WINNERS HAVE BEEN ANNOUNCED
Thank you to the 999 participants who competed in the challenge! There were over 350 unique skills across the various categories. Be sure to check them all out in the submission gallery and read about the winners on the Alexa Blog!
Our winners in the challenge were:
Grand Prize + Finalist |
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Best Multimodal Living Room experience + Finalist |
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Best Multimodal Kitchen experience + Finalist |
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Best Multimodal Morning experience + Finalist |
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Best Multimodal Bedtime experience |
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Best Multimodal Kids Skill experience |
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Best Multimodal Experience integrating In-Skill Purchases |
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Finalist |
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Finalist |
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Finalist |
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Finalist |
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Finalist |
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Finalist |
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Best Multimodal Experience, Germany Store Skills |
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Best Multimodal Experience, France Store Skills |
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Best Multimodal Experience, India Store Skills |
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Best Multimodal Experience, UK Store Skills |
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Best Multimodal Experience, Australia Store Skills |
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Best Multimodal Experience, Mexico Store Skills |
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Best Multimodal Experience, Spain Store Skills |
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Best Multimodal Experience, Italy Store Skills |
Jeff Bezos has said that the original inspiration for Alexa and the Amazon Echo was the Star Trek computer: a cloud-based voice service that can converse with you in a natural way, as well as take advantage of displays when available. That last part is important to us. Since we've launched the first Echo Show, we've learned a lot about how combining voice and visual experiences can make skills even more delightful, engaging, and simple for customers. And with the recent launch of the Alexa Presentation Language (APL), which helps developers build interactive voice-first experiences for tens of millions of devices, we're excited to see what developers do next.
The Alexa Skills Challenge: Multimodal was a way for developers to create an Alexa skill using APL and build a voice-first visual experience for devices like the all new Echo Show, Echo Spot, and Fire TV. In addition to helping push the boundaries of what's possible with voice and visuals, they competed for up to $150,000 in prizes. Additionally, they earned a new Amazon device just by publishing an APL skill.
What makes a great multimodal skill?
People embrace voice because it’s simple, natural, and conversational. Multimodal skills add additional input and output options when a screen is present in order to:
- Adapt skills to work on different devices. You can optimize your designs and experience based on the type of device to deliver the right experience, from focused personal information delivery on Echo Spot to communal, 7’ experiences on Fire TV.
- Add easily glance-able, complementary information. You can display images, text, and overlays to communicate requested information at a glance, and provide more detail than is possible with voice alone.
- Simplify navigation of large data sets. You can display large amounts of information and help people quickly review options and choose -- using scrolling and selection by voice or touch.
- Create immersive and delightful experiences. You can build engaging experiences that your customers can sit back and watch, or lean into to get things done.
What are the benefits of using Alexa Presentation Language (APL)?
APL is a new design language that enables you to create voice-first, visual Alexa skills that adapt to different device types. With APL, you can:
- Rich: build interactive voice-first experiences that include text, graphics, slideshows, and, soon, video content.
- Flexible: control your user experience by defining where visual elements are placed on-screen, and match the visual expression to your brand guidelines.
- Adaptable: optimize experiences for different Alexa devices for their unique characteristics
- Easy: take advantage of Amazon-supplied sample APL documents that are designed to work well across a broad range of different device types.
Looking for inspiration? See the multimodal experiences other developers have already built with the Alexa Presentation Language.
NEW SAMPLE SKILL - SPACE EXPLORER
Requirements
Main Requirement: Build (or update) and publish a skill that uses the new Alexa Presentation Language (APL) to add multimodal elements to voice-first experiences.
NOTES:
- Skills using display interface or display templates are NOT eligible. Your skill must use APL and include at least one APL document to qualify.
- In some instances, using touch events requires that the Display interface be turned on for a skill. If you are using touch events and run into this problem, we will NOT disqualify the submission as long as you follow all other challenge requirements. You still should not use display interface templates, instead use the equivalent samples in the skill Display authoring tool.
