After Alexa fulfills a command, you might hear an unexpected “By the way” followed by a random suggestion or tip. Does that sound familiar?
To be fair, Alexa’s “by the way” interruptions are meant to be helpful. Yet, this chatty voice assistant often interjects when least needed, making unnecessary remarks or lingering with off-topic digressions.
Thankfully, there are several ways to quiet Alexa. In some instances, you can adjust a few settings in the Alexa app. In others, a bit of customization is necessary.
Regardless of the method, we’ll walk you through the process, ensuring a more peaceful interaction with Alexa.
Turning Off Weather Notifications
It’s crucial to stay updated on severe weather events like heatwaves, floods, tornadoes, and hurricanes. But warnings about rip tides or wind advisories? That might be overkill, especially if you’re already getting similar alerts from your phone or other apps.
Here’s how to adjust or disable Alexa’s weather notifications:
- Open the Alexa app, tap More, Settings, and then Notifications. Scroll down to Weather.
- Tap Severe Weather Alert and customize the options. You can choose whether Alexa repeats severe weather alerts or mentions them just once. You can also enable or disable mobile push notifications.
- Finally, select a delivery method: voice announcements from Alexa or standard notifications on your devices.
Silencing Amazon Shopping Notifications
If you’re worried about package theft, timely updates on your Amazon deliveries might be essential.
However, you may not want to hear every little detail about your orders, such as when a package is out for delivery, if your return reached the warehouse, or the status of a “Subscribe & Save” item.
To manage Alexa’s shopping notifications, follow these steps:
- Open the Alexa app, tap More, Settings, and go to Notifications. Select Amazon Shopping.
- Review the available options and disable the notifications that aren’t necessary. For instance, you can prevent Alexa from announcing updates on orders or silence the “out for delivery” and “delivered” alerts.
- You can also disable updates for “Subscribe & Save” orders and stop deal and reorder recommendations.
Disabling the “Always Follow Up” Mode for Reminders
Alexa can be quite persistent with reminders, nagging you repeatedly until they’re marked as completed.
If these constant reminders are more annoying than helpful, you can tone them down:
- Tap More, then Settings, and select Reminders.
- Scroll down and disable the Always Follow-up option to stop Alexa from repeatedly reminding you about incomplete tasks.
- Additionally, you can reduce the frequency of reminder announcements, with options ranging from one to three times.
Activating Brief Mode
Even during routine interactions, Alexa can be overly talkative, from the initial “Alexa” wake word to the conclusion of a command.
If you prefer a more concise interaction:
- Tap More, then Settings, and select Voice Responses.
- Enable Brief Mode.
- Alexa will now acknowledge most commands with a simple beep, reducing unnecessary chatter.
Curbing the “By the Way” Asides
If you thought Brief Mode would eliminate Alexa’s “by the way” remarks, think again.
These comments might still appear occasionally, usually after you’ve asked Alexa to do something.
While there’s no foolproof setting to remove “by the way” remarks permanently, a handy hack from Reddit users offers some relief.
This hack involves telling Alexa to “stop By the Way,” though this only works temporarily. For a more permanent fix, you can create a routine that instructs Alexa to issue the “stop By the Way” command daily.
- Tap More, then Routines, and tap the “+” button in the top-right corner.
- Name the routine (something like “Stop by the way”) and set a triggering event, such as a specific time each day.
- Add an action, tap Custom, and type “stop by the way.”
With this routine in place, Alexa should remind herself to stop the “by the way” comments, hopefully bringing those interruptions to an end.