Patent attributes
A speech-processing system may provide access to multiple virtual assistants. Speech-processing systems may perform actions for or on behalf of users with the aid of skills; e.g., a shopping skill, navigation skill, communications skill, etc. Some skills may be associated with more than one assistant. The speech-processing system may determine which assistant to invoke upon receiving a command from a user device. The identity of the virtual assistant is propagated to the skill and the device, as well as other components of the speech-processing system. In some cases, however, a multi-assistant skill may determine that an assistant other than the one initially selected by the speech-processing system is to handle the command. The skill may send the identity of the new assistant back to the speech-processing system. The speech-processing system may restart the command dissemination process to provide each component of the system with the updated assistant identity.