Alexa Skills Set SDK - increase timeout of skill

Question

I am building an Alexa instructional exercise skill using the Alexa Skill Set SDK on nodejs. I am saving each cooking step to the DB, therefore if the skill times out, the user can reopen the skill and continue where they left off.

Problem is that users are annoyed that they have to keeping reopening the skill, people work at different speeds, is it possible to keep the skill open or increase the time out whilst I wait for the user to complete the step and then say "Alexa, next step"?

I tried increasing the lambda timeout, it made no difference.

Answer 1

I have been trying to do this for quite awhile. There have been several responses on the Amazon developer forums from folks at Amazon (for example, this response) that state that the approximate 8-10 second timeout is not configurable.

Answer 2

The following solution is bit of a hack and not recommended, but may serve your purpose.

Just modify your response like below:

<speak>

    Tell recipe step here. 
    <audio src="<-- Hosted silent mp3 file URL -->" /> 

</speak> 

You can add a silent mp3 file in your response. Your skill will be on for the time of that mp3 file.

But to interrupt Alexa in the mid of this response, user will have to say Alexa, next step instead of Next step.

Answer 3

There is API you could call to provide progressive response