How to enable Whisper mode on Amazon Alexa devices

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

I find this 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 quieter when I’m asking about the weather at night.

There are two modes you need to activate: Short Mode and Whisper Mode, and they are really easy to do.

To activate brief mode, which makes Alexa speak less and remove things like confirmations for when you ask her to do something, just say “Alexa, activate brief mode”.

Or you can do this if you are not close to your Echo:

• Open the Alexa app on your iPhone or Android phone.
• Touch ‘More’ at the bottom right of the page.
• Choose ‘Settings’.
• Select ‘Voice Answers’.
• Activate ‘Quick Mode’.

While you do this, you may want to turn off Alexa’s suggestions that you buy things. I just did it while I was writing this guide, asking if I wanted suggestions for funny gifts. No thank you.

To turn it off, do the following:

• Open the Alexa app on your iPhone or Android phone.
• Choose Settings.
• Touch Notifications.
• Select Amazon Shopping.
• Disable the option “Receive personalized recommendations and offers based on your purchasing activity.”
• Also disable “requests to review products you purchased” if you don’t want these messages, either.
• Disable the option to receive notifications for “Order updates (Inc. Subscribe and save.)” If you don’t want messages on how to save money when signing up for monthly deliveries.

Finally, there is the way to whisper. The easiest way to activate this is to simply whisper to Alexa. Say something, like “What’s the weather forecast”, but whisper instead of speaking. Alexa will respond in a whisper.

That’s it!