MILLIONS of gadget fans own Amazon smart speakers – but few have truly mastered them.
We reveal some of the best Alexa tips and tricks that you need to know about.
1
Hide Amazon orders
You can stop your Amazon account from letting your smart speaker know what you’ve ordered.
Open the Alexa app on your phone and go to “Settings”.
Find “Notifications” and then click “Amazon Shopping”.
Find the section that says “Say or Show Item Titles” and then turn this off.
Now Alexa can tell you when a package is going to be delivered but it won’t say specifically what the package is so Christmas or a birthday won’t be ruined.
Whisper!
Amazon’s Alexa has a secret mode you’ve probably missed.
It’s called Whisper Mode, and it’s designed to allow night-time Alexa conversations that won’t wake up your entire house.
One of the biggest niggles with using Amazon’s voice-controlled Alexa virtual assistant is her loudness.
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It makes using her at night – or early in the morning – a major issue.
Tinkering with volume settings can be a pain, and even when you do that, Alexa’s voice doesn’t actually become any softer
But Whisper Mode fixes that, tweaking Alexa’s voice so that she sounds hushed.
Just say “Alexa, turn on Whisper Mode”.
New voice
It’s possible to change Alexa’s voice at any time.
One option is to say “Alexa, change your voice”.
Alternatively, open the Alexa app and go to the Devices tab.
Then choose the device you want and press Settings.
Now go to General and choose Alexa’s Voice.
You can listen to audio samples for available voices, and then choose the one that you like the most.
