Push content to Amazon Echo

Question

Is there a way to push content and/or make Amazon Echo to start the conversation. I tried building Alexa skill - however it is activated only after specifying the wake word.

My use case it to make Amazon Echo to announce if there is Nagios Alert or CloudWatch alert being told by Amazon Echo; then continue asking what happened and get the conversation going on.

Is there an API already or work around to do that ?

Answer 1

Based upon what I learned from the AWS re:Invent 2016: Tips and Tricks on Bringing Alexa to Your Products (ALX304) presentation, an Alexa device will only initiate activities. It cannot be used as a destination for a 'pushed message'.

One exception is that a skill can initiate a conversation that asks for responses. It sends questions to the device, and the user responds by voice. However, this has to be initiated from the device.

For a list of other Alexa-related talks, see: AWS re:Invent 2016 Sessions