Amazon's Alexa Store now allows some users to create and share skills

Image credit: Amazon

Amazon has opened up its US Alexa Store to allow anyone to publish and share Alexa skills created with its 'Blueprints' program.

So far, there's no word on when this feature will be rolled out to the UK and Australia, but the US launch alone will likely see an influx of new skills becoming available for the voice assistant. 

As well as opening up the Alexa Store to have-a-go skill-makers, Amazon is set to launch a number of new Blueprints templates aimed at bloggers and organizations. 

Skills for days

Blueprints, which was launched last year, allows anyone to make their own skills without the need to be a coding genius, thanks to series of walkthrough templates that allow anyone to knock up a personalized Skill in just a few moments. Save it, send it to the cloud, and within a few minutes, it's ready to use with your Echo speaker.

Using these templates, you can create skills as varied as voice-enabled games, educational tools, and stories to be read aloud by Alexa – and all you need to do is fill out a form with all the features you want your skill to have. 

Via Engadget

Olivia Tambini

Olivia was previously TechRadar's Senior Editor - Home Entertainment, covering everything from headphones to TVs. Based in London, she's a popular music graduate who worked in the music industry before finding her calling in journalism. She's previously been interviewed on BBC Radio 5 Live on the subject of multi-room audio, chaired panel discussions on diversity in music festival lineups, and her bylines include T3, Stereoboard, What to Watch, Top Ten Reviews, Creative Bloq, and Croco Magazine. Olivia now has a career in PR.