First things first, there are a metric ton of settings for Alexa. If you go to the app’s “More” menu and start digging in, you’ll find many things you might not have known about. Moreover, Alexa settings are very poorly organised which makes it harder to find ones you care about.

  • Automatically Delete Voice Recordings
  • Use Brief Mode
  • Use Conversation Mode/ Follow-Up Mode
  • Enable Whisper Mode
  • Set up Your Default Music Streaming Service
  • Set up Household Profiles
  • Enable/Disable Drop In
  • Manage Skill Permissions
  • Adjust Echo Equaliser
  • Use Alexa Hands Free
  • Update Wake Word
  • Disable Shopping Notifications

1. Automatically Delete Voice Recordings

  • Tap on ‘More’ in the Alexa app and then tap on ‘Settings’.

While Alexa’s responses aren’t bad, they can be time consuming because it repeats basically every command you give it. If you’re like me and don’t want to hear Alexa tell you the action it performed every time you ask it to do something, turn on brief mode.

If you often give Alexa multiple commands one after another, it can be annoying to say ‘Alexa’ every time. This is especially true if you’re relying on Alexa’s contextual awareness features to ask questions based on your previous queries.

  • Tap on ‘Device Settings’ and select the device you want to enable conversation mode on. In this example, I’m using the Echo Dot in my bedroom.

Alexa also comes with a useful whisper mode. This is quite important especially if you’re trying to give Alexa commands without having it respond out loud and waking everyone up. With whisper mode, Alexa will reply to commands you whisper in a whisper of its own, which is great.

  • Tap on ‘Voice Responses’ and enable the toggle for ‘Whisper Mode’.

  • Select any of the options from the list of supported services.

6. Set up Household Profiles

If you have multiple people in your house, you should definitely set up household profiles. With these set up, Alexa will be able to recognise your voice and give you personalised answers. Moreover, it ensures that other people don’t accidentally get your calendar information when they are actually asking for their own.

Alexa’s “Drop In” feature is a handy thing to have if you like your friends and family having the ability to virtually drop in to talk to you anytime. With this feature, your contacts can directly send voice messages to your Alexa devices without you having the option to accept or decline the message.

Needless to say, this is a feature you don’t want enabled at all times. However, when you do, you can enable it really easily.

8. Manage Skill Permissions

9. Adjust Echo Equaliser

If you like using Alexa on your iPhone, for example, you know that you have to tap on the Alexa icon to talk to Alexa. If that’s not to your liking, you can actually enable hands free Alexa on iPhones as well.

Personally, I like using ‘Alexa’ as the wake word for my Echo Dot. However, if you don’t like it, or you just want to try something different you can actually change the wake word (hotword) as well.

  • Tap on ‘Device Settings’ and select the device you want to change the wake word for.

  • Disable the toggles for all the notification types.