Develop Smart Home Add-ons for Multiple Languages
You can create smart home add-ons that respond to customer utterances in different languages. For each language that you support, Alexa interprets the customer utterance and sends a corresponding directive to your add-on at the appropriate Amazon Web Services (AWS) Lambda function endpoint.
For more details, see Connect Your Device Cloud with Smart Home Add-ons and Steps to Build Smart Home Add-ons.
Determine language support
Language support varies by interface. Before you target a new language, verify that each interface that you implement in your add-on supports the new language. For details, see List of Alexa Interfaces and Supported Languages.
Based on interface support, a smart home add-on can support a single language, or any combination of the following available languages:
- Arabic (SA)
- Dutch (NL)
- English (AU)
- English (CA)
- English (IN)
- English (UK)
- English (US)
- French (CA)
- French (FR)
- German (DE)
- Hindi (IN)
- Italian (IT)
- Japanese (JP)
- Portuguese (BR)
- Spanish (ES)
- Spanish (MX)
- Spanish (US)
Create multiple language versions of an add-on
You can create a smart home add-on and add a new language, or you can create a new add-on that supports multiple languages.
To add a language to an existing add-on in the Alexa developer console
- Sign in to the Alexa developer console.
- On the Skills tab, under SKILL NAME, find the add-on that you want to add an additional language to.
- Under ACTIONS, expand the dropdown list in your add-on's row, and then select Edit.
- You use the language dropdown list at the top of the sidebar to add a new language and switch between languages. Expand the dropdown list, and then select Language settings.
- On the Language settings page, select + Add new Language, and then select the new languages that your add-on supports.
- Configure the settings for each language on the Build and Distribution pages.
To create a new add-on that supports one or more languages in the Alexa developer console
- Sign in to the Alexa developer console.
- On the Skills tab, choose Create Skill.
- On the Create a new skill page, provide the following information:
- For Skill name, enter the name for your add-on. You can configure language-specific names for the Alexa Skills Store in a later step.
- For Primary locale, choose a default language for your add-on.
- To continue, choose Next.
- For Choose a type of experience, select Smart Home.
- For Choose a model, select Smart Home.
- For Hosting services, select Provision your own.
- To continue, choose Next.
- Review your selections, and then at the top of the page, choose Create Skill.
- You use the language dropdown list at the top of the sidebar to add a new language and switch between languages. Expand the dropdown list, and then select Language settings,
- On the Language settings page, select + Add new Language, and then select the languages that your add-on supports.
- Configure the settings for each language on the Build and Distribution pages.
Allow additional URLs with your OAuth provider
The account linking configuration that you provide in the developer console is global across different language versions of your add-on. However, each AWS Lambda region for a multi-language add-on has a different redirect URL. To account-link your add-on to a device cloud and test your add-on, you must allow each redirect URL with your OAuth 2.0 provider. After you add one or more languages to your add-on, copy the redirect URLs in the developer console. For details, see Alexa Redirect URLs.
To find the redirect URLs in the Alexa developer console
- Navigate back to your add-on in the developer console.
- On the Smart Home page, under 3. Account Linking, choose Setup Account Linking.
Or, from the left menu, select ACCOUNT LINKING. - Scroll down to Alexa Redirect URLs, and then copy the URLs.
- Add these URLs to your OAuth provider configuration.
Deploy your Lambda function to multiple regions
Alexa interprets a customer request for you whether it's in German or English, and sends the correct directive to your add-on. You write code that receives these directives from Alexa and communicates with the cloud-connected devices that your add-on supports. Your add-on code is hosted as an AWS Lambda function in the region closest to your customers.
To enable multiple locale support, you must deploy your AWS Lambda function code to multiple AWS regions. For example, if your add-on supports English in the US and the UK, you deploy your add-on code to both US East and EU regions. For detailed steps to create and configure a Lambda function, see Add a Lambda function.
The following table lists the Alexa endpoint region and associated AWS Lambda region that you must use for each language and locale. If a language or country isn't shown in the table, see Countries without native language support.
| Add-on language and locale | AWS Lambda region | Alexa endpoint region |
|---|---|---|
| Arabic (SA), English (CA), English (US), French (CA), Portuguese (BR), Spanish (MX), Spanish (US) | US East (N. Virginia) | North America |
| Dutch(NL), English (IN), English (UK), French (FR), German (DE), Hindi (IN), Italian (IT), Spanish (ES) | EU (Ireland) | Europe and India |
| English (AU), Japanese | US West (Oregon) | Far East and Australia |
Countries without native language support
You can publish your smart home add-on in a country even if Alexa doesn't support languages commonly spoken in that country. To offer your add-on in a country without native language support, select the default add-on language, and then select the AWS Lambda and Alexa endpoint regions based on the country where you want your add-on to be available.
