Standard Built-in Intents
The standard intents are used for common, general actions such as stopping, canceling, and asking for help.
To implement a standard built-in intent, include the intent in your intent schema and then add handling for the intent in your code. You do not need to provide any sample utterances for these intents, although you can if you want to extend the intent.
See Implementing the Built-in Intents.
- Available Standard Built-in Intents
- About Canceling and Stopping
- Available Standard Built-In Intents for Echo Show
- Built-in Intent Library Documentation
Available Standard Built-in Intents
The following table summarizes the standard built-in intents with a subset of the utterances users can say to invoke these intents.
| Intent | Common Utterances | Purpose |
|---|---|---|
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English:
German:
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Either of the following:
See below for more about canceling and stopping. For skills that stream audio using the |
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English:
German:
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Provide help about how to use the skill. See What Alexa Says for guidelines about contextualized help. |
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English:
German:
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Lets the user request that the skill turn off a loop or repeat mode, usually for audio skills that stream a playlist of tracks. For skills that stream audio using the |
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English:
German:
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Lets the user request that the skill turn on a loop or repeat mode, usually for audio skills that stream a playlist of tracks. For skills that stream audio using the |
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English:
German:
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Let the user navigate to the next item in a list. For skills that stream audio using the |
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English:
German:
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Let the user provide a negative response to a yes/no question for confirmation. |
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English:
German:
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Let the user pause an action in progress, such as pausing a game or pausing an audio track that is playing. You must implement this intent if your skill streams audio using the |
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English:
German:
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Let the user go back to a previous item in a list. For skills that stream audio using the |
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English:
German:
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Let the user request to repeat the last action. For skills that stream audio using the |
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English:
German:
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Let the user resume or continue an action. You must implement this intent if your skill streams audio using the |
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English:
German:
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Lets the user request that the skill turn of a shuffle mode, usually for audio skills that stream a playlist of tracks. For skills that stream audio using the |
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English:
German:
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Lets the user request that the skill turn on a shuffle mode, usually for audio skills that stream a playlist of tracks. For skills that stream audio using the |
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English:
German:
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Let the user request to restart an action, such as restarting a game, transaction, or audio track. For skills that stream audio using the |
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English:
German:
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Either of the following:
See below for more about canceling and stopping. |
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English:
German:
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Let the user provide a positive response to a yes/no question for confirmation. |
About Canceling and Stopping
Separate intents are provided for canceling and stopping for situations in which your skill needs to distinguish between the two concepts. This lets “cancel” have a meaning distinct from “stop.” However, in most skills, the behavior should be the same for both. Since most users stay “stop,” “cancel,” and related phrases to exit skills, we strongly recommend that you map this to exit behavior unless your skill has a good reason not to. Note that this is also a requirement of the skill certification process (see certification requirements for stopping and canceling). In this case, you can use the same intent handler for both intents.
Example of using AMAZON.CancelIntent to exit a skill:
User: Alexa, Open Tide Pooler.
Tide Pooler: Tide Pooler: Welcome to Tide Pooler. Which city would you like tide information for?
User: Never mind. (Sends an IntentRequest with an AMAZON.CancelIntent)
Alexa: Tide Pooler: Good-bye. (Response closes the session by setting the shouldEndSession flag to true)
(Skill exits).
Alternative use of AMAZON.CancelIntent to cancel a transaction, but remain within the skill:
…earlier portion of interaction, with the user ordering a pizza.
My Pizza: Confirming order for a large pepperoni and mushroom pizza. Is that correct?
User: Cancel. (Sends an IntentRequest with an AMAZON.CancelIntent)
My Pizza: Canceling order. Did you want to order something else? (Response asks a question and keeps the session open by setting shouldEndSession to false.)
User: Order a small Italian sausage pizza. (User’s new request mapped to an appropriate skill-specific intent)
…(interaction continues)
Also note that users can use the wake word to interrupt Alexa while she is speaking a response. This is often used to stop a skill during lengthy text to speech. If the user’s command maps to one of your intents (either a custom intent or one of the built-in intents), your service receives an IntentRequest like normal. For example:
User: Alexa, Ask Tide Pooler for high tides in Monterey.
