Programmatically enter pauses or long delays in Alexa Skill Capturing Input

Question

I work for NLI, and I just created a skill in which I have a largely open microphone session with our Alexa skill through Amazon echo. Everything works fine, and I can have an open dialogue with our knowledge base, without having to attribute anything with Alexa.

When I demonstrate this skill, inevitably someone in the room interrupts and wants to know how NLI works. If I turn off the echo or do not ask him questions or do not answer his questions for a short period of time, the skill expires. Then I have to start interacting again, but I ask Alexa to start MySkillInvocation.

Question:

Is there a software way to extend the waiting period when listening to a response from Alexa Ask Response? Perhaps even a way to programmatically pause a skill?

Answer 1

The question of whether the timeout is configured is asked in the thread on the Amazon developer forum , here is the answer from the Amazon resource as of April 22, 2015:

The current setting is 8 seconds, which is not configurable.

Thanks,

Nick

I could not find any documentation to suggest that this situation has changed since then, unfortunately.

Answer 2

As @sphanley mentioned, you cannot control the timeout. When there is a timeout, you will actually get a "SessionEndedRequest". What you can do is wait for this request and save the session information, so when you open the skill again, you will resume work from where you left.