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I'm very new to Alexa and am not sure if what I'd like to do is possible. Is there a way to create a skill that functions as a start/stop timer? Ex: "Alexa start recording" and end with Ex: "Alexa end recording".

Further, is there a way I can map the start/end time to another server to connect these values to a web application?

rainyrain
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2 Answers2

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You cannot record what alexa is listening between alexa start recording and alexa end recording. But, if you wanna start recording and end recording something else somewhere else, for example start recording the screen of your desktop where the server is running, well, you can.

There is a way to use the alexa skill sdk in your own nodejs express server, credits to Glogo and his example. This way you could receive the intents of start and stop recording of alexa, and by use of the extensive nodejs libraries, you could maybe do what you wanted to do. gl

Leandro
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Alexa only listens when a wake word is uttered by the user, and then it usually times out and the session will eventually close. So if you want to record input from the user that is not possible.

However, if you want to record a period of time like a timer without listening that is possible through a workaround. Each request has a timestamp, so you can record when a user says "Start" and save the timestamp in a database and close the session. When the user says "Stop" you can get that timestamp from the request and then do the math to get the time difference. Your sample utterances for this could be:

Alexa, tell [your-skill-name-here] to start

Alexa, tell [your-skill-name-here] to stop.

So you could match a device id or user id to these timestamps in a database. I've seen this done with another skill "Shower Buddy." https://devpost.com/software/shower-buddy

You could use your own database for this or use Dynamodb.

Sade Smith
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