The number of smart speakers in UK households is rising every year as more people embrace and invest in voice-activated technology.
Arguably, the most popular are Amazon’s Alexa-enabled devices and the Google Nest range. The functionality of these pieces of stylish home tech have evolved considerably in just a few years. In fact, the latest Google Nest Hub smart display has the ability to track your sleeping habits using radar, and according to Techradar.com, Amazon is gearing up to launch a similar feature for its Echo devices.
Amazon has applied to the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) in the USA for permission to use a radar sensor in its future products, in order to sense motion and ‘enable contactless sleep tracing functionalities’.
The same motion-sensing technology could also be used to control an Echo device using hand gestures, something you can do with the Google Nest Hub and the Google Pixel 4 phones, thanks to the miniaturised radar sensors on board.
But, as more households get savvy with smart speakers and add these ‘listening devices’ to their daily routines, there are some features on Amazon Alexa-enabled devices - such as the Echo Dot and Echo Show that you may want to consider disabling.
Whether you want to protect your privacy or just make Amazon Alexa more efficient, there are several Echo smart speaker features you can switch off right now.
Sidewalk
Amazon is automatically activating a network sharing feature that will soon appear on most of the Alexa-enable devices that it sells in the UK. It went live in the USA on June 8.
The Sidewalk Bridge will fill in the gaps between your home network and devices using low-power wireless connections and essentially form a ring around your property. The potential range of the radio spectrum it uses is half a mile - more with some setups and locations.
When the Sidewalk Bridge in your house is active, wireless signals that reach outside your home to the sidewalk/pavement and beyond will allow any passing Sidewalk-enabled device (called a Sidewalk Endpoint) to instantly connect without the need for log in or password details.
However, Sidewalk will also help set up new Amazon products on your home Wi-Fi.
How to opt out of Sidewalk once it is available on your device:
- In the Alexa mobile app on your smartphone or tablet, go to More > Settings > Account Settings > Amazon Sidewalk. (You can't get to it on the desktop.)
- Change the toggle so it reads as ‘Disabled’
Drop in
Drop In is a handy feature if you want to check in with friends or family, or someone in a different room of your house.
It's not like a phone or video call that you have to answer, instead if you have the feature switched on, your friends and family can just 'Drop In' at any time to speak to you.
To change this, go to the Alexa app, click Devices > Communications and then toggle the Drop In settings to off.
Camera
This tip only applies to Echo Show devices - these are ones that come with an interactive screen that can be used for video calls, accessing Netflix, Amazon Prime, YouTube, Sky News and photo galleries.
To stop potential hackers accessing your Show device and thereby being able to view the room that it’s situated in, you can just turn off the camera when it’s not in use.
You can do this by toggling the manual switch at the top of your device - it looks like a camera shutter button.
Hunches / Follow-Up Mode
This is definitely one feature to turn off if you just want to avoid any unwanted interruptions, rather than concerns over hackers or third party access.
Hunches are follow-up questions that Alexa might ask and they could happen at any time - even in the middle of a conversation or telephone call.
If these start to get annoying, just go to the Alexa app, select your device, scroll down to Follow-Up Mode and toggle the feature off.
Skill Permissions
Apps and features on Amazon are known as ‘Skills’ and many are third party applications that you probably installed when you first got the device.
Taking a look at your Skill Permissions on the Alexa app will tell you what information the company wants access to. This can include payment details and your address.
To check which Skills you have enabled go to the Alexa app, click More > Settings > Alexa Privacy > Manage Skill Permissions.
Go through the Skills and turn anything off that you don't want Alexa to have access to.
Voice recordings
Many people are not aware that Amazon stores a history of all your collected requests and voice interactions with Alexa that are associated with your account.
Accessing your Alexa history on the app allows you to review, listen or delete the requests that your Alexa-enabled device has recorded.
To view and listen to voice recordings:
- Go to the Alexa app > More > Settings > Alexa Privacy > Review Voice History
To change recording settings or delete history:
- Go to the Alexa app > More > Settings > Alexa Privacy > Manage Your Alexa Data > Choose how long to save recordings
You also have the ability to choose how long recordings are saved for.
These include:
- Save recordings until I delete them
- Save recordings for 18 months
- Save recordings for 3 months
- Don’t save recordings
There are also a couple of Alexa settings worth switching on.
Brief Mode
This is handy if Alexa repeats things that you ask it to do such as playing a favourite playlist. Instead of reading out the full title of the playlist, including which music streaming platform it’s coming from, Alexa will just ‘beep’ an acknowledgment.
To turn Brief Mode on go to the Alexa app > More > Settings > Voice Responses and toggle.
Whisper Mode
This is a must-have if you don’t want to wake the whole house with a voice command.
It allows Alexa to hear whispered commands and also whisper back when it responds.
This setting is found in the same place on the Alex app as Brief Mode, go to More > Settings > Voice Responses and toggle Whisper Mode on.
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