Chatbots are a relatively young technology, and we\u2019re still finding new and exciting ways to apply them. Recently we built a chatbot, Bella, to help users quit smoking, and we integrated it with the Amazon Echo.<\/p>\n
Bella was originally envisioned to help users stop a smoking habit. We also built an app around the chatbot called \u201cQuit Smoking With Bella\u201d for our client. The client liked the app and asked us to integrate it with Alexa, the automated virtual assistant in the Amazon Echo.<\/p>\n
There were two main challenges to overcome when we got started on this project.<\/p>\n
The first was that we weren\u2019t very familiar with Alexa\u2019s skills kit development. It required a significant amount of research and development to figure out how everything worked.<\/p>\n
The second challenge was that the client requested continuous voice communication for the chatbot, but we looked into that and found that it wasn\u2019t possible using a third-party chatbot.<\/p>\n
The client goals required us to find a workaround. So we brainstormed for a little while and came up with the idea to use trigger words and corresponding responses. The client provided those to us, and we built an API to receive voice commands sent by Alexa and send a message in response.<\/p>\n
Now, users can access Bella through the Amazon Echo.<\/p>\n
Talking to Bella can be as simple as talking to another person. Users just have to access Bella through Alexa and continue a conversation as normal.<\/p>\n
We used the Amazon Echo, JS, NodeJS and API integration for this project.<\/p>\n