Hope you had a great weekend. This blog is exclusive for Alexa as I received a few queries on this topic from from our patrons. Would like to share my response here as well, in case you had them in mind.
Would I need to buy an Alexa device (echo, echo dot etc.) to converse with valluvar.ai bot?
No. You do not need to buy any additional device to converse with the bot. You can converse with valluvar.ai (or any Amazon skill) from an Apple or Android smartphone through the 'Amazon Alexa' app. This app is available in both Google Playstore and Apple Appstore. Here are the high level steps.
Find 'Amazon Alexa' in your app store and install the app.
Launch the app on your phone and use your amazon login to connect.
Search for the skill 'valluvar' under 'Skills & Games' and enable the skill.
You would need to give the required permissions for the app to access the microphone of your mobile device.
You could start Alexa (click the button with the Alexa logo in the centre) from the app and launch the Valluvar.ai bot by uttering the following invocation phrase - Alexa, launch relevant kurals
There is also a demo video (titled - Valluvar.ai - Alexa on Mobile) for the above (for both Android and Apple), that could be accessed from the Demo page.
I followed the above steps, but I'm unable to find Valluvar skill in 'Skills and Games' through the Alexa App.
As of today (Jan 21 2019), Valluvar.ai is enabled for languages English (US) and English (IN). We will soon enable the bot for the following languages too - English(UK), English(CA), English(EU) and English(AU).
The above questions are added to the FAQ section too. Please do check out the various resources in the website (FAQ, Demo, Blogs) if you face a problem while using the bot. As always, if you do not find your answers there, feel free to contact us anytime and we will respond in less than 24 hours.
Have a great week ahead !