If you’ve ever wanted to share a voice conversation you had with Alexa, you probably pointed your smartphone at your Echo speaker and recorded a shaky mobile video. That solution may work for the occasional tweet, but businesses and developers may want an easier, more professional way to show off their Alexa skills. That’s where Voicegram comes in.
Created by the makers of prototyping software Sayspring, Voicegram allows anyone to record and share a voice conversation with Amazon Alexa using only their web browser.
The technology is similar to the Alexa skill testing tool Echosim.io, as it also takes advantage of Alexa Voice Services. But Voicegram isn’t only meant for testing purposes – it also creates a video file you can share anywhere on the web by embedding or posting to social media. There’s even an option to download the video file directly.
The idea to create Voicegram was based on what the team at Sayspring saw its customers doing already. In Sayspring, customers can create an interactive prototype to talk to, but couldn’t record the entire conversation, explains founder Mark Webster.
“One of the things we’ve seen a lot of people do – and we do all the time – is sharing the conversation. You end up talking to the Sayspring prototype, shooting a bad video on your iPhone, uploading it to YouTube and sharing that privately,” he says. Sayspring’s customers – a list that today includes Coca-Cola, Liberty Mutual, Qantas Airways, and others – were often doing recording these videos during both the voice app design and development process.
“The idea was, how do we make this a lot easier so you can have an interaction with Alexa and share it?,” says Webster.
With Voicegram, the whole process is streamlined.
To use the new service, you visit the Voicegram website, login with your Amazon account and authorize access. You then click and hold a button to record your Alexa conversation, and click a button to end the recording.
When finished, you can add a title to the Voicegram if you choose, and enter your email address. The Voicegram is emailed to this address in a matter of minutes.
Voicegram creates a shareable video file with its own URL that can be embedded on any website or shared across social media. The Voicegram itself has sharing buttons of its own, so visitors who come to the Voicegram can also post the file to Twitter, Facebook or LinkedIn.
The broader plan is to integrate Voicegram into the Sayspring product itself, allowing agencies and clients to brand their Voicegrams with their own colors and logo, for example. The integration will also introduce additional collaboration tools for feedback and commenting.
However, in the near-term, Voicegram is a standalone website that anyone can use for free.
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