Help
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### Publish to Alexa for Business
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If you’re already using Alexa for Business, you can quickly create a
skill and have it ready for private use across your organization. Once
you build your blueprint, your IT administrator will review and enable
your skill for your company’s Alexa devices and users. You can use your
personal Amazon account or one associated with your organization, to
create and publish skills using Blueprints. Learn more about [Alexa for
Business](https://aws.amazon.com/alexaforbusiness/).
There are four steps needed to create and publish a skill to your
organization using Alexa for Business Blueprints:
1. Visit the Alexa Skills Blueprints website
2. Make your own skill from a blueprint
3. Publish your private skill
4. Submit the skill to your company for approval
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#### Publish Your Private Skill
After creating your skill, from the skill detail page, select **Publish
Your Skill** and select the option to **Publish to Alexa for Business**.
You’ll need to fill out all the publishing details, which include:
- Set the opening phrase and skill name
- Add details about your skill
- Answer policy questions
- Review and submit for publication
**Note:**After publishing is complete and the skill’s **Visibility** is
set to **Alexa for Business**, you’ll add your organization’s identifier
or ARN, which submits the skill to your company. Your IT Admin will
review and enable the skill for your organization’s devices and users.
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**Set the opening phrase and skill name**
Customers launch your skill using an opening phrase that is simple to
use and remember. Your opening phrase can be different than the name you
choose for your skill. When setting the opening phrase for your skill,
you'll need to adhere to the following rules to get the skill approved
and published:
- Avoid using a one‐word opening phrase.
- Avoid using names of people or places, for example, “molly” or
“seattle”, unless the opening phrase contains other words in
addition to the name. For example, “molly's horoscope”.
- Avoid spelling out letters phonetically in your opening phrase.
Simply include periods after each letter to indicate to Alexa that
it's an abbreviation. For example, a skill titled “USC Trivia” would
need “USC” represented as “u. s. c.” and not “you ess see”.
- Choose an opening phrase that is easy to pronounce correctly and is
phonetically distinct to avoid being misinterpreted as other similar
sounding words.
- Don't use an opening phrase that might clash with existing Alexa
features such as: What’s the Weather, Set a reminder etc. For
example, if your opening phrase is too similar to the built‐in
“weather” command, Alexa may respond with the weather instead of
launching your skill. Make sure to test your opening phrase to avoid
any overlap with built‐in features.
**Note:** Always test your opening phrase to make sure your skill
launches successfully. Once your skill is published, you cannot edit or
change the opening phrase for your skill.
Enter in your **Alexa for Business skill name**, which will be displayed
to your IT administrator when they review and enable the skill. If your
administrator also enables the skill for the organization’s enrolled
users of Alexa for Business, they will see this skill name in their
Alexa App under **Private Skills** to enable it. The skill name can be
different than the **Opening phrase**, which customers will use to open
and use your skill. After you’ve set the **Opening phrase** and **Alexa
for Business skill name**, you’ll need to fill in the **Created by**
field with your name or company name.
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**Add details about your skill**
You’ll need to provide a skill icon, short description, and detailed
description about your skill. Keywords and search terms that describe
your skill are optional.
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**Answer policy questions**
Although your skill will only be published to your organization, you'll
need to answer a few questions about your skill content and its intended
audience. In order to be published, your skill must comply with Amazon's
[content
guidelines](/help/terms?page=content-guidelines).
You must indicate if your skill has child related content, advertising
or promotional materials.
**Note:** Any skills you publish will only be available to customers in
the US at this time.
If you have your own Terms of Use for your content, include the URL to
your page. Once you've completed the Policy details, choose the **Next:
Review and submit** button.
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**Review and submit**
Review your skill details, then submit your skill. Once you submit your
skill, it will go live within 20 minutes. Until it goes live, you can
choose the option **Withdraw Submission** to go back and edit your skill
if you submitted it in error.
#### Submit the Skill to Your Company
After your skill is live (about 20 minutes), the **Visibility** of your
skill will change from **Just Me** to **Alexa for Business**. Choose
**Manage Access** and enter the value for the **ARN** that you'll get
from your Alexa for Business administrator. It will look something like
this: arn:aws:iam::123456789012:root.
After your skill is submitted, let your IT administrator know the
following:
- The name of your Blueprint skill.
- Which rooms you want the skill enabled in, and if you’d like to
share the skill with the organization’s enrolled users.
You can add more than one ARN to your skill if needed. Similarly, if you
want to remove or change an ARN, go to **Manage Access** in the
**Published Skill Actions** menu to add or revoke ARNs.
**Note:** Your IT administrator can disable your skill at any time for
your organization.
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#### Withdraw or Edit your skill
While your skill is in the submitted state before going live, you won't
be able to edit any of the skill content. You'll have to withdraw your
skill from publication first, edit your skill, then re-publish. To
withdraw your skill, select the **Withdraw Submission** button in your
menu options.
After your skill is published and the **Visibility changes** from **Just
Me** to **Alexa for Business**, you'll have the option to **Edit** in
your menu options. If you want to change aspects of your skill, select
**Edit** to change your content and **Publish Changes**. This lets
customers currently using your skill to still have access to it and get
updates once your edits are published.
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#### Remove your skill from the published state
If your skill is live and you no longer want others to access it, you
will need to remove it. Once it is removed, anyone who used the skill
will not be able to access it. The skill visibility will then be set to
**Just Me**, so only you can use it. You can always go through the
publishing process again if you want to make it available at a later
date.
To remove your skill, select the **Unpublish** button in your menu
options. You will see a pop-up message that asks you if you want to
remove your skill.
If your published skill has been distributed to any Alexa for Business
organizations, you must revoke those ARNs using **Manage Access** from
the skill detail page, before being able to remove your skill from the
published state.
**Note:** Once you confirm that you wish to remove your skill, it will
take up to 2 hours to remove it.