New feature: Talk to Faithlife on your Amazon Echo!
Your Amazon Echo can play music, check the weather, and even order a pizza... but now it can do something much more important: read the Bible. With the Faithlife Skill, your Echo can read Bible verses, daily devotionals, prayers, and more.
http://alexa.amazon.com/spa/index.html#skills/dp/B01J6U1ABM/?ref=skill_dsk_skb_sr_0
Here are some of the things you can ask:
Read Jeremiah 29 verse 11- What is today's devotional? - Reads from Morning and Evening
- What is the verse of the day?
If you link your Faithlife account, you can also ask:
What should I pray for today?
What are my readings for today? - This uses your preferred Bible, and can also read from most books if you create a custom reading plan in Logos 6
It will even answer some trivia questions, such as: "Who were the apostles?", "What are the fruits of the spirit?", "What is the Lord's prayer?", and "What is the apostles' creed?"
This project was developed during one of our company hackathons and we're excited to release it today! What else would you like to see this skill do for you?
Comments
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Dustin Masters said:
What else would you like to see this skill do for you?
Alexa, please write this Sunday's sermon on John 8:12-20.
-Donnie
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Donnie Hale said:Dustin Masters said:
What else would you like to see this skill do for you?
Alexa, please write this Sunday's sermon on John 8:12-20.
-Donnie
LOL!
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The Oracle of Amazon can see all and tell all ...
[;)]Instead of Artificial Intelligence, I prefer to continue to rely on Divine Intelligence instructing my Natural Dullness (Ps 32:8, John 16:13a)
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Donnie Hale said:
Alexa, please write this Sunday's sermon on John 8:12-20.
I'm sorry, Donnie, I'm afraid I can't do that.
Instead of Artificial Intelligence, I prefer to continue to rely on Divine Intelligence instructing my Natural Dullness (Ps 32:8, John 16:13a)
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This is a wonderful "skill". Thank you!
The Alexa page really doesn't document everything you mentioned above. A list of all the commands would be advantageous.
Currently it only mentions
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Alexa, ask Faith Life to read Jeremiah 29 verse 11. -
Ask Faith Life, what should I pray for today? -
Ask Faith Life, what are my readings for today?
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Donnie Hale said:Dustin Masters said:
What else would you like to see this skill do for you?
Alexa, please write this Sunday's sermon on John 8:12-20.
-Donnie
Sure, would you like me to go ahead and preach it for you too...oh, by the way, any fries with that? Now get to work and stop playing!
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Cool!
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Alexa, at what age did Paul the Apostle convert or accept Jesus as His Savior?
(long pause)0 -
"Alexa, ask Faithlife for Help" to get some ideas on what you can ask.
What would you like to be able to ask Alexa, or type into the Command Bar, or ask Cortana, about the Bible, Logos.com, your Faithlife account, your church, etc.? Feel free to post your ideas or example conversations here.
Here are some of my ideas:
- What pre-pubs am I waiting for?
- What is the balance on my account?
- What’s new on Faithlife TV?
- Read me a Bible story
- Give me verses on Hope
- Teach me to pray (returns Lord’s Prayer)
- Show me the Verse of the Day
- What time is church on Sunday?
- What time is the Easter service?
- What happened today in Christian history?
- What is happening at church this week? / tonight / today → remind me (to have reminder sent)
- When is Easter?
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Here is my list, incomplete
- Contana: Open today's reading on X book.
- Open xxxx Layout
- Open the xxx Dictionary to yyy
- Open my preferred Bible commentary to Luke 5:8
- Open my Bible (Preferred Bible) to the Beatitudes
- Find all the miracles of Jesus in the book of John
- Open passage/exegetical guide to xxxx
- Use it to invoke any command from the Documents, Guide or Tool Menu
- Go to the home page
Mission: To serve God as He desires.
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A handicapped friend of mine suggested it would be nice to be able to use his voice to ask cortana to do searches, and have cortana read those same searches back... EG
Cortana: read book:ch:vs
Cortana: Search for xxx within xx words of xxx
Cortana: open (book title) and read.
