On 28th August 2020, an IOTA community member, Hugo Gregersen, announced that it is now possible to integrate Amazon’s Alexa, a virtual assistant with the IOTA protocol. This integration will help in checking your balance on your wallets.
IOTA was launched in 2016 as an open-source distributed ledger and digital currency formulated for the internet of things. Recently, the blockchain has been working towards improving the mainnet experience for all users. This new advancement shows how much the company dedicates itself to make all services excellent for customers.
Amazon’s Alexa Functions on IOTA Protocol
Amazon Alexa will make it possible for an individual to check for the balance on their IOTA Trinity wallet. According to Gregersen, Amazon Alexa permits developers to create “Alexa Skill,” which functions the same way as voiced smartphone applications. On the IOTA protocol, Alexa, learns how to link with other devices and services.
Advantages for IOTA Users
The integration of IOTA with Alexa enables better user experience. Checking balances from one’s IOTA Trinity wallet is easy and fast. A person with many wallets only needs to give a voice command and get his wallets’ credit right away.
Regardless of your wallet connected to other devices or services, it is possible to get your balance with Amazon Alexa integrated with IOTA Trinity wallets. Users do not need other additional applications, and one only needs to install the Amazon Alexa app on their phones to check their crypto balances.
Integrating Alexa with IOTA Trinity Wallets
The first step to integrating Amazon Alexa with IOTA Trinity wallets is by creating a new Alexa skill. According to Gregersen, creating Alexa skill is possible through Alexa Developer Console. The creation of Alexa skill via Alexa Developer Console is possible through AWS Lambda. This AWS Lambda is an Amazon Cloud Platform which is also a part of Amazon Web Services,
Developers need to sign up for a free Alexa Developer account when creating an Alexa Skill and go to Alexa Developer Console through this link. Through that link, there are various tools that average users, apart from developers, can access when they want to create their own Alexa skill to integrate it with IOTA.
After creating Alexa skill, the user has to specify invocations, intent, and utterances. Doing this will teach Alexa how you will invoke and interact with her new skill. You then need to create and upload the AWS Lambda function for Alexa skill. Afterward, connect your Alexa with the Lambda function. Alexa’s connection to the Lambda function helps Alexa know what Lambda function to use when performing a new skill.
