My Amazon Alexa Skills Journey

Today (December 1, 2020) is the day Amazon Alexa is deprecating the Echo Buttons Skill API. In 2018, I published a couple Alexa skills for Echo Buttons (Color Stumper; Rochambeau Buttons) and even have two unopened sets of buttons which I won as prizes.

Receiving free Amazon Echo devices started when I attended AWS re:Invent 2016 with both the Echo Dot swag gift and winning a “full size” Echo as a finalist in that year’s AWS re:Invent Alexa Skill Contest with My First Published Alexa Skill: Mars Rover Mission.

That didn’t give me fame and fortune, but the hands-on coding and skill publishing did provide me the knowledge to achieve the AWS Certified Alexa Skill Builder - Specialty last week.

However, it was recently announced that cert is being retired in March 2021.

Retirements
AWS Certified Alexa Skill Builder - Specialty

Please note that we will be retiring the AWS Certified Alexa Skill Builder - Specialty exam (AXS-C01) and the corresponding practice exam (AXS-P01) on March 23, 2021. The last day to take the exam will be March 22, 2021.

AWS re:Invent 2020 starts today, and I’m off to learn something new.