How Many Days Until Halloween? Let's Create an Alexa Skill to Countdown to Halloween
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How many days until Halloween is a question your kids may start to ask. And they probably won't start until they go trick or treating.
You could create a countdown on a whiteboard, but that's no fun!
Instead, create and customize an Alexa Skill so when your kids ask, "Alexa, how many days until Halloween", then they get a fun response!
In this post you will learn:
What are Alexa Skills
10 Favorite Skills
How to create an Alexa Skill with NO Coding Experience
How to create a "How Many Days Until Halloween 2022" Skill
Alexa Skills
Alexa Skills are similar to apps on your phone, but are voice activated. The skills can be helpful by giving you information about the weather, traffic, sports scores, or even ordering your favorite food. Alexa also has skills to get you in shape, entertain, or improve your productivity. Currently there are more than 100,000 Alexa skills available on Amazon's website, and they range from the helpful to the fun.
To discover skills you will first need open your Alexa app and then:
1). Tap More
2). Tap Skills & Games
3). Discover Skills in Your Favorite Categories
4). Launch and Use Your Skill
With so many skills available you will find something that interests you.
10 Favorite Alexa Skills
We have been using Alexa skills for a while and currently have hundreds on our device. We obviously don't use them all, but we have a couple dozen we use regularly.
Here is a list of my Top 10 Alexa Skills:
Sleep Sounds
Apple Podcasts
Apple Music
Workout Roulette
Audible (get 30 days free and up to two free audio books)
Headspace
Gordan Ramsay
How to create an Alexa Skill with NO Coding Experience
Creating a skill may sound daunting, but you can create an Alexa skill with no prior coding experience. You can accomplish this through Alexa Blueprints!
Blueprints give you a "blueprint" on how to create a skill. You can create a skill in just a few easy steps by basically filling in the blanks.
First open up your Alexa app, tap more, and open up Blueprints. Once you are in the Blueprints tab, determine what type of skill you would like to create. Some skills you can create include.
How Many Days Until an Event
Quizes
Q&A
Burns
Workout
Jokes
Calendar Based (time, date, or year)
Trivia
Podcasts
Much More
After you choose what type of skill you want to develop, start filling in the blanks. Once you're finished, hit save and you have successfully created your first Alexa Skill.
You can even take this a step further and publish your skill to the Alexa store! Yes - anyone can use the skill you created - AMAZING!
How to create a "How Many Days Until Halloween 2022" Skill
Since my kids are obsessed with every holiday, I decided to create a "How Many Days Until Halloween Skill" and you can launch this skill on your devices if you desire!
To create this skill, I started by opening up the Blueprint Tab.
In the Alexa App Blueprint page, they have a "Blueprint" for How Many Days. You can customize this skill to whatever you like - birthdays, holidays, events, and more. I tapped "Make Your Own".
Next, you have to name the event and choose the date. In this case, I named it Days Until Halloween and selected October 31, 2022 so we have a halloween countdown.
On the next prompt, you will have four sections to complete: 1) Opening Message, Closing Message, Closing Sound, and Background Image for Echo Shows.
As you can see, we created a few opening lines and some closing lines that will alternate when someone asks for a countdown to halloween.
Then you will have to create your skill.
Pro Tip: When you create a skill, think about your closing statements. Program your skill to request the person talking to ask more questions or to check out other skills you've developed.
It takes a few minutes, but Amazon creates the skill. Now you can take this a step further and publish for all of the world to access. If you are looking to publish skills (which is pretty badass), then follow these steps:
1). Tap the publish button after your skill is created
2). Name Your Skill and Test
3). You will have to provide the details to Amazon so they can attach the proper key words and place it in the correct category
4). Next you can either chose an icon they provide or create your own (I suggest using Canva)
5). Add a description to describe your skill
6). Next Agree to their Policies if you choose
7). Wait for approval (this took less than 8 hours for my skill)
There are literally thousands of skills you can create! It's fun and I am probably going to nerd out on creating a number of them.
Here are some ideas for the skills I will create:
Countdowns for my kids birthdays
Countdown clock for my wife's birthday (should I put in the wrong date?)
Number of days to my birthday
Days until Christmas
Countdown for New Year's Eve
Quiz for my favorite football team
Chore Chart
Babysitter Q&A
Flashcards (I'm looking at you spelling teacher)
Family Trivia
Anniversary Countdown
Dad Jokes
Blog - let Alexa read my blog posts
Mother's Day Skill All about Mom
Whether you are looking to create your own halloween countdown timer or want to launch mine, now you can!
And no matter what your plans are for Halloween, be sure to ask Alexa how many days are left so you don't miss a thing! And from all of us here at BoldsyTech, have a happy—and safe—Halloween!
Please share our skill and let us know in the comments if you create your own! We would love to see it and share it!
