We’re excited to announce an important Alexa Voice Service (AVS) API update that now enables you to build voice-activated products that respond to the “Alexa” wake word. The update includes new hands-free speech recognition capabilities and a “cloud endpointing” feature that automatically detects end-of-user speech in the cloud. Best of all, these capabilities are available through the existing v20160207 API—no upgrades needed.
Wow. I didn't see this coming, but it is fantastic. Question though - how does it play with the AVS terms of use that state (last time I looked) that no-one could sell an AVS-based product incorporating hands-free activation without negotiating with Amazon. Is that still the case?
Anyway, a big thanks to Amazon for this. I'm off to fire up my Raspberry Pi...
We've changed our TOS. As long as you follow our recommendations here: https://developer.amazon.com/public/solutions/alexa/alexa-voice-service/content/alexa-voice-service-functional-design-guide#wake-word-enabled-products, you're now free to use AVS with the Alexa wake word!
Clarification on "No updates needed" - you don't need to change the version of the API, but you do need to update your client to take advantage of these new features. Check out our new sample app on Github!
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