Alexa implementations now more difficult, and some features will stop working

[sdetweil]

I have an Alexa Implementation on another platform . I can control devices connected thru skills.

recently that stopped working. with a response message of
“That feature is only available on certified Alexa Built-in devices”

I posted an issue to the AVS team and got the following response

===============================

The reason the “That feature is only available on certified Alexa Built-in devices” message is being encountered has to do with an updated Alexa Voice Service (AVS) security policy. That policy can be found here:
https://github.com/alexa/avs-device-sdk/security/policy

Restrictions will be lifted when your AVS device obtains a security assessment from an authorized security lab and it receives an Alexa-built in badge.

For more information about AVS device testing, please see the following:
https://developer.amazon.com/en-US/alexa/devices/alexa-built-in/development-resources#additional-resources

[karsten13]

@sdetweil

thats amazon …

had a docker image containing Alexa Voice Service but because of more and more limitations I gave up a few months ago.

[sdetweil]

@karsten13 yep…

[ankonaskiff17]

@sdetweil

[sdetweil]

@ankonaskiff17 yeh, saw that. this log4j thing has really spooked everyone

[sdetweil]

as a followon, I started my other app with my alexa implementation and
got this

Please migrate your code to use AWS SDK for JavaScript (v3).
For more information, check blog post at https://a.co/cUPnyil

there is no longer any documentation or support for Alexa in the sdk.

[abuislam]

l
Thanks for sharing the update. It’s unfortunate about the restrictions due to the new AVS security policy. It sounds like getting the Alexa Built-In certification might be the way to resolve this issue. For those running into similar problems, it might be worth looking into the certification process or exploring alternative solutions.

[sdetweil]

@abuislam it seems you didn’t look into the certification process

they demand you contract an external organization,
and provide a dump of your complete hardware stack, and all software used.

they assume you have a closed device, thermostat, outlet.
our MagicMirror system is not that. they explicitly reject any software only solutions. secondarily we are not a fixed software implementation, being able to compose multiple modules. and the os matters too.

so the author theoretically would have to certify every combination.

there are no alternative solutions. you must provide the certification key on api requests

[sdetweil]

@abuislam also, please don’t copy the prior post in your replies