Not quite your tempo? You can now change the speed of Amazon Alexa's speech
Is Alexa rushing or dragging? Amazon has made it possible to adjust how fast its voice assistant talks.
The ability to change the speed that Alexa talks at was added to the voice assistant system last year. It makes Alexa work better for many, but particularly those who are hard of hearing and would like to have Alexa speak more slowly.
Amazon also points out that people who are blind or low vision are “used to consuming audio content and want to be able to listen more quickly.” If you use Alexa to listen to your Kindle books, the new feature could also be especially handy.
There are seven different speeds you can have Alexa talk at; two are slower than the normal speed and the other four are faster.
- To get Alexa to speak slower, just say “Alexa, speak slower.”
- To make it speak faster – you guessed it – say “Alexa, speak faster.”
Alexa will respond with: “Okay, I will speak at this speed from now on.”
In both cases, the command will move Alexa up or down by one notch, so if you want to speed/slow further, you’ll need to say the command again. As of right now there’s no way to ask Alexa to speak at a specific speed, or change it in the app.
Read this: The best Alexa Skills for your Echo speaker
When you change the speak that Alexa speaks at, it only changes the speed on the specific Echo smart speaker / Alexa speaker you’ve made the instruction to.
Should you want Alexa to return to its normal rate of speed, just say “Alexa, speak at your normal speed.”