Tide Pooler: Tide Pooler: Today in Monterey, the first high tide… (Interrupt Alexa before the skill completes the response)
User: Alexa, Stop. (Sends an IntentRequest with an AMAZON.StopIntent)
Tide Pooler: Good-bye. (Response closes the session by setting the shouldEndSession flag to true)
(Skill exits).
Available Standard Built-In Intents for Echo Show
For Echo Show, all of the standard built-in intents are available, and as well as built-in intents meant specifically for Echo Show. These include built-in intents that are handled on the skill’s behalf, as well as built-in intents that are forwarded to the skill and must be managed by the skill developer.
| Skill Developer Handles Intent? | Intents for Echo Show | Common Utterances |
|---|---|---|
| Yes | 1. AMAZON.PreviousIntent
2. AMAZON.NextIntent |
1. Previous page, last page, go back 2. Next page Note that the utterances for AMAZON.PreviousIntent map to clicking the back button.
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| No | 1. AMAZON.ScrollUpIntent
2. AMAZON.ScrollLeftIntent
3. AMAZON.ScrollDownIntent
4. AMAZON.ScrollRightIntent
5. AMAZON.PageUpIntent
6. AMAZON.PageDownIntent
7. AMAZON.MoreIntent
8. AMAZON.NavigateHomeIntent
9. AMAZON.NavigateSettingsIntent
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1. Scroll up
2. Scroll left, scroll back 3. Scroll down 4. Scroll right, scroll forward 5. Page up 6. Page down 7. Show more 8. Navigate user to the Echo Show home screen. The skill session will end. 9. Navigate user to the Echo Show Device Settings screen, and the skill session will continue. |
As with any other built-in intents, skill developers must include the desired intents in their skill’s intent schema. These include intents that are handled on the skills’ behalf do not need to be handled in the skill’s service (AWS Lambda or web service).
Developers must ensure that they include the entire name of the intent, including the prefix AMAZON. when referencing the intent in their code.
Scroll Intents
These AMAZON.Scroll* intents are generated by Echo Show when templates are displayed. The display template on the screen must support scrolling in order for these intents, and their equivalent intents, to work.
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AMAZON.ScrollUpIntent -
AMAZON.ScrollLeftIntent -
AMAZON.ScrollDownIntent -
AMAZON.ScrollRightIntent
In this scenario, the intents are handled by Alexa and corresponding commands to Echo Show are generated.
Page Intents
These Page intents are equivalent in effect to the AMAZON.ScrollUp and AMAZON.ScrollDown intents.
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AMAZON.PageUpIntent -
AMAZON.PageDownIntent
They are generated by Echo Show when templates that can be paged up or down are displayed, and the customer uses one of these commands (such as “Alexa, page up” or “Alexa, page down”. They are handled by Alexa and corresponding commands to Echo Show are generated.
AMAZON.MoreIntent
The AMAZON.MoreIntent will advance to show more of the content and is therefore similar to the AMAZON.ScrollDownIntent and AMAZON.ScrollRightIntent intents.
Intents Forwarded to the Skill
These built-in intents may have a different implementation than the default. However, if you choose to give them a non-default implementation, do not include the back button in your templates, because AMAZON.PreviousIntent and the back button operate equivalently. By default, these intents operate in a linear backwards and forwards direction.
AMAZON.PreviousIntentAMAZON.NextIntent
You can choose to implement these intents in your custom skill without providing any sample utterances.
As the skill developer, you must ensure these intents are handled in your skill’s service (AWS Lambda or web service) in order for the user to use them.
Built-in Intent Library Documentation
Navigate to all built-in intents in the Built-in Intent Library.
See all available slot types in the Slot Type Reference.
Learn more about using the built-in intent library:
- Understanding the Structure of the Built-in Intent Library
- Implementing the Built-in Intents
- Standard Built-in Intents
Learn more about building your voice interface:
- Use the Skill Builder (Beta) to Define Intents, Slots, and Dialogs
- Define the Interaction Model in JSON and Text
- Custom Interaction Model Reference
The built-in intent library incorporates material from Schema.org, which is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike License (version 3.0) (the “License”). You may not use this file except in compliance with the License. You may obtain a copy of the License at http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/. For questions, please reach out to [email protected].