Children’s edition Echo Dots redesigned by Amazon
Amanda Ringstad, Amazon
The Amazon Alexa voice assistant on your Amazon Echo can whisper. And you can also limit what he says when you talk to him.
I find it useful at home with a baby at home, when I don’t need Alexa to say “OK” every time I turn off the lights or when I need Alexa to be calmer when I ask about the weather at night.
There are two modes to activate: short mode and whisper mode, and they are very easy to do.
How to activate Alexa short mode and whisper mode
To turn on short mode, which makes Alexa talk less and remove things like confirmations from when you ask her to do something, just say “Alexa, turn on short mode.”
Or, you can do this if you are not close to your Eco:
- Open the Alexa app on your iPhone or Android phone.
- Tap “More” at the bottom right of the page.
- Choose “Settings”.
- Select “Voice Answers.”
- Enable “Short Mode”.
While you’re at it, you may want to turn off Alexa’s suggestions for buying stuff. He did it while writing this guide and asked me if I wanted fun gift suggestions. No thankyou.
To turn it off, do the following:
- Open the Alexa app on your iPhone or Android phone.
- Choose Settings.
- Tap Notifications.
- Select Amazon Shopping.
- Disable the option to “receive personalized recommendations and offers based on your purchasing activity.”
- Also disable “requests to rate products you’ve purchased” if you don’t want these messages either.
- Turn off the option to receive “Order Updates (Inc. Subscription and Savings)” notifications if you don’t want to save money by subscribing to monthly shipments.
Finally, there is the Whisper mode. The easiest way to activate this is to simply whisper to Alexa. Say something, like “How long ago,” but murmur it instead of talking. Alexa will answer again in a whisper.
This is!