In September 2016 (time flies…), Amazon announced that the Amazon Echo and therefore Amazon Alexa would be made available in the UK and in Germany.
One would think that this would affect two geographic areas and only one language, but nothing further from the truth. Trying to make Alexa understand Geordie or Scouse makes Deutschsprache crystal clear.
So, from now on, there are three languages that you should consider when you define your skill: English (US), English (GB) and German.
It’s very important that you realise that Geography and Language are different things, and you have to make decisions on both areas. I.e. you can publish a Skill in Germany in English (US) and German, or you can decide that your Skill won’t apply to expats and you want to publish it for Germany and in German only. When you define the Interaction Model, you define as many models as languages you wish to implement. When you provide publishing information, you decide on the geography.
In our next post we will solve the following riddles: What happens to my “functionality”, do I need to create one version per language (hint: don’t do it!!!). What are the implications of limiting my Skill to a certain geography? Then we will write a bit about predefined Slot types and multilanguage implications.