

There is a short learning curve with API.AI, and the interface takes a little getting used to, but it works pretty well. Google requires you to use this platform to create your action.

Google, on the other hand, bought API.AI in September 2016, right before it released Home. Amazon has a barebones web form that it has built specific to Alexa skills.
#VOICE ACTIONS API SOFTWARE#
One notable difference between developing skills for Alexa and actions for Google Home is the software you use to set up the actual product. Targeting Mobile Users Through Google AdWords.Is Your Responsive Design Working? Google Analytics Will Tell You.Intrusive Interstitials: Guidelines To Avoiding Google’s Penalty.After this exercise, you will better understand voice services and begin your path to programming actions for Google Home. Below, I’ve detailed steps to build a custom mad lib action, and I’ve explained why certain steps are important and ultimately how they fit into the voice services world.
#VOICE ACTIONS API HOW TO#
I’ll use this game to show you how to build your own action for Google Home. Mad Libs is a game in which one player prompts others for a list of words to substitute for blanks in a story, before reading the - often comical or nonsensical - story aloud. If you have a Google Home, you may have played with its prebuilt mad libs. I checked it out and found that creating and deploying a basic Google action is extremely simple.

Now that Google Home is out in the market, Google has its own platform for you to build custom interactions, similar to skills, called “ actions”. I’ve really enjoyed learning how to build my own skills for Alexa. For the Amazon Echo, you can create what are called “skills”, which allow you to build custom interactions when speaking to the device. I already have the Amazon Echo, and as Director of Technology at thirteen23, I love tinkering with software for new products. If you don’t already know, Google Home is a voice-activated speaker powered by Google Assistant and is a competing product to Amazon’s line of Alexa products. For the holidays, the owner of (and my boss at) thirteen23 gave each employee a Google Home device.