I think there is some read aloud functionality now yes? Its not something I generally use... But for him bible study is a struggle as reading is for him a struggle. He seems to want to be able to control Logos from a headset by commanding cortana. Maybe what he really wants is "Logosana". hahaL2 lvl4 (...) WORDsearch, all the way through L10,
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i love this! But I can't seem to get Alexa to read from my preferred bible (ESV). it is. Set to ESV on all my iOS devices, what else is there to do?
thanks!
mc
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Read "Title of Book" and have it read where I last left off.
Look up "Word" and have it return the entry of the word in your top most Bible dictionary.
Do a Word Study on "Word" and have it return the entry from a lexical entry for the word.
How many times does Grace appear in Romans?
Just a few thoughts.
Dr. Kevin Purcell, Director of Missions
Brushy Mountain Baptist Association0 -
Can't locate the alexa skill either using the website or the app.
Does it still exist? I'm in the UK, does that make a difference? (There are hundreds of other skills available, just not Faithlife)
Thanks.
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It still exists and should be live, not sure why it's not appearing for you. I'll have a look.
Dustin
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Found the problem, the skill was not enabled for UK distribution. I have enabled that and submitted it for certification, it should be available soon.
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Many thanks, Dustin.
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Amazon has approved the skill for distribution in the UK.
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Does Cortana currently work with Logos 7?
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OK, so why is Alexa cool, and Cortana (sp?) annoying?
More serious question: does this all work with the new Echo Dot?0 -
Dustin, thanks for this skill but I do not have an Echo.
Would it be possible to hook up these skills to IFTTT? Then, it opens up a world of possibilities!
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This does not appear to be available in the U.K. Yet.
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Dustin Masters said:
Amazon has approved the skill for distribution in the UK.
Hi Dustin,
Happy new year!
This is still not showing up in list of skills (tried searching for Logos and Faithlife and bible etc) as of today (8th Jan 2017) in UK.
Do these things usually take a while?
James
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Dustin Masters said:
Amazon has approved the skill for distribution in the UK.
Hi Dustin, thanks for doing this. I didn't know about this skill so I can't wait to try it out :-)
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Still can't see it in the UK ? Any idea when it will be available.
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When I say the following:
Alexa "Ask Faith Life, what are my readings for today"
Alexa responds with "You have no reading for today".
Yet - I have Logos7 and have Faith Life study bible loaded on my Android with a plan to read the bible in a year. I see others have the same issue but I don't see anyone offering a solution.
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It does work with Echo Dot but I am having difficulty with reading plans. Other documented features work.
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Sorry about the "no readings" issue, I just shipped a fix.
How it works: Alexa picks the latest reading plan you have joined, and checks if there are any unread readings. It then reads out today's reading and marks it as read for you.
I'm unsure why the skill is still unavailable in the UK, is it visible here? https://www.amazon.com/Faithlife-Corporation/dp/B01J6U1ABM
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If you're curious about what reading plans you have joined, you can visit https://documents.logos.com and "Disconnect" from the ones you no longer want.
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Dustin Masters said:
I'm unsure why the skill is still unavailable in the UK, is it visible here? https://www.amazon.com/Faithlife-Corporation/dp/B01J6U1ABM
Yes it is visible there but not active (instead a link is provided to the generic uk skills page on amazon.co.uk) - However, it is not yet showing on that amazon.co.uk page !
I know there's nothing you can probably do at your end as it seems to be an amazon issue, but it seems to have taken a long time since you activated it for UK use back in November!
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I've just spoke to a person at amazon.co.uk . They have told me that the skill isn't on the uk catalog at the moment but they will add it for us.
Here is the transcript, less formatting because I can't work out how to copy it ......
Vishal:Hello, my name is Vishal. I'll be happy to help you today.Me:hiVishal:I understand that you would like to know regarding the faith life skill.Me:yes, thats it :-)Vishal:May I place this chat on hold for 2 minutes while I check this for you?Me:thanks no problem at allVishal:Thank you for staying connected.I've checked from my end and see that this skill is still not released in UK.Thank you for bringing this to our notice.I will take this as a feedback and forward this to our catalogue team to add this in the UK website.Me:Thats great, thanks for doing this. Any idea how long the process takes ?Vishal:Once it is updated, you will see it on the website.I will make sure that this skill is added on the website.Me:Thats great, thanksVishal:Your patience and understanding is highly appreciated in this regard.Me:Thanks Ill check back in a few days thenVishal:You're most welcome. Please let me know if there is anything else that I may assist you with today?Sure.0 -
Dustin Masters said:
Sorry about the "no readings" issue, I just shipped a fix.
