Amazon has been in a constant push to improve the experience provided by its Alexa personal assistant; today, the company is making available a library of sound effects for use in Alexa Skills created by developers.
The new sounds will enable developers to easily augment sounds and noises such as applause and laughter. Horror type games can now have spooky ghost sounds, or trivia games can have a clapping audience. Developers have 14 categories to choose from, providing audio similar to what you hear in science fiction and cartoon shows, as well as human, animal, and general nature sounds.
As this newfound capability gains popularity, there is the likelihood that we will be overwhelmed with similarity in the audio associated with their skills, but Amazon is likely to improve on variety over time through the addition of more variations.
If you wish to hear some samples and get an idea of how these sounds will embellish your Alexa experience, head over to the Alexa Skills Kit page.
