Publish your skill to the Alexa Skills Store

You can publish your skills created using Alexa Skill Blueprints to the Alexa Skills Store in Australia for customers to discover, use, and review. Unlike sharing, where only people with access to your shared link can use your skill, when you publish your skill anyone can discover and use your skill from the Alexa Skills Store. Once your skill is published, customers can review and rate your skill up to 5 stars like any other skill on the Alexa Skills Store.

Understanding the publication review process

Once you've tested your skill and determined it's ready to publish, you'll need to set up the Alexa Skills Store name, opening phrase, and other skill details to pass the review process. All skills submitted for publication to the Alexa Skills Store are reviewed by Amazon and must adhere to the content guidelines before the skills can be published. The review process can take 1 to 2 business days.

Note: Once you submit your skill for publication, you cannot edit it. However, if you have not submitted your skill for review you can cancel publishing it at any time. To edit your skill once you submit it for review, you will need to withdraw your submission, edit your skill, and then resubmit it for review.

How to publish your skill

Go to the Skills You’ve Made page and select the skill you want to publish. Choose Publish to Skills Store in your menu options. If your skill is Shared, you will need to revoke sharing to be able to publish.

Set the opening phrase and skill name

Enter in your Alexa Skills Store name, which will be displayed to customers on the Alexa Skills Store to help them discover your skill. The skill name can be different than the Opening phrase, which customers will use to open and use your skill. After you’ve set the opening phrase and Alexa Skills Store name, you’ll need to fill in the Created by field with your name or company name. One-word names or brand names require documentation from you demonstrating that you are the owner of the brand or have rights to use it. Amazon will review this information before publication. Learn more

Opening phrase
Customers launch your skill using an opening phrase that is simple to use and remember. Your opening phrase can be different than the name you choose for your skill in the Alexa Skills Store. When setting the opening phrase for your skill, you'll need to adhere to the following rules to get the skill approved and published:

• Don't use a one‐word opening phrase, unless it is a brand. You'll need to provide documentation demonstrating that you are the owner of the brand or have rights to use it when submitting your skill for review. Learn more
• Avoid using names of people or places, for example, molly or seattle, unless the opening phrase contains other words in addition to the name. For example, molly's horoscope.
• Avoid spelling out letters phonetically in your opening phrase. Simply include periods after each letter to indicate to Alexa that it's an abbreviation. For example, a skill titled USC Trivia would need USC represented as u. s. c. and not you ess see.
• Choose an opening phrase that is easy to pronounce correctly and is phonetically distinct to avoid being misinterpreted as other similar sounding words.
• Don't use an opening phrase that might clash with existing Alexa features such as: What’s the Weather, Set a reminder etc. For example, if your opening phrase is too similar to the built‐in weather command, Alexa may respond with the weather instead of launching your skill. Make sure to test your opening phrase to avoid any overlap with built‐in features.

Note: Always test your opening phrase to make sure your skill launches successfully. Once your skill is published to the Alexa Skills Store, you cannot edit or change the opening phrase for your skill.

Once you've tested your new opening phrase as well as set your Alexa Skills Store and Created by names, choose the Next: Details button to proceed to the next step.

Adding your Skill Details for the Alexa Skill Store

1. The Category is based off of the original blueprint used to make your skill. Categories help customers search and find your skill in the Alexa Skills Store. You can use the pre-selected category or choose a different one that best represents your skill.
2. You can also add Keywords that relate to or describe your skill to further help customers find your skill quickly and easily.
3. You'll need to add a Skill Icon, which you can make using the Icon Creator or upload your own .png or .jpeg with a 1:1 ratio.
4. Provide a Short description of your skill. This is a quick sentence that describes your skill and what customers can do with it.
5. You'll also need to provide a Detailed description. This outlines everything that your skill can do, what actions a user can take, and what customers should expect from your skill.
6. Once you're done adding your Category, Keywords, Skill Icon, Short and Detailed Descriptions, choose the Next: Policy button to continue.

Fill out the Policy details for your skill

You'll need to answer a few questions about your skill content and its intended audience. Any skills you publish will only be available to customers in the Australia at this time. In order to be published, your skill must comply with Amazon's content guidelines. You must indicate if your skill has child related content, advertising or promotional materials so that Amazon can review your skill accordingly.

If you have your own Terms of Use for your content, include the URL to your page. Once you've completed the Policy details, choose the Next: Review button.

Review and Submit your skill

You can edit any of the information outlined on this page, which includes:

• Opening phrase
• Alexa Skills Store name
• Created by name
• Category
• Keywords (optional)
• Skill icon
• Short description
• Detailed description
• Policy questions
• Terms of use URL (optional)

Once you’ve reviewed this information, select Publish to Store.

What to expect after you submit a skill for publishing

After you submit a skill for publication, you'll see a notification on the skill's detail page letting you know that Your skill is in review. You will also receive updates by email on the status of your skill.

Once your skill is reviewed, you will receive an email and a notification on the skill's detail page that your skill was Approved or Rejected.

If your skill was rejected, the email will outline what went wrong and steps you can take to edit and resubmit your skill. You can also review the Blueprints content guidelines for details on appropriate content for the Alexa Skills Store.

Once your skill is published, you will be notified on the skill's detail page that Your skill is live. You can view your skill in the Alexa Skills Store. From the Alexa Skills Store, you have the option to Share your skill, which gives you a link to your skill in the Alexa Skills Store that you can share with others via email, social media, or on your own website.

Withdraw or Edit your skill

Once your skill is in the review process, you won't be able to edit any of the skill content. You'll have to withdraw your skill from publication first, edit your skill, then resubmit it for review.

To withdraw your skill, select the Withdraw Submission button in your menu options.

After your skill is published, you'll have the option to Edit your skill in your menu options. If you want to change aspects of your skill, select Edit to change your content and resubmit it for review. This lets customers currently using your skill to still have access to it and get updates once your edits are approved and published.

Remove your skill from the Alexa Skills Store

If your skill is live in the Alexa Skills Store and you no longer want others to access it, you will need to remove it from the Alexa Skills Store. Once it is removed, anyone who used the skill will not be able to access it. The skill will then be set to Private so only you can use it. You can always go through the publishing process again if you wish to have it in the Alexa Skills Store at a later date.

To remove your skill, select the Remove from Store button in your menu options. You will see a pop-up message that will ask you if you want to remove your skill.
Note: Once you confirm that you wish to remove your skill, it will take up to 2 hours to remove it from the Alexa Skills Store.