Teach Alexa to use its indoor voice
Sometimes it seems Alexa missed the class on learning to use your “indoor voice.” For this reason, you might avoid talking to Alexa late at night, lest it wake up the kids or other soon-to-be-grumpy members of the house.
But there’s no need, because Alexa has a great feature called Whisper Mode: whisper to Alexa and it’ll whisper back.
The feature is available on all Alexa smart speakers, from the Echo Dot to the Sonos One, and it’s worth switching on, even if you’re rarely going to use it.
If you have an Alexa speaker in your bedroom, for example, there may be times you want to ask Alexa to do something without waking your partner.
Here’s how to get Whisper Mode on Alexa up and running…
How to enable Whisper Mode on Alexa
There are three ways to enable Whisper Mode on Alexa. One is to simply say, “Alexa, turn on Whisper Mode” to your Echo speaker.
The second is to whisper a command to Alexa and it will respond back “I think you just whispered to me, from now on I will respond in Whisper Mode. You can change this in settings.”
The third method requires going through the app, and it should apply Whisper Mode to all the devices linked to your account. Here’s how:
1) Open the Alexa app, hit More (bottom right corner).
2) Tap on Settings.
3) Choose Voice Responses (under Alexa Preferences).
4) Toggle Whispered Mode on.
Whisper Mode: How to use it properly
Congrats – no more waking the baby. Other than speaking more quietly, Alexa behaves just the same when in Whisper Mode.
That said, there are things to consider. The big one is that background noise is more likely to interfere with Alexa’s listening skills, so while you’d otherwise be able to talk across the room to your Alexa smart speaker, you’ll need to be a bit closer for Alexa to hear you.
The other thing to remember is that Alexa will only whisper back if it hears you whispering; if you talk to it in your normal voice – even with Whisper Mode on – it will respond at a normal volume.
If you’ve got Follow-Up mode turned on, you can continue to use this with Whisper Mode.
More Amazon Alexa how-tos
- How to control Sonos with Alexa
- How to use Echo Buttons to trigger Alexa routines
- How to play podcasts with Alexa on your Amazon Echo
- How to control Amazon Fire TV using your Echo speaker
- How to use Alexa to control your lights and devices
- How to use your Amazon Echo with Alexa as the perfect alarm clock
- How to set up and use Alexa Routines for a smarter home
- How to view security camera footage on your Amazon Echo devices
- How to set up and use Alexa Drop In and Calling on your Amazon Echo
- Alexa and Spotify guide: How to connect and use with your Amazon Echo
- Alexa Brief Mode explained: How to turn it on and how it works
