When you create a custom Alexa skill, you are required to give an invocation name to be able to invoke and start interacting with a skill. An invocation name should be easy to pronounce, simple and legible.
Is it recommended that the skill’s invocation name should define or relate to the nature and functionality of the skill.
When choosing an invocation name, ask the following questions:
- Does the invocation name for my skill define or give an idea of my skill’s functionality to the customer?
- Is my invocation name easy to pronounce?
- Does it fit correctly and clearly with the Alexa Launch phrases (e.g. “launch”, “ask”, “tell”, “load”, “begin”)?
Remember to read through the Invocation name requirements when choosing a good invocation name.
Make sure to follow the below basic guidelines, which will help you in choosing the invocation name:
- The invocation name must not infringe on the intellectual property right of a brand or any entity. Check out the Policy Testing for an Alexa Skill documentation for more details. Often brands, entities and people’s names can lead to rejection of a skill
- Do not keep a one-word invocation name, unless you have the rights of ownership of a unique brand/intellectual property that correlates
- Invocation names that include names of people or places (for example, "molly", "Seattle") are not allowed, unless they contain other words (for example, "molly's horoscope," "Seattle spotlight," "Sam’s market")
- Two-word invocation names are not allowed if one of the words is a definite article ("the"), indefinite article ("a", "an") or a preposition ("for", "to", "of," "about," "up," "by," "at," "off," "with")
- While choosing an invocation name in an abbreviation form (e.g. “abc skill”), make sure that the abbreviated form is separate (e.g. “a b c radio” OR “a. b. c. skill”). The reason behind using the correct form while using abbreviation separately is because “abc” would be considered a single pronounceable word, whereas using “a b c” OR “a. b. c.” is the correct way for defining an invocation name if using an abbreviation
It’s important to remember that you can change the invocation multiple times during the development stage of the skill, but once the skill is certified, published and live, you cannot change the invocation name.
For more in-depth information on what are the requirements for a good invocation name, you can our go through our Tech Doc.
