AMAZON Alexa customers are about to lose vital access to shopping and to-do list apps.
Tech pros are warning the sudden shut-down will be disruptive to users.
Shopping and to-do list apps such as AnyList and Todoist will stop working with Alexa voice commands on July 1, reported The Verge.
Amazon has told the developers that the only way they can continue providing the integrated service is to develop a new custom skill.
“Today, if you enable their Alexa skills, third-party apps can sync with lists in the Alexa app and show that data in their app,” said the tech experts.
But, in just a month’s time, Alexa users will no longer be able to access these shopping list features.
Amazon highlighted the change on its Alexa developer documentation page.
“Starting July 1, 2024, you will no longer be able to use list skills or the list management REST API to access Alexa lists, i.e., the Alexa shopping and to-do lists, in your skills or apps,” said the tech provider.
Instead, it recommends people use other ways to build custom voice experiences.
Amazon has also provided a link to an online site outlining how best to access customer lists.
What is Alexa?
If you’ve never heard of Alexa, here’s what you need to know…
- Alexa is an “intelligent” personal assistant built by Amazon.
- You can find her on several different devices, including Amazon’s Echo speakers.
- Alexa responds to voice commands, and can talk back to you.
- She can perform thousands of different tasks, including telling you about the news or weather.
- But she can do more complex things too, like ordering a pizza or arranging an Uber taxi pick-up.
- To activate Alexa, you need to say “Alexa” to an Amazon Echo speaker.
- Because she’s powered by artificial intelligence, Alexa is constantly getting smarter.
- Alexa will also get more used to your voice, and better understand what you want her to do over time.
An Amazon spokesperson told The Verge that developers can still integrate Alexa voice control of lists into their apps.
But, they won’t have access to Alexa lists from July 1.
“We are making some changes to the way that developers build lists,” said Sarah Zonouzi of Amazon PR.
“Developers can integrate our custom voice interaction model into their skill to enable voice control and management of lists.”
Jeff Hunter, CEO of AnyList, confirmed that a custom skill with a custom voice interaction would be built – hopefully by July 1.
However, he added that he was disappointed at Amazon’s decision to “kill the list skill API, especially on such short notice.”
DISRUPTION
He also warned that the change would cause disruption to customers.
Also, it won’t be as easy to use the tweaked third-party app from July 1.
That’s because users will need to say “tell Anylist to…”
If they forget to do so, their items will not be synced to Anylist.
A spokesman for Todoist said it wouldn’t make any changes as per Amazon’s request.
“We’ve made the difficult decision to sunset our Alexa integration by July 1, 2024,” said Omar Samuels.