Amazon has expanded the feature set available to Alexa Skill developers to include the ability to stream audio. Prior to this additions, developers could only include short audio clips in their Alexa Skills. This was used most commonly for intro sounds and short sound effects within games. The ability to stream audio and control streaming audio playback opens Alexa enabled devices to a new bread of Alexa Skills. Theoretically, a streaming music service could build an Alexa Skill that grants access to the service’s entire library. Prior to this change, streaming services needed to be integrated into Alexa’s default abilities, like when Spotify arrived on the Amazon Echo, but now it will require much less integration.
Live streaming audio is also now supported, so any live content provider, like a radio station, can build a dedicated Alexa Skill for their stream, instead of relying on services like TuneIn to stream their content. Similarly, you can probably expect to see Alexa Skills for individual podcasts released in the coming months. These should provide a better user experience than requesting podcasts from services like iHeartRadio.
Theoretically someone could create a skill to stream Google Play music, right? I mean… if the powers that be allowed such a thing, it would be possible to do now?
An Alexa Skill can now technically do it, but I don’t think there is an API for Google Play Music, so Google themselves would have to do it. And if Google decides that’s something they want to do, they’ll probably just work with Amazon and get Google Play Music integrated into Alexa by default, the way Spotify and Pandora are integrated.
This is great news!