How it works: Alexa picks the latest reading plan you have joined, and checks if there are any unread readings. It then reads out today's reading and marks it as read for you.
I'm unsure why the skill is still unavailable in the UK, is it visible here? https://www.amazon.com/Faithlife-Corporation/dp/B01J6U1ABM
I am using an Echo. I enabled the skill earlier today, but I was unable to use reading plans. I have now disabled it, then enabled it again with the same result. Alexa says: "Sorry, I'm having trouble accessing your Faithlife skill right now." This has been occurring for several hours.
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I keep getting the same response as you David and it's been for a couple of hours, that I'm aware of, here in California.
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I am also getting ""Sorry, I'm having trouble accessing your Faithlife skill right now.". Have not tried today yet but most of yesterday afternoon.
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Yes - Alexa works with Logos 7.
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What else would you like to see this skill do for you?
How about connecting Alexa to a Greek or Hebrew Lexicon to get definition of a biblical term. Not sure exactly how it would work but seems possible.
How about reading a commentary on a specific verse?
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Dustin Masters said:
If you link your Faithlife account, you can also ask:
How do you link the faithlife account?
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When you enable the skill you will be presented with a screen asking you to login to your Faithlife account. After you submit your Faithlife credentials, it tells you that the accounts are linked.
I did this once through my iPad app. Since it didn't get me connected to the reading plan, I subsequently disabled and re-enabled using a web browser connected to Amazon on Windows 10. I am still not connected to my reading plan, as reported above.
I did get Alexa to read the first assignment by manually asking her to read Genesis 1 through 3. I wish I could get her to slow up! I'll have to look more carefully on the app for that control.
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Thanks David
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This sounds very promising. I bought a couple of Dots, mainly as a way to hear my music files through our (very) old sound equipment (AirTunes was too flaky). Now, I'm discovering stuff like this nearly every day. Thanks FL, for arranging this.
macOS (Logos Pro - Beta) | Android 13 (Logos Stable)
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Dustin - Ever since you indicated that you just shipped a fix, I am getting "Sorry, I'm having trouble accessing your Faithlife skill right now"
I tried disabling skill and re-enabling skill. I also dropped the reading plan and re-added it but so far I just get "Sorry, I'm having trouble accessing your Faithlife skill right now"
It would be good to know that something is being fixed. I keep trying it every day to no avail.
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I also just tested it this morning to find that it is unable to access the Faithlife skill. However, the Faithlife app would still read the Bible.
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That is very bazaar...it works fine on my Alexa. We'll keep investigating.
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Dustin Masters said:
That is very bazaar...it works fine on my Alexa. We'll keep investigating.
Could you please give us the exact command you give to Alexa?
Also, what kind of reading plan are you using? Is it a canned plan or something that is customized?
Furthermore, is anyone, besides Dustin, able to use a reading plan?
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I am not finding it working well. I agree that it would help to have exact commands. Can I ask Alexa to read me a book in my library such as a commentary? I tried and it did not work. I need exact commands posted
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Ok, I tracked down the issue. Alexa's API has a limitation to how many words it will read aloud. If you blow past that limit, the skill returns an error. I will ship a fix in a few minutes to automatically truncate readings. Looks like their limit is 8000 words.
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You unfortunately cannot ask the skill to read books to you by name - a reading plan must be set up ahead of time. You can ask it to read bible verses, and it will use your preferred Bible to read the verse back to you.
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Hi Dustin, I have tried to get Amazon in the UK to release the skill and they said they would. I was wondering if there is anything more you can do from your end to get this out to us ?
Thanks
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As far as I can tell, our skill is set up to be distributed anywhere Amazon has a presence. Maybe your Echo is configured for a language that isn't English? That may cause the skill to disappear...
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Hi Dustin, it is something that appears to be nationwide. If I go onto amazon.com and search faithlife in skills I can see it. If I do exactly the same in amazon.co.uk it doesn't appear. I've spoken with amazon and they have told me it is not in their uk catalog. The rep also told me that they will add it. I am concerned though that the message won't getto the correct people. .
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