When Apple first launched Siri, they kept it wrapped up pretty tight where it would pretty much only work with native iOS apps. Amazon approached Alexa completely opposite where right out of the gate, they encouraged developers to take advantage of it to create apps and devices that leveraged Alexa.
In fact in their latest Alexa development efforts, Amazon has announced what they are calling Alexa Skill Blueprints. While developers could already create skills for Alexa, it does require some tech/coding knowledge, but with Blueprints, the aim is to allow anyone to create a custom skill for Alexa for use on their own Echo device.
This means that users can create family-specific Alexa skills designed to be used only in their homes, and this can be done without necessarily requiring any kind of programming knowledge. For example you could create your own interactive story that only you and your children have access to, or roast family members with funny quotes, or tell jokes, create trivia, and so on.
It is no doubt an interesting direction that Amazon is taking and if you’re already part of the Alexa ecosystem, then this could definitely be worth checking out.