Talking Newspaper instructions

Alexa

Once the skill is open the intro message will be played, this will vary as the skill gets more used to the user.

For the first time of opening or if the skill has not been used for a while, you will hear the standard welcome message, the user will then be asked for a Talking Newspaper name or the name of a town or city in the UK.

When providing a response to the Talking Newspaper or Area name we suggest the following should ensure a good user experience.

Talking Newspaper names, Alexa will only find the newspaper under the exact name that it has been added to the service as. Variations, or what is called synonyms can be added, so that shortened versions of the name, nick names or even mis spellings due to annunciation or pronunciation issues such as TN or Tee En can be accommodated. If you want any support with this, please contact us at alexa@blind.org.uk and we would be delighted to help you. Once these synonyms are set however, Alexa can provide the same response however the listener asks.

Area names in some instances are associated with other areas, for example, if you say Winsford, Alexa will respond with here are the newspapers nearest to Northwich. In Alexa it is not feasibly possible to add every area of the UK to the search as individual entries, there are literally ten thousand plus. This is completed by associating one or more area names to one entry, for example Northwich is associated with Vale Royal and Winsford. There are currently 555 area locations loaded into Alexa, so we are sure this will support users in finding the ones in their local area. The same action with synonyms can be completed for Area names, for any help or guidance please contact alexa@blind.org.uk and we would be delighted to help you again.

If having listened to a newspaper you return in any 24-hour period, Alexa will ask if you want to carry on listening, just say yes to carry on, or no to browse others.

If you listen to a regular newspaper after a period the skill will recognise this, Alexa will say Welcome back to Talking Newspapers I can see that you have been enjoying listening to (newspaper name). Do you want to listen to this newspaper?' You can simply say yes to play or no to browse others.

Moving between tracks, both "Alexa next track" and "Alexa previous track" can be used to move between tracks where there is more than one track for the publication you are listening to.

Whilst listening to a track you can fast forward or rewind, ask "Alexa ask Talking Newspaper to forward/rewind # seconds". The # denotes the number of seconds and this can be anything from 1 to 60. The audio will now carry on from this new position.

You can use the pause/stop or play functions whilst listening to any publication, ask "Alexa Pause" or "Alexa Stop" to stop the publication from playing, then maybe "Alexa Play" to resume playing. Or "Alexa Cancel" to completely exit from the skill.

Notifications can be set for a favourite publication; these will be suggested automatically or can be set manually or cancelled manually. If you are listening to a regular publication the skill will prompt you to set a notification for this. The skill will ask you if you want to set a notification for the publication, you can simply respond yes or no. Everyday the system checks at 8pm if the selected publication has been uploaded if this is the case it will send a notification to the users Alexa.

When a notification is present, the green/yellow notification ring will be lit on the users Alexa device. Ask "Alexa What's the notification", Alexa will confirm one new notification from Talking Newspaper, 'publication name' now airing on the Talking Newspaper Skill. The user can now open the skill and go and access the newspaper in the normal way.

A notification can also be set or cancelled manually, at the point where you are asked to select the Talking Newspaper name or Area name, ask "Alexa set a notification", you will be asked which publication name to provide this you will then be asked to confirm this.

The same for cancelling a current notification, when asked for a Talking Newspaper or area name, ask "Alexa cancel the notification" you will be asked do you want to cancel the notification for the named publication, confirm yes to complete or no to cancel.

Google

Once the skill is open the intro message will be played, you will hear the standard welcome message, the user will then be asked for a Talking Newspaper name or town or city in the UK.

When providing a response to the Talking Newspaper or Area name we suggest the following should ensure a good user experience.

Talking Newspaper names, Google will only find the newspaper under the exact name that it has been added to the service as. Variations, or what is called synonyms can be added, so that shortened versions of the name, nick names or even mis spellings due to annunciation or pronunciation issues such as TN or Tee En can be accommodated. If you want any support with this, please contact us at alexa@blind.org.uk and we would be delighted to help you. Once these synonyms are set however, Google can provide the same response however the listener asks.

Area names in some instances are associated with other areas, for example, if you say Winsford, Google will respond with here are the newspapers nearest to Northwich. In Google it is not feasibly possible to add every area of the UK to the search as individual entries, there are literally ten thousand plus. This is completed by associating one or more area names to one entry, for example Northwich is associated with Vale Royal and Winsford. There are currently 555 area locations loaded into Google, so we are sure this will support users in finding the ones in their local area. The same action with synonyms can be completed for Area names, for any help or guidance please contact alexa@blind.org.uk and we would be delighted to help you again.

If you listen to a regular newspaper after a period the skill will recognise this, Alexa will say Welcome back to Talking Newspapers I can see that you have been enjoying listening to (newspaper name). Do you want to listen to this newspaper?' You can simply say yes to play or no to browse others.

Moving tracks, both "Hey Google next track" and "Hey Google previous track" can be used to move been tracks where there is more than one track for the publication you are listening to.

You can use the pause/stop or play functions whilst listening to any publication, ask "Hey Google Pause" or "Hey Google Stop" to stop the publication from playing, then maybe "Hey Google Play" to resume playing. Or "Hey Google Cancel" to completely exit from the skill.

Currently there is no ability for Google to remember the position, nor to gather data on the users' habits. Suggestions and bookmarks are not available on the Google Skills currently, this may change in the future.