I have created an Amazon Alexa skill that I would like everyone to be use of and vote if you get a chance. I have wanted to expand it to use the new API available to read audio. It would be really beneficial if someone from LDS Tech could reach out to me with official API's that are available that I can reference. Currently I am using an older project that was still available that I use but isn't anywhere near official. If anyone has experience with Node.JS, Datatbase (DynamoDB) or Alexa and would like to contribute please PM me and we can get this with some momentum. However at the time I'm looking to move homes so this might the attention it needs right now. But once things get settled in I should get some more time. I live in Draper and i'm open to meeting at a church to work on a project like this on Sundays.
I'm interested. Are you planning on streaming MP3s or using Alexa text-to-voice to generate the audio? I just put in a license request with the church to get permission to use their content and I've been pursuing getting access to the internal API over https for streaming audio. I'll let you know if I make any progress on it!
Hi @steckdev and @thattolleyguy - have either of you made any progress on an Alexa skill that can stream from the church's audio library?
I am new to Alexa skill development, but I have a lot of development experience in general. I am interested in helping with the development, if you are looking for assistance. Either way, I am interested in hearing how it goes.
I would love to hear how this goes. My father in law is visually impaired & we are wanting something that he can use to listen to his scriptures & conference etc, something that he can give voice commands to so that he doesn't have to rely on anyone to find things for him, Karen
It turns out I just scheduled a meeting with church intellectual property department to get licensing permissions to continue with this app. If I can get permissions, I'll post updates here as I make progress on the skill. The visually impaired is actually exactly who I was thinking could benefit the most from this. I'm glad I know someone to try it out now! I'll keep in touch with any progress I make.
I'd love to be able to ask Alexa, "Alexa, play 3 Nephi 3:4" and have it either read the text out loud or stream the audio. Is there any way to do this right now?
You should be able to do that right now using the "Gospel Library Reader" in the alexa app store. Hopefully it's still there. I'm hoping to get a reasonable solution from them to access the audio files so that I can stream confrerence talks and scriptures. I'm not sure that we will implement reading a specific verse it would just allow you to start listening to the whole chapter. Unless they have that information available then it would be AWESOME! Feel free to reach out to me at steckdev@gmail.com if you have any question on how to use the app or if you run into issues.
A quick update. I met with some church representatives on Friday to demo what a Gospel Library skill would look like. They seemed pretty excited, especially for how it could help visually impaired members. Going forward there is three possibilities for the project. Either the licensing request will be denied, the licensing request will be granted, or the church will acquire the project as a community project similar to the Gospel Library iOS/Android apps. There is still a question of if the church would be willing to host the servers running the skill but I'm hopeful they will. I should hear more back in the next couple weeks.
I plan on posting the code I wrote for the demo on github once I can get it cleaned up. It's currently written in nodejs and it's probably worth discussing what language makes the most sense. If you have any questions, feel free to ask and I'll answer as best I can.
I'll keep in touch with any progress I make.