How to get Amazon Alexa to talk less and to whisper

The Amazon Alexa voice assistant on your Amazon Echo can whisper. And you can also limit how much it says when you talk to it.

I’m finding it useful at home with a baby in the house, when I don’t need Alexa saying “OK” every time I turn off the lights, or when I need Alexa to be quieter when I’m asking the weather at night.

There are two modes you need to turn on: Brief Mode and Whisper Mode, and they’re really easy to do.

To turn on brief mode, which makes Alexa talk less and removes things like confirmations for when you ask it to do something, just say “Alexa, turn on brief mode.”

Or, you can do this if you’re not near your Echo:

• Open the Alexa app on your iPhone or Android phone.
• Tap ‘More’ on the bottom-right of the page.
• Choose ‘Settings.’
• Select ‘Voice Responses.’
• Turn on ‘Brief Mode.’

While you’re at it, you might want to turn off Alexa’s suggestions that you buy stuff. It just did that while I was writing this guide, asking if I wanted suggestions for funny gifts. No thanks.

To turn it off, do this:

• Open the Alexa app on your iPhone or Android phone.
• Choose Settings.
• Tap Notifications.
• Select Amazon Shopping.
• Turn off the option to “receive personalized recommendations and deals based on your shopping activity.”
• Also turn off “requests to rate products you’ve purchased” if you don’t want those messages, either.
• Turn off the option to receive notifications for “Order Updates (Inc. Subscribe & Save.)” If you don’t want messages about saving money by subscribing for monthly deliveries.

Finally, there’s Whisper Mode. The easiest way to turn that on is to simply whisper to Alexa. Say something, like “What’s the weather,” but whisper it instead of speaking. Alexa will respond back in a whisper.

That’s it!