Your skill must be usable on voice-only devices such as the Amazon Echo, and must use APL to add visual content when used on compatible devices with displays such as Echo Show, Echo Spot, and Fire TV.
Submission Package: A skill description, video demo, and other information must be submitted on the Devpost website by January 22, 2019 at 5:00pm EST to be considered. For a complete list of requirements, see the Official Rules.
Certification: All skills must be submitted to the Alexa Skill Store by January 22, 2019 at 5:00pm EST and PASS certification by March 7, 2019 at 5:00pm EST. (*Certification Period has been extended from February 22nd to March 7th. Change made February 5th)
- Submissions applying for Category Prizes, Finalist Prizes, and the Grand Prize must use the U.S. Alexa Skills Store.
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Submissions applying for International Skill Store Bonus Prizes must apply to the relevant Skill Store and support their primary language. See more info here.
Prizes
$150,000 in prizes
Grand Prize
Selected from the finalists.
• $20,000 USD to the winner
Finalist
(10)
• $5,000 USD
• Promotion of their skill to Alexa customers by Amazon across multiple channels to face off for the grand prize
Participant
(500)
• NEW Skills: Eligible participants in the U.S. will take home a New Echo Dot (3rd Gen ) + Fire TV Stick 4K bundle while international participants will receive a gift card of equivalent value.
• Updated Skills: Eligible participants in the U.S. will take home a New Echo Dot (3rd Gen), while international participants will receive a gift card of equivalent value.
Bonus Prize - Best Multimodal Living Room experience
• $3,000 USD
Bonus Prize - Best Multimodal Kitchen experience
• $3,000 USD
Bonus Prize - Best Multimodal Bedtime experience
• $3,000 USD
Bonus Prize - Best Multimodal Morning experience
• $3,000 USD
Bonus Prize - Best Multimodal Kids Skill experience
• $3,000 USD
Bonus Prize - Best Multimodal Experience integrating In-Skill Purchases
• $3,000 USD
Bonus Prize – Best Multimodal Experience, Germany Store Skills
• $3,000 USD
Bonus Prize – Best Multimodal Experience, France Store Skills
• $3,000 USD
Bonus Prize – Best Multimodal Experience, India Store Skills
• $3,000 USD
Bonus Prize – Best Multimodal Experience, UK Store Skills
• $3,000 USD
Bonus Prize – Best Multimodal Experience, Australia Store Skills
• $3,000 USD
Bonus Prize – Best Multimodal Experience, Mexico Store Skills
• $3,000 USD
Bonus Prize – Best Multimodal Experience, Spain Store Skills
• $3,000 USD
Bonus Prize – Best Multimodal Experience, Italy Store Skills
• $3,000 USD
Devpost Achievements
Submitting to this hackathon could earn you:
How to enter
- Register for the Alexa Skills Challenge.
- Check out the portal, Getting, and the Resources page for tutorials and Alexa Skills Certification Checklist.
- Learn more about the new Alexa Presentation Language and plan how to best leverage the technology for a great user experience. Check out our blog post.
- Host your skill on AWS Lambda (recommended), or another hosting service of your choice.
- Shoot your demo video and take screenshots of your functioning skill.
- Submit your skill on alexamultimodal.devpost.com AND submit your skill for Alexa skill store certification before January 22, 2019 at 5:00pm EST.
Judges

A qualified panel of expert judges
Judging Criteria
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Quality of the Idea Using Alexa Presentation Language
Including creativity and originality, and the ways in which the skill takes advantage of displays and touch when available with Alexa Presentation Language. -
Quality of the User Experience
Including the visual design, whether it performs as expected, works well across device types, and more. -
Potential Impact of the Idea
Including the extent to which the skill is widely useful, highly entertaining, and more. -
Quality of the Submission Package
Including quality of the description, video demo, and any other materials submitted to Devpost. -
Customer Engagement (round 2 only)
A variety of factors are considered such as new customers, recurring customers, customer ratings, and more.
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