There are multiple skills that use account linking in the Alexa catalog which need a one-time account linking with user details to provide access and a personalized experience. It is essential that for such skills, while users are accessing the intent which requires account linking and the account linking has not been completed, the skill should direct the user on the next steps to help them complete account linking.
Let’s look at the below example:
User: “Alexa open pizza story and take my order”
Skill: “You must authenticate with your Amazon Account to use this skill. I have sent instructions on how to do this in your Alexa App”
Voice guidance should always redirect the user to the home/activity section of Alexa app and then use the link account card for account linking process. This skill executes that and hence is an example of a good user experience. It is to be noted that these cards are available only for custom API skills.
Let’s have a look at another example:
User: “Alexa open pizza story and take my order”
Skill: “We could not find your account. Please check if your amazon account has been linked properly”
This skill does not provide navigational steps on how to check if account linking has been linked properly. This is a bad user experience and such skills will be failed in certification.
Other fail examples are provided below:
User: “Alexa open pizza story and take my order”
Skill: “Authorization failed! Please relink your account”
User: “Alexa open pizza story and take my order”
Skill: “The account has not been linked. Please enable and disable the skill to link the account”
If the voice guidance prompts users to go to the settings and then link their account, we will fail for such responses as well as skill enablement is validated by our platform and not the voice guidance to find the link account card.
How to ensure a seamless account linking experience for the user:
The skill TTS response must inform the user to go to Alexa app/companion app/home card/Activity/skill settings section to link the account. The skill description should also clearly explain the steps and information necessary to successfully link the accounts. We should ensure that in the developer console while building the skill, we review the Account Linking page for the skill and verify that account linking is configured correctly. The “Do you allow users to create an account or link to an existing account with you?” option should be enabled. The Authorization URL must be set to the login page for the service.
Below is a quick checklist to ensure a great account linking experience while building skills:
- When the user invokes an intent that requires authorization, the skill should successfully authenticate and complete the request. It should direct the user to go to Alexa app/companion app/home card/Activity/skill settings section to link the account/
- We should ensure that the skill returns the LinkAccount card if a user invokes an intent that requires authorization, but has not yet linked their account.
- All clickable links on the login page should navigate to valid and relevant pages. None of the clickable links should open JavaScript alerts or popup windows.
- The login page for the skill must be displayed correctly.
- Complete a check before submitting the skill for certification if you can successfully log in using an account with the service. After connecting the accounts, you can invoke each intent that requires authentication.
- Each intent that does not require authentication should work perfectly even when accounts are not linked.
- Each intent that does require authentication should return output speech telling the user what to do, and a Link Account card. It should also verify the card in the Alexa app.
Happy skill building!
