Alexa Skill Availability

Posted on
Fri Jun 18, 2021 8:47 am
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Alexa Skill Availability

Please read through all posts in this topic before contacting support about skill availability.

Skill Status by Language/Locale:
Available:
  • English US
  • English CA
  • English UK
  • English AU
Unvailable:
  • German
  • French
  • Italian
  • Spanish

Note: due to some distribution requirements that we weren't aware of during the beta test phase, the Indigo Alexa skill is currently unavailable in all Alexa skill stores worldwide. We are working through the issues with Amazon as quickly as their support turnaround allows (usually 24 hours per request).

Making it available in locales where English is not the spoken language will take more time, as we need to have some interaction directly with Amazon support and their turnaround time isn't the greatest.

Please read through this topic for updates as we work through these issues.

Jay (Indigo Support)
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Posted on
Fri Jun 18, 2021 10:24 am
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Update: Alexa Skill Availability

We know what we need to do to get all English regions deployed, but unfortunately it's going to require us to remove the US skill. We've requested this, but if past experience is any indication it could take up to 24 hours for Amazon to comply.

Next, we will need to rebuild and retest to make sure the change we had to make worked correctly. If so, then we will submit for certification again. This will take another 24 hours.

Moving at the glacial pace of a typical bureaucracy, but doing it as quickly as we can from our side. Your patience is greatly appreciated.

Jay (Indigo Support)
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Posted on
Fri Jun 18, 2021 4:52 pm
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Update: Alexa Skill Availability

Amazon has yet to remove the current skill. Given that this is Friday evening, even if they do remove it by end of day, they won't likely do any further certification until Monday.

When the skill is removed, you won't have access to it any longer, so it will just stop working. Just want to keep everyone in the loop.

Jay (Indigo Support)
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Posted on
Mon Jun 21, 2021 8:56 am
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Re: Alexa Skill Availability

The skill is still live, so we can't test the modifications needed to get it working in all english speaking regions. We did receive a reply to a help ticket with some questions, but it was basically: I've forwarded it on to someone else and it may take a while (paraphrased).

We'll continue to post updates on this thread. We appreciate your patience.

We believe to get the skill approved in non-english speaking regions, we'll likely have to do some localization. If you are fluent in German, French, Italian or Spanish (along with English) and are willing to do some translations for us please contact us at support@indigodomo.com.

Jay (Indigo Support)
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Posted on
Mon Jun 21, 2021 5:22 pm
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Re: Alexa Skill Availability

Amazon has FINALLY pulled our skill, so we can now start testing the change that will hopefully allow us to distribute to all english speaking locales.

Again, thanks for your patience as we work through these issues.

Jay (Indigo Support)
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Posted on
Tue Jun 22, 2021 2:06 pm
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Re: Alexa Skill Availability

Current status: Amazon removed our skill completely (in all regions including the US) as requested, but unfortunately we still can't build the changes that they wanted us to make despite not having a live skill:

Skill Builder wrote:
You cannot change the invocation name for a live skill. Error code: InvalidStageInvocationNameChange


We have contacted them again, but their developer support turnaround time seems to be a minimum of 24 hours (and doesn't include weekends). We are doing everything we possibly can to work through these issues but are completely constrained by Amazon's turnaround times.

Thanks for your patience.

Jay (Indigo Support)
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Posted on
Wed Jun 23, 2021 4:19 pm
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Re: Alexa Skill Availability

We were able to submit the skill today with some changes which we hope will certify in English regions (US, CA, UK, AU). We hope to hear back sometime tomorrow morning on that submission.

In the meantime, we continue to work on the necessary steps to localize for the other non-english regions. We have volunteers to help with the German and Spanish translations but we still need some volunteers for French and Italian. Please contact us via email (support@indigodomo.com) if you are fluent in English and one of those languages.

Jay (Indigo Support)
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Posted on
Fri Jun 25, 2021 9:39 am
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Re: Alexa Skill Availability

Amazon certified the skill in the following English speaking locales: US, CA, UK, AU. You should now be able to find it in your respective skill stores.

We are working hard on getting other languages supported as Amazon won't certify any other region in English (only in the native language). So we're working on getting all parts of the solution localized into those languages. We appreciate your patience as we work through the localization.

We're still looking for a volunteer to help with the French translation. If you are fluent in English and French and would like to assist, send us an email (support@indigodomo.com).

Jay (Indigo Support)
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Posted on
Mon Aug 23, 2021 9:32 am
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Re: Alexa Skill Availability

The Indigo Smart Home skill should now be available in the Alexa stores for France, Germany, Italy, Mexico and Spain. It may also be available in other regions where the native language is in one of those languages. With this skill you can control all of your publishable Indigo devices as described in the Smart Home Skill section of the Alexa Plugin documentation.

Unfortunately, due to localization complexity, the custom skill isn't available in these regions. As most of you know, we are a 2 man operation in the US, and while we gave it a good try (thanks for the volunteers who did translations for us), we just can't commit the time and the necessary extra resources needed to support the custom skill in languages other than English. It turns out to be a task that requires not only significant time from us. Fortunately, the primary use for the custom skill is to execute action groups. This can be accomplished via the use of a Virtual On/Off device (which executes action groups).

If you live in one of those regions and can't find the skill in your store, please let us know and we'll work with Amazon to figure out why it's not available.

Jay (Indigo Support)
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