Millions of people have adopted smart speakers, and especially Alexa. With the smart speaker sitting in our living rooms or kitchen tables, it’s quite obvious that we converse with her on a daily basis. However, screaming out the same wake words, that is “Hey Alexa” can get pretty monotonous. Voice technology was invented to help humans have a humane interaction with gadgets. Barking the same wake word kind of deems the whole purpose redundant, since it feels pretty robotic in itself when we do that.
But thank god, unlike its rivals, Amazon has settings that can help change the wake word of its smart speakers. This comes especially handy if your roommate/ someone you’re living with (even your dog) has the same name as the smart speaker – that is – Alexa.
Things can get pretty tricky every time you call out your smart speaker but have your roommate answering or your dog gawking at you instead.
Amazon allows its users to change the wake word to add a pinch of variation to the customer experience regarding Echo devices. Also, if you have an accent-fetish and want a different accent to interact with on the daily, there are configurative steps for this as well!
Amazon and Techstars have also teamed up yet again for the Alexa 2020 Next Stage program to revamp Alexa all together. Learn more about it here.
We’ve listed a few simple steps below to walk you through the way you can change the wake word of your smart speaker, and also its accent. You can also enable Samuel L Jackson for Alexa!sss
How to Change Alexa’s Name/Wake Word
It’s quite natural to get sick and tired of calling out to Alexa with the same name over and over again. Luckily, Amazon lets you jazz this feature up by tweaking the wake word according to your preference. And we can’t be thankful enough, because it makes the whole interaction and conversation with a smart device more human. Wasn’t this the main motto of voice-technology in the first place?
Let’s see how to change the wake word now!
- Launch the Alexa app.
- In the app menu, click on Devices.
- Tap on Wake Word.
- Pick the one you want, and then click OK.
- Once the orange light stops flashing, you can rest assured that the new name or wake word is now functioning.
Changing Alexa’s Voice/Accent
If you’re tired of the same tones, the same pitch and the same high and lows in Alexa’s voice, it’s time to jazz it up! It’s already disappointing that Alexa can’t be switched over with a male voice (unlike Apple’s Siri), however, you can always switch its accent! Here are the steps to help you through:
- Launch the Alexa app.
- In the app menu, select Alexa Devices.
- Choose the device whose voice you would like to change
- Then, scroll down and click on Languages.
- Click the drop-down menu and choose the language of your choice.
- Now click on Save Changes.
And that’s it! That’s all you need to do to enliven your smart device experience. If not face-to-face conversations, we hope your conversations with your smart speaker keep you going in this pandemic.
