Applause today announced its crowdsourced testing (crowdtesting) service is now available to those who develop for the Amazon Alexa platform. This means regardless of whether companies and/or services are working on Alexa skills or devices featuring Amazon’s voice assistant technology, they now have the option to use Applause as a means to increase the level of testing prior to launch.
Applause is a crowdtesting company who already offers its solution to those developing for mobile apps, websites, and for various devices, while also drawing on the likes of Google, Uber, Slack and MasterCard as prime examples of some of its high-profile customers. Therefore, this latest announcement is more of an extension of its already available service to account for those who are specifically targeting Alexa skills and devices. The announcement also makes the case that a heightened level of quality control is even more relevant for devices such as those equipped with Alexa due to the “complex set of variables” involved with voice-activated and enabled hardware and software, in general.
Where Applause looks to add value is through its crowdsourcing nature, as the company claims it has access to more than 300,000 testers which can be used to verify features and services that are working, as well as identify any bugs or issues that might be present. As per the announcement, this includes all aspects of software testing, including user oriented features, payment transactions, and so on. Although this is something many quality control-focused services and businesses offer, Applause is quick to highlight that as its solution is based on a crowdsourcing approach, it is different – with its testers being everyday people. The added benefit therefore being the testing is not only available on a large scale, and across regions and languages, but is also undertaken in real-world situations. As Applause puts it, ts testers are “real people, on real devices.” According to the company, this approach to software quality control testing makes its service the “first and only in-the-wild, global testing service for Alexa skills and devices.” As mentioned, the Alexa element of the service is now live with more details available from the Applause website.
Applause.com