The following table shows the valid languages and AWS Lambda and Alexa endpoint regions by country.
| Country | Supported add-on languages | AWS Lambda region | Alexa endpoint region |
|---|---|---|---|
|
Argentina, Chile, Colombia, Costa Rica, Peru |
English(US) |
US East (N. Virginia) |
North America |
|
Belgium, Luxembourg, Switzerland |
French (FR), German (DE), Italian (IT) |
EU (Ireland) |
Europe and India |
|
Denmark, Finland, Norway, Poland, Portugal, Sweden, Turkey |
English (US) |
US East (N. Virginia) |
North America |
|
Indonesia, Malaysia, Philippines, Singapore, South Korea |
English (US) |
US East (N. Virginia) |
North America |
|
Other country |
English (US) |
US East (N. Virginia) |
North America |
Send events to the correct URL
If you send asynchronous responses and events, you must send them to the correct Alexa event gateway. The event gateway varies depending where you host your Lambda function. When you send a message to the Alexa event gateway, send it to the endpoint that aligns with the geographic availability of your add-on. The following list shows the Alexa regions and associated endpoints.
- North America:
https://api.amazonalexa.com/v3/events - Europe and India:
https://api.eu.amazonalexa.com/v3/events - Far East and Australia:
https://api.fe.amazonalexa.com/v3/events
Provide the ARN numbers for your add-on in the developer console
To access the Lambda function that contains your add-on code, Alexa uses the Amazon Resource Name (ARN). The ARN defines the endpoint location of the Lambda function. To establish the link between Alexa and the Lambda function in each geographic region, you provide the ARN in the add-on configuration in the developer console.
To configure regional endpoint in the Alexa developer console
- Navigate back to your add-on in the developer console.
- On the Smart Home page, under 2. Smart Home service endpoint, choose the geographic regions that apply, such as Europe, India.
- Enter the ARN for the Lambda endpoint in the text boxes provided. For the association between the add-on language and AWS Lambda region, see Deploy Your Lambda Function.
- If your add-on only supports one language/region, provide the same ARN for the default ARN and the selected regional ARN.
- If your add-on supports multiple languages/regions, you must provide ARNs for each region. Provide one of the regional ARNs for the default.
- Choose SAVE.
Enable, account link and test your add-on in multiple languages
Test your add-on with an account for each language that you support. To find your add-on in the Alexa app, tap More, tap Skills & Games, and then tap Your Skills in the upper right corner. To test, you need cloud-connected devices that can be discovered by an Alexa-enabled device.
Although Alexa provides the language handling for you, you should test your add-on in all languages that it supports. Make sure that your add-on works with the utterances relevant to the smart home interfaces that your add-on and target language support.
Provide launch information for each language
Configure the settings for each language on the Distribution page. To pass certification, you must provide values for these fields in the each language that your offer the add-on.
- One Sentence Description
- Detailed Description
- Keywords
- Small and Large Icons
Define add-on details for each language and add-on availability
Customers who interact with Alexa in a particular language can use smart home add-ons that support that language. For example, a customer might set their Alexa device to use German. That customer can enable and use any published add-ons that support German that are available in the Alexa Skills Store in their country or region.
Define add-on details for each language
For each language that your add-on supports, configure the settings on the Distribution page in the developer console and choose where you plan to distribute your add-on. In the testing instructions, include test credentials for each language version of your add-on.
To pass certification, you must provide values for the following fields in the each language that your offer the add-on.
- One sentence description
- Detailed description
- Example phrases
- Small and large icons
- Keywords
- Privacy questions
- Testing instructions
Define add-on availability
Add-on availability applies to all languages that your add-on supports. You can choose the option to distribute your add-on in all countries where Amazon distributes add-ons, or you can choose specific countries and regions. Distribution is independent of language. An add-on can be available in a particular country or region even if it doesn't support languages commonly spoken in that region.
Because a smart home add-on relies on cloud-connected devices, you should consider whether the devices that accompany your add-on are available to customers and function correctly in a particular country/region.
Related topics
Last updated: May 01, 2026
