4 ways to fix Alexa’s problem communications skills on your Amazon Echo

In this article, we show you some simple settings that can help make your frustration with Alexa vanish.

You ask Alexa to perform many tasks throughout the day, from turning on the lights to playing music on your Amazon Echo speaker. But did you know you can change the way Alexa communicates with you, too? We’ll tell you how to enable these settings and more so that you have a better experience with your Amazon Echo.

Change Alexa’s speaking speed

If Alexa is talking too fast or too slow for you, you can tell it to speed up or slow down. Just say “Alexa, speak faster” or “Alexa, speak slower.” You can also reset it to its default speed by saying “Alexa, speak at your default rate.” Alexa has seven talking speeds — four faster, two slower and the default speed.

Echo can play a sound when Alexa is triggered

Once you’ve got your Amazon Echo up to speed, there’s another feature that’s especially useful for when you’re not in the same room as your Echo. It’s called Request Sounds and it plays a sound at the start of your request and the end. For example, when you say “Alexa” it’ll play a noise to let you know you triggered the device.

To enable this feature, open the Alexa app and tap Devices > All Devices > select your Echo > tap Sounds > and toggle on the switch for Start of Request and End of Request.

Hear shorter responses from Alexa

If you don’t like it when Alexa repeats everything you say, you can turn on a setting called Brief Mode for shorter responses. So instead of Alexa saying “OK, turning on the lights,” it’ll just say “OK.”

To turn the setting on, open the Alexa app menu and select Settings. Under the Alexa Preferences section, tap Voice Responses, then toggle the switch on for Brief Mode.

Whisper to Alexa

Another setting you’ll appreciate in the middle of the night is Alexa’s Whisper Mode. This setting allows Alexa to whisper back to you. You don’t even have to open the Alexa app for this one, just whisper to the voice assistant and it’ll automatically activate the low tone.

Now that you’ve got Alexa’s communication settings updated, here’s four top Amazon Echo features to perfect and improve now, three irritating Amazon Echo pet peeves and how to fix them and six Amazon Echo settings you won’t regret changing.

This article was published on April 28, 2020, by c|net and authored by Katie Connor.  To read the original article, you can visit this link – https://www.cnet.com/news/4-ways-to-fix-alexas-problem-communications-skills-on-your-amazon-echo/

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