Frequently Asked Questions
A Flash Briefing provides a quick overview of news and other content such as comedy, interviews, and lists that a customer discovers and enables in the Skills section of the Alexa app. Customers interact with their Alexa-enabled device and say things like, “Alexa, give me my Flash Briefing” or “Alexa, tell me the news”. Alexa either reads the latest text content or plays the latest audio content of that Flash Briefing skill. Content from Flash Briefing skills becomes part of a customer’s daily routine. They can catch up on the latest news as the get ready for work, school, or any other part of their day.
Flash briefing skill content is typically up to 10 minutes but we have found that shorter content between 2-5 minutes provide a better customer experience. It is a “briefing” so keep it brief. Example uses would be to provide your listeners with valuable snippets or clips from a podcast latest episode or what is new and happening with your brand. This provides a nice user experience listening to key points, headlines, events, and/or news.
Anyone, as long as they own or have the right to distribute original text or audio content that updates periodically.
Audio content files should be less than 10 minutes play time. Program loudness for Alexa should average -14 dB LUFS/LKFS and be between -9dB LUFS and -19 dB LUFS. The true-peak value should not exceed -2 dBFS.
Text content to be read by Alexa is currently limited to 4500 characters.
An Alexa custom skill is a skill which can be enabled by people on their Alexa devices. These skills can have custom functionality (we call them skillets), which provide a wide variety of interactions. Functionality (skillets) can provide a way to add someone to a mailing list. They can also give specific facts about an asked about topic or give random phrases. You can create a game. There are so many possibilities. Feel free to chat about tis with us, we love talking about new skill creation ideas.