Programmatically Introduce Pauses or Long Delays into Alexa Skill Capturing Input

Question

I work at a NLI company and I have just created a skill where I have pretty much an open mic session with our Alexa Skill through the Amazon Echo. Everything works fine and I can have an open dialog with our backend knowledge base, without having to prefix anything with Alexa.

When I demo this skill, inevitably someone in the room interrupts and wants to enquire about how the NLI piece operates. If I mute the echo or don't ask it questions or answer its questions in a short period of time, the skill times out. I'm then forced to begin the interaction again but asking Alexa to start MySkillInvocation.

Question:

Is there a programmatic way to extend the timeout period when listening back from an Alexa Ask Response? Possibly even a way to programmatically pause a running skill?

Answer 1

The question of whether the timeout is configurable has been asked on a thread on the Amazon Developer Forums, here's the answer from an Amazon resource as of April 22nd, 2015:

The current setting is 8 seconds, which it not configurable.

Thanks,

Nick

I have not been able to find any documentation to suggest that this situation has changed since that time, unfortunately.

Answer 2

Another way is to use the AudioPlayer Directives. So even if your session has ended, your skill will receive all intents. Which means you don't need to prefix with MyInvocationName.

I use a 1 minute silent MP3 to progress through the steps of a recipe. With the added benefit of an in-built timer.

Answer 3

As mentioned by @sphanley, you cannot control the timeout. When there is a timeout, you will actually get a "SessionEndedRequest". What you can do is wait for that request and save the session information so when you open the skill again you resume from where you left.