How to Customize Your Amazon Alexa Settings for Privacy

In this article, I will outline 8 easy-to-update settings, which will customize Amazon Alexa to make her easier to work with. Each of these updates will take no more than a 1 minute to do.

Enable Brief Mode

Most people want Alexa to be as unnoticeable as possible. By using Brief Mode, Alexa gives you shorter replies. This is how to enable Brief Mode:

1. Open the Alexa app.
2. Press the hamburger icon in the upper left corner.
3. Enter the Settings menu.
4. Select Alexa Account.
5. Tap Alexa Voice Responses.
6. Enable Brief Mode.

Toggle Alexa Whispered Responses on

Do you wish that Alexa responded to your whispered commands with whispered responses? Good news, you can totally to that.

1. Open the Alexa app.
2. Press the hamburger icon in the upper left corner.
3. Enter the Settings menu.
4. Select Alexa Account.
5. Tap Alexa Voice Responses.
6. Select Whispered Responses on.

Connect Alexa to your favorite music service

As you probably know Alexa's Echo is a smart speaker, so it's not a bad idea to connect it to your favorite music service account for easy access.

Here's how to set up the connection:

1. Open the Alexa app.
2. Hit the hamburger icon in the upper left corner.
3. Enter the Settings menu.
4. Select Music.
5. If you see your favorite music service listed under Manage Services, select it > tap link Account > follow the linking instructions.
   If you don't see it the do this tap Link New service > choose the service name > press Enable To Use > follow simple linking instructions as the above step.
6. Return to the main Music settings tab and scroll down to the bottom, then tap Default Services.
7. Choose your preferred music service under Default Music Library. Select a Default Station if you want to as well.

Use your favorite news stations

One of the easiest ways to get your daily news on Alexa is with quick Alexa flash briefings. Naturally, you should customize your Alexa app to use flash briefing with the news sources you trust. Here's how:

1. Open the Alexa app.
2. Tap the hamburger icon in the top left corner.
3. Enter the Settings menu.
4. Scroll down to find Flash Briefing.
5. Select Add Content.
6. Choose a flash briefing or search for one by pressing on the magnifying glass in the upper right-hand corner.
7. Press Enable To Use.
8. Repeat the last 2 steps for as many flash briefings from different sources as you want.
9. All you have to do is say "Alexa, play my flash briefing" to hear the flash briefings you added in sequential order.

Plug your favorite sports teams into the Alexa app

Saying "Alexa, what's my sports update" will give you the latest news and scores for your favorite sports teams. However, Alexa needs to know what they are first. Here's how to inform her:

1. Open the Alexa app.
2. Tap the hamburger icon in the top left corner.
3. Enter the Settings menu.
4. Scroll down and hit Sports.
5. Press Add a Team.
6. Search for your favorite team. Choose it and tap Save in the upper right-hand corner to add it.
7. Repeat the last step for as many teams as you like.

Enter daily travel route to get traffic updates from the Alexa app.

Alexa can give you traffic info but first, the app needs to know your daily commute. This is how to set it up:

1. Open the Alexa app.
2. Tap the hamburger icon in the top left corner.
3. Enter the Settings menu.
4. Scroll down to tap Traffic.
5. Enter the appropriate info in the From and To fields.
6. Then all you have to do is say "Alexa, what's my traffic" to get a traffic update.

Toggle voice purchasing to shop with the Alexa app

Shopping with Alexa can be quite convenient. To set it up follow these steps:

1. Open the Alexa app.
2. Tap the hamburger icon in the top left corner.
3. Enter the Settings menu.
4. Press on your Alexa Account.
5. Select Voice Purchasing.
6. Enable Purchase by Voice.

Give the Alexa app access to your calendar

Just saying "Alexa, what's on my calendar tomorrow?" can be a huge time saver for your schedule. Also, if you own an Echo with a display, it will show all of your upcoming events. Here's how to enable this feature in the Alexa app:

1. Open the Alexa app.
2. Tap the hamburger icon in the top left corner.
3. Enter the Settings menu.
4. Scroll down to select Email & Calendar.
5. Press on Add Account.
6. Tap the calendar service name.
7. Enable Calendar.
8. Hit Connect Account.
9. Follow the linking instructions.