Amazon To Pay Developers For Best Alexa ‘Kid’ Skills

Amazon announced that kid skills published in the U.K. and Germany are now eligible to earn Alexa Developer Rewards. Last year Alexa began supporting kid skills in these locations, allowing developers to create educational experiences for kids under the age of 16, using the Alexa Skills Kits.

Andrea Muttoni of Amazon wrote in a blog post, “If your skill is getting some of the highest customer engagement in any of the eight eligible categories — which now include kids — you can earn money each month. The most engaging kid skills will start earning rewards in June.”

Alexa Developer Rewards was launched last year so developers could earn money for skills customers love and use the most in the U.S., U.K. and Germany. The rewarded skills need to be in any of eight eligible skill categories, including Education & Reference; Food & Drink; Games, Trivia & Accessories; Health & Fitness; Kids; Lifestyle; Music & Audio; and Productivity.

Amazon says that, to date, the company has paid millions of dollars to developers in 23 countries.

“Many of these developers are earning money for skills published in multiple countries. So, if your skill is earning rewards in one country, you can potentially earn more by making it available in other eligible countries,” stated Muttoni.

Parents can easily turn on kid skills using the Alexa app. When parents enable a kid skill for the first time, Alexa will ask them to turn on access to all kid skills by following the steps in the app. Access to kid skills only needs to be turned on once to enable and use all kid skills but, like with any other Alexa skill, parents will need to enable each kid skill separately. Parents can turn off all kid skills at any time so they cannot be used on the parent’s account.