It amazes me that some of these skills have such negative reviews. It highlights that developer should be careful when using repeating cues to subscribe to a premium version of their skill, something users find annoying. This highlights a challenge with monetization for voice-first where reminders for paid content can’t be passively displayed on the screen somewhere. If the skill doesn’t remind its users that there’s a possibility to buy something, then they will surely forget, but if they are regularly reminded, they’ll be annoyed…
I recommend taking a look at these random reviews. They provide a great slice of actionable user feedback and touching use cases.
????????Healing Sounds by Healing.fm – 4.8 out of 5, 3106 ratings, 3105 reviews
Healing Sounds helps bring a peaceful moment to your busy day. This skill includes over 20 sounds designed to help you sleep, study, and meditate.
Random review: cheese and rice, i try to open it up and listen to a sound and whether im playing a sound, changing the sound, pausing the sound, stopping the sound, etc. i cant just do it without hearing the spiel about premium or pro membership and im so done with it. ive disabled this skill because it is so irritating that it defeats the purpose of listening to relaxing sounds. i shouldnt have to say more than once that i dont want to hear more about the premium memberahip. (1 out of 5)
????????Comfort My Dog by Voice Games – 4.9 out of 5, 2528 ratings, 2524 reviews
Listening to this music will help your dog feel more relaxed and calm, less anxious, sleep more and be generally happier.
Random review: Weak sauce offering additional content to anyone willing to give a 5 star review. Looking at said reviews with so many 5 stars with 2 words or less written it’s clearly worked for the devs but completely obfuscates any real review system. The app? It simply loops some elevator music. How does anyone know if this music actually relaxes your dog? I’ve seen studies on some very specific types of music working to an extent but nothing about this. I’ll be honest I’ve had the skill playing while writing this and the loop is getting old. (1 out of 5)
????????Calm My Cat by Voice Games – 4.9 out of 5, 1152 ratings, 1148 reviews
Listening to this music will help your cat feel more relaxed and calm, less anxious, sleep more and be generally happier.
Random review: This skill plays a soothing jazz riff that turns my cat into a pile of goo. It is also not unpleasant for humans. I turn it on when my cat is being particularly insistent on attention or stressed because I’m going out. It instantly calms her down. (5 out of 5)
????????Box of Cats by Sean Simpson – 4.2 out of 5, 16229 ratings, 312 reviews
Ask Alexa to open up a box of cats! You can’t see the box (duh), but you’ll hear whatever cute, cuddly animal comes out of it. Most of the time the box contains cats, who will announce their presence by meowing.
Random review: I
would LOVE to have the option of having it continue to broadcast random meows
(or other!) at random times until it’s told to stop. Like, 10 minutes apart, then an hour, then 20
minutes… that would be SO much more entertaining and amusing. (3 out of 5)
????????ELLE Horoscopes by The Astro Twins by Hearst – 4.1 out of 5, 21799 ratings, 85 reviews
Get your daily horoscopes from ELLE + The Astro Twins.
Random review:
This will hijack Alexa forever and just reenables itself no matter what you try
no other horoscope app will work.
Spam/malware Amazon needs to give a way to block them from all services
and devices (1 out of 5)
????????YouVersion Bible by Life.Church – 4.4 out of 5, 3451 ratings, 672 reviews
Listen to the Bible, daily Reading Plans and the Verse of the Day.
Random review: I just found out about this Bible app this morning. It seems to be a great app to have enabled, because even though I have been reading the plans and they daily verse and found it comforting, having Alexia read it to me made Mr feel as if I had a friend here with me, I live alone and am disabled so to hear another voice reading Bible scripture was so very comforting. I would recommend it to all. Just hearing the Word outloud helps me to understand more. (5 out of 5)
????????Good Night by Stoked Skills LLC – 4.5 out of 5, 3992 ratings, 563 reviews
Sleeping alone tonight? You are never alone when Alexa is beside you. Wish Alexa a good night and she will respond right back!
Random review: I’ve been using this skill for a few months now and i’m still loving it. I love ending the day by saying good night to alexa, and the responses seem to be updated pretty frequently. Thanks for making this! (5 out of 5)
????????Inspire Me by MerryOscar – 4.6 out of 5, 741 ratings, 465 reviews
????????4.6 out of 5, 208 ratings, 140 reviews
Start your day with inspirational audio from Alexa!
Random review: I am grateful to have found this app. I had to give up a wonderful career to cancer when I was only 45. I beat it but have been disabled since. I’m 62 now and have struggled for many years as to why I’m still here. Many of these learned speakers have brought me out of myself by reminding me how each day is can be a learning experience and is precious. (5 out of 5)
????????Fitbit by Fitbit, Inc. – 4.1 out of 5, 985 ratings, 141 reviews
Keep up with your fitness goals by checking Fitbit with Alexa. Stay in touch with your progress and get motivated as you go about your day.
Random review: I’m enjoying it so far, got a flex and charge hr for echo dot.
Wish the link in the description of this skill was a clickable hyperlink and not keep flipping the description between the “read more”/”read less” versions. I can’t even copy n paste the URL on my phone. (5 out of 5)
????????1-Minute Mindfulness | Peace One Minute at a Time by GeekGirl Marketing and App Development – 4 out of 5, 452 ratings, 110 reviews
1-Minute Mindfulness is a beginner meditation skill that allows you to take a 1-minute break from the world around you and enter into a one minute sound meditation.
Random review: Please eliminate the pre and post meditation spiel. Having to go through that every time just stresses me. (3 out of 5)
????????Everyday Positivity Flash Briefing by Volley Inc. – 4.5 out of 5, 81 ratings, 80 reviews
A daily piece of positivity to help lift your day and put you in the right state of mind to thrive.
Random review: I was enjoying this but every day the very lengthy beg and full instructions on various platforms about how to leave feedback has ruined it for me. That lasts as long as the actual positivity bit, it’s really off putting. If it continues ill be disabling it as I don’t want to sit and listen to that when I’m trying to get my morning started, if it stops then ill up my rating as the rest is quite good. (2 out of 5)
Night Night by Healing.fm – 4.5 out of 5, 164 ratings, 70 reviews
The Night Night skill says nice words, and acts as a night light by leaving Alexa’s flashing blue light on for a minute. It also plays a little lullaby! Perfect when you want to relax before bedtime or if you need some light in your room.
Random review: The only thing is that it doesn’t play for long enough! (4 out of 5)
????????Relaxing Sounds: Spa Music by Ektara – 5 out of 5, 2556 ratings, 2554 reviews
Spa Music will put you at peace. It will help you create your own spa experience and rejuvenate your body, mind and spirit. Perfect musical accompaniment for meditation, yoga, healing and complete relaxation.
Random review: Load this to Alexa the second time you ask for spa music to play Alexa tells you it’s free only if you give a 5 star review.
Honestly if you start this I will not be using your products. This only gives false information. Is it legal, I know amazon have been told to regulate this.
What do I get for free giving you a 5 Star
Actually truth is you never play spa music after asking about 3 times for some reason you want to play everything but spa music. Then when it does eventually play it’s very much the same, yes I know it’s supposed to be relaxing but it’s quite annoying with the same drone going for ever in the background.
I will be looking for another spa,tranquil music on Alexa.
TRUE RATING WOULD BE 2 STAR. take away 3 stars for the misunderstanding when being asked to play “spa music” and if I ask for next, to be played she will not do so unless I give a 5 Star review. So can’t comment on any more. (5 out of 5)
