“By the way,” Alexa sometimes says after responding to a command, followed by a random tidbit or suggestion you never asked for. Sound familiar?
To be fair, Alexa is just trying to be helpful with its “by the way” asides. Still, Amazon’s chatty voice assistant tends to butt in when it’s not wanted, making unnecessary announcements or overstaying its welcome with random digressions.
Luckily, there are plenty of ways to make Alexa pipe down. In some cases, all it takes is tapping a few toggles in the Alexa app. In others, a little hacking is involved.
Either way, we’ll guide you through the process—and in return, you’ll get a little peace and quiet.
Note: These tips are for the “classic” Alexa, not the new AI-supercharged Alexa. Alexa+ has begun rolling out in a small preview, but the vast majority of Alexa users are still saddled with the older version.
Turn off weather notifications
It’s always a good idea to keep abreast of dangerous weather conditions, particularly when it comes to heatwaves, flooding, tornadoes, and hurricanes.
But rip tides and wind advisories? That’s a little much—and besides, Alexa’s warnings might already be duplicating those you’re already getting from your phone, home security system, or another app.
Here’s how to turn Alexa’s weather notifications off, or adjust how they’re delivered:
- Open the Alexa app, then tap More, Settings, Notifications, then scroll all the way down to Weather.
- Tap Severe Weather Alert, then tweak the options. You can choose whether Alexa tells you about severe weather alerts repeatedly or just once, as well as whether you also want mobile push notifications.
- Finally, you can choose a delivery method: either out-loud Alexa announcements, or just standard notifications on your Alexa devices.
Turn off Amazon shopping notifications
If you’re worried about porch pirates, you might well want to know the moment an Amazon delivery lands on your doorstep.
That said, you might not want to hear every last detail about your incoming Amazon orders, such as when an Amazon package is out for delivery, whether your return made it back to the warehouse, or the status of a given “subscribe and save” item.
If you want to keep a lid of Alexa’s announcements about your Amazon shopping orders, here’s what you do.
- Open the Alexa app, then tap More, Settings, Notifications, and finally Amazon Shopping.
- Check out the various options and disable them as needed. For example, you can keep Alexa from announcing updates on items you’ve ordered or returned, or silence the “out for delivery” and “delivered” notifications.
- You can also put the kibosh on updates about your “Subscribe & Save” orders, or cease deal and reorder recommendations.
Turn off “Always follow up” mode for reminders
Alexa can become quite the nag when it comes to reminders, bugging you repeatedly until they’re marked as completed.
Now, perhaps you want Alexa to stay on your case about tasks, chores, taking prescription medications, or anything else you need to be reminded about. But if Alexa’s repeated reminders about your reminders are driving you mad, give this a try.
- Tap More, Settings, Reminders.
- Scroll down and disable the Always follow-up option to keep Alexa from bugging you about reminders that haven’t been marked as completed.
- While you’re at it, you can reduce the number of times Alexa announces a reminder (the range is between one and three times).
Turn on Brief Mode
Even during everyday interactions, Alexa can be overly chatty, starting from the moment you say the “Alexa” wake word and though the completion of a given voice command (“Your lights are off now”).
If you just want Alexa to do your bidding with a minimum of fuss, give this setting a shot.
- Tap More, Settings, Voice Responses.
- Enable Brief Mode.
Now, Alexa should be much quieter when obeying your commands, acknowledging the completion of most tasks with a simple beep.
Keep “by the way” at bay
So, if you thought Brief Mode would put a stop to Alexa’s “by the way” asides, think again.
Even with the Brief Mode setting enabled, “by the way” will still manage to crop up every so often, typically after you’ve asked Alexa to perform a task.
The bad news is that there’s no Alexa setting that reliably banishes the “by the way” digressions for good. The good news is that an Alexa hack discovered by Reddit users can help keep “by the way” at bay.
The hack (which, as noted, comes from Reddit, by way of AFTVnews) involves simply telling Alexa to “stop By the Way.” Easy—except Alexa will only stop the “by the ways” temporarily.
This feature is part of TechHive’s in-depth coverage of the best smart speakers.
A more permanent solution is to create a routine that issues the “stop By the Way” command every day.
- Tap More, Routines, then tap the “+” button in the top-right corner of the screen.
- Go ahead and name the routine (maybe “Stop by the way”), then add a triggering event, such as a given time each day (Schedule, At Time).
- Then, add an action. For this, tap Custom, then type “stop by the way.”
Now Alexa will remind herself each day to stop “by the way,” and—hopefully—your “by the way” days should be over.