Amazon Alexa surpasses 10,000 skills

Amazon has announced another Alexa-related milestone: more than 10,000 skills are now available. (A “skill” is Alexa’s equivalent of a mobile app.)

The skill that helped Alexa reach 10,000 is a musical game called Beat the Intro, which invites players to guess song titles based just on the opening bars of music before the singing starts. In fact, Amazon’s David Isbitski says gaming skills are the second-most popular category overall so far. Here’s the top five:

1. News
2. Gaming
3. Education/Reference
4. Lifestyle
5. Novelty/Humor

With more than 10,000 skills now, the library has added about 3,000 of them since last month’s 7,000-skill milestone. Overall, the skills count has more than tripled in the five months since Amazon said there were 3,000 skills available.

Amazon has been heavily courting the developer community with a developer portal and skills kit, and recently launched a hub to help marketers create voice skills.

Discovery is still a concern, though. Amazon overhauled the Alexa app last summer to make it easier to find skills, and more recently began listing them on the web at Amazon.com/skills. As the skills library continues to grow, it’s likely Amazon will need to stay ahead of the curve and make it even easier for developers to get their skills in front of potential users.

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Matt McGee

Matt McGee is the Editor-In-Chief of Marketing Land and Search Engine Land. His news career includes time spent in TV, radio, and print journalism. After leaving traditional media in the mid-1990s, he began developing and marketing websites and continued to provide consulting services for more than 15 years. His SEO and social media clients ranged from mom-and-pop small businesses to one of the Top 5 online retailers. Matt is a longtime speaker at marketing events around the U.S., including keynote and panelist roles. He can be found on Twitter at @MattMcGee. You can read Matt’s disclosures on his personal blog. You can reach Matt via email using our Contact page.