User Guide

Standfirst Alexa Management

Registering Your Flash Briefing Skill

To run a Flash Briefing, you need to register with Amazon. This document describes the process.

If you’re on an Enterprise Plan, Interconnect can manage your Alexa Flash Briefing Skill entirely for you under a contract. Please contact us if you need more information from an account manager. 

Here is a brief guide on the steps to setting up a Flash Briefing, in full, for those of you managing your own Skill:

  1. Create an Amazon Developer Account at https://developer.amazon.com/.

  2. Once you’ve registered:

    1. Log in to the developer console.

    2. Click the “Create Skill” button.

    3. Enter the name for your skill. This is what will appear to customers in the Alexa App. Make sure the name is correct for your organisation - don’t use words like “Amazon” or “Alexa” in there - keep it pure. If you’re, say, the Southend Examiner, call it “Southend Examiner Daily Brief”, for example.

    4. In the Default language drop-down, choose the language for your skill. A Flash Briefing skill targets a single language and you cannot change the language once you select it. In addition, a skill preamble, error message, descriptions and content should be in the language selected for the skill.

    5. Select the Flash Briefing pre-built model, then click Create skill. The Flash Briefing model is predefined and English-speaking customers would get their flash briefing by saying phrases like the following: “Alexa, what’s my Flash Briefing?”, “Alexa, what’s in the news?”

    6. In “Feed,” you will need to provide the URL of the Chennel’s feed. You can get this from the Standfirst application by going to Channels and then selecting Edit on the Channel you’re using for this Flash Briefing - in there you will see the Feed URL and a handy button to copy the URL to your clipboard:

Important: you should ensure you’re aware of the limitations and risks involved in either managing your own developer account for Alexa, or in allowing a third party such as ourselves to be the owning developers of a skill. If you need more information, please discuss with your account manager.