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I'm reading the docs for Alexa Skills and there seems to be a fallback intent https://developer.amazon.com/docs/custom-skills/standard-built-in-intents.html#fallback

I've turned it on in my app (added to the list of intents), but when I enter an unknown command in the test area (either by voice or by typing) all I'm getting is an annoying error sound and no request is sent to my server. I was expecting to receive an Amazon.FallbackIntent request on my server.

Avision
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  • Did you try it with the invocation name ? Like Ask invocation name, {unknown command} ? – Guru May 21 '18 at 14:02
  • If I do it that way, Alexa either says it doesn't understand or it returns something else from its own set of intents, unrelated to mine – Avision May 23 '18 at 06:30
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    Sometime the simulator will not work properly. and we never know why. Try it on a device – Guru May 23 '18 at 14:22
  • Thanks for the advice, but it's hard to do fast iterations on a device. It seems that the fallback intent is relatively new so my current estimation is that this is a bug on Amazon's end. I'm working with Google Assistant for the time being, hopefully they will fix it somehow – Avision May 24 '18 at 10:11
  • what locale are you using in your skill? – German Sep 03 '18 at 21:47
  • @German I don't remember but I used the default (probably en-us) – Avision Sep 08 '18 at 17:58

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UPDATE: more complete answer here: Why does the Fallback Intent not get called if you say ONE random word?

FallbackIntent is designed to catch out-of-domain requests when you're in your skill session. From what you describe it sounds that you're typing garbage in the simulator before opening your skill. In order to test it, open your skill in the simulator ("alexa open xxxxx"), respond from the backend without closing the session and then try entering/saying garbage.

German
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    I've been trying to invoke it from within my skill, naturally :) Moreover - when I said an unrecognized utterance, the simulator made a short sound, and exited the skill without saying anything. – Avision Sep 08 '18 at 18:00
  • Are you 100% sure the session is not being closed? Try again and instead of saying an unrecognized utterance ask for the time. If Alexa responds with the current time it means your session was closed. – German Sep 08 '18 at 22:38
  • I'm not working on it any longer, simply because of this issue with the fallback. Back when I used it, the unknown utterances caused it to exit instead of activating fallback. Do you use the fallback intent? Does it work for you always? – Avision Sep 09 '18 at 13:21
  • Yes, it works. I believe there was something in your backend that caused it to close the session. The best way to see what was going on was to debug the backend – German Sep 15 '18 at 01:01