I am confused by the ProactiveEvents API and notifications. In the Alexa Skills documentation, I found reference to a QuoteMaker application. If I enable this application, I can generate a notification and when I ask Alexa, “What are my Notifications?” Alexa will read the quote generated by the application. In trying to replicate this functionality, I found the “/v1/skillmessages/users/<userId>.“ endpoint. If I invoke this endpoint, my skill gets a Messaging.MessageReceived" event notification, but no notification is generated to the user. It seems the only thing I can do with this endpoint is to persist the message in my database and then read it to the user when they invoke my skill.
Looking further, I found the ProactiveEvents API and the endpoint, “/v1/proactiveEvents/stages.” This allows me to generate notification templates and I can indeed generate a notification template that is read to the user, such as “You have 1 new unread from John Smith.” My question is, what is the proper workflow after this? Should the user open my skill and then I have the skill read the message to them? Is there no way to duplicate the functionality of the Quote Maker application where it will read the message itself in the notifications window? If so, how does the Quote Maker application currently do it? Was the functionality deprecated at some point?
Any insights you can provide would be appreciated.
