How To Prototype an Alexa Skill in Two Minutes

It’s been awhile since I talked about our gateway drug to Alexa Skill building — the Ubi Portal skill. With this skill, you can create a mock custom Alexa skill in two minutes. If you have an API, you can quickly test accessing it through an Alexa product.

What you’ll need:

• An Echo (any of them) or, if you don’t have one, an Android phone and the Ubi App
• A free account at portal.theubi.com
• Enabling the Ubi Portal Skill at alexa.amazon.com

Next…

1. Log in to portal.theubi.com
2. Select “Lessons” and click New Lesson
3. For trigger, select Alexa Utterance
4. Enter the text for your custom phrase (e.g. “open sesame”)
5. Select an action (a voice response, text message, email, HTTP request) and enter the information. BONUS: you can enter more than one.
6. Click Save to Ubi
7. Back at your Echo, say “Ask Portal” or “Tell Portal” and whatever you entered for your custom phrase
8. Revel in the glory of your mock skill!

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