Amazon Alexa has not hesitated, for some time, to make unsolicited suggestions. And if you want to get rid of it, it is far from simple.
“By the way”, three little words that Amazon Alexa has learned to say, even to repeat, all too often according to some, over the days. Because the digital voice assistant no longer hesitates to give you suggestions. Unsolicited suggestions on the one hand, and which are sometimes very far from your original intention on the other hand.
These suggestions can be irritating on a daily basis, especially since there is no clear parameter to deactivate them altogether. The only solution, ultimately, at this point at least, is to turn off anything you don’t want or need.
You can then reduce the number and severity, so to speak, of these interruptions. The suggestions won’t go away completely, but they will lessen the impact, sure.
If you absolutely want to get rid of these suggestions, our American colleague Dale Smith from CNET has found a solution that is to say the least extreme, but which involves making a lot of compromises that you are not necessarily ready to make.
The extreme method: become a child again
Amazon has a number of devices for kids, the Echo Kids and Echo Show Kids, with a display. All Amazon Echo devices, however, have a setting to switch to child mode, in its operation. And that means doing without these interruptions, but some other functionality is also limited.
In kid mode, for example, the music sticks to non-explicit songs. Communication is also limited – Drop-In is possible, but calls with Echoes outside the house, even those of friends or family are disabled -.
That being said, most of the basic smart speaker features – home automation control, time, weather, answering questions – work the same. The only way to know if you can live with the limitations of this mode is to try it. To do this :
- Open the Alexa app and tap on Devices in the menu then on Echo & Alexa.
- Scroll to the device you want to switch to kid mode and tap on its name.
- About halfway down the page, tap Amazon Kids, toggle the button, and tap Set up Amazon Kids on the next page.
- Select an existing child profile or tap Add child to create a new one and complete the operation.
Fewer restrictions, more interruptions
For those who do not want to limit the functionality of their Amazon Echo in this way, you will have to dive into the settings to find the options available to you.
One of the ways is to turn off the Things to Try setting. Either way, it’s a good idea to turn this feature off. In the Alexa app, go to More then Settings and then in Notifications, tap on Things to Try. Disable both options.
Everyone should change these Alexa settings
Hunches can be very handy, but some may find them too invasive. To turn them off, tap More in the Alexa app, then Settings and Hunches.
The other setting you want to turn on this time is Brief Mode, to turn off unnecessary responses from Alexa. The assistant will no longer repeat what it has just done to you. To activate, tap More, then Settings and Voice responses. From there, activate Brief Mode. While you’re at it, also activate Whisper Mode.
More Alexa settings you won’t regret turning off
If you’re like almost everyone else, you’ll get an email, text message, and push notification from the Alexa app every time an order ships or arrives. You don’t need your smart speaker to remind you any more.
The same menu that turns it off also has options for a whole bunch of unnecessary stuff: recommendations and offers, requests to note the products you’ve purchased, notifications for low amounts of this or that, etc.
Go to More then Settings and Notifications and finally Amazon Shopping. There, deactivate everything – if you want, of course -.
Also turn off Ads if you want
If you are looking for other things to turn off, you might be tempted to turn off Ads. These are announcements made by other humans – you or those with whom you live -. If you want your phone to notify you when someone has made an announcement from an Alexa device, leave it on.
And now, with these different parameters, Alexa should talk less without being asked. There may be other settings that help in this goal, please let us know.