What Are Slots in Alexa Skills?

If you’re developing Alexa skills, then you’ve probably come across the term “slots”. Slots are an important part of creating custom intents in your Alexa skill, and they allow you to capture specific pieces of information from the user’s utterance. In this article, we’ll explore what slots are, why they’re important, and how you can use them to create more effective and engaging Alexa skills.

What Are Slots?

In simple terms, a slot is a variable that represents a piece of information that you want to capture from the user’s utterance. For example, if your skill is a weather app and the user says “what’s the weather like in New York?

“, then you might want to capture the city name “New York” as a slot. You can then use this slot value in your skill logic to provide a customized response based on the user’s input.

Why Are Slots Important?

Slots are important because they allow you to create more personalized and engaging experiences for your users. Without slots, your skill would be limited to simple yes or no responses or generic responses that don’t take into account specific details about the user’s inquiry.

With slots, you can capture specific pieces of information that allow your skill to provide more Targeted responses. For example, if your skill is a recipe app and the user says “I want to make lasagna”, then by capturing the slot values for ingredients like noodles, sauce, and cheese, your skill can provide step-by-step instructions tailored to their specific ingredients.

How Do You Use Slots?

To use slots in your Alexa skill, you first need to define them in your intent schema. The intent schema is essentially a blueprint for how your skill will handle different types of requests from users. In it, you define each custom intent for your skill along with any associated slots.

Here’s an example intent schema for a weather app that captures the user’s requested location:

“`
{
“intents”: [
{
“name”: “GetWeatherIntent”,
“slots”: [
{
“name”: “Location”,
“type”: “Amazon.US_CITY”
}
] }
] }
“`

In this example, we’ve defined a custom intent called GetWeatherIntent, which captures a single slot called Location. The slot type is set to Amazon.US_CITY, which is a built-in slot type that recognizes city names in the United States.

Once you’ve defined your slots in the intent schema, you can then use them in your skill logic by accessing the slot value provided by the Alexa service. Here’s an example of how you might handle the GetWeatherIntent in your skill code:

“`
function handleGetWeatherIntent(request, response) {
const location = request.intent.slots.Location.value;

// Use the location value to fetch weather data from an API
// ..

response.say(`The weather in ${location} is currently ${weatherData.temperature} degrees.`);
}
“`

In this example, we’re using the location slot value to fetch weather data from an API and provide a customized response to the user based on their requested location.

Conclusion

Slots are an essential part of creating engaging and personalized Alexa skills. By capturing specific pieces of information from the user’s utterance, you can provide more Targeted responses that meet their specific needs. Whether you’re building a weather app or a recipe app, understanding how to use slots effectively will help you create better experiences for your users.