads | LinkedIn

Alex Choros is the Managing Editor of WhistleOut Australia and an award-winning journalist. He's been writing about consumer technology for over a decade and is an expert on the Australian telco sector, to the point where he knows far too many phone and internet plans by heart. In addition to leading the WhistleOut editorial team, Alex is responsible for ruining the office Sonos with his troubled taste in music.

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