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Surprising Tips and Tricks to Get The Most Out of Alexa


Amazon Echo owners already know how smart this gadget is, because it’s empowered with Artificial Intelligence (AI). Alexa can not just make you groove but can also order take-aways, read news, weather updates, contact and attend calls and what not for you with a single voice-command. But then every device has some drawbacks and so does Alexa, but there is nothing a good settings change or update can’t do. To get hassle free response from Alexa, you need to make these settings:
Slow Alexa’s Speech Rate
Listening to Alexa’s response can be a struggle at times due to its speech rate. If you are also facing the same issue with it, you can set its speech rate in the settings option. Amazon Echo lets you modify Alexa’s responding rate without installing the Alexa app on your handset device. When Alexa assistance responds to your command, ask her “Alexa, speak slower” or “Alexa, speak faster” based on your preference. If you’re unsated with the changes you made, you can always set it back to its default speech rate by asking “Alexa, speak at your default rate”. Echo comes with seven speech rate settings.

Notification Sound
To make sure that your Amazon’s assistant has heard you, Echo lets you add a notification sound. This feature is beneficial if you don’t have an Echo allotted in each room. Setting up a notification sound will help you to know that Echo has heard your command, as it lets out a sound or the wake word “Alexa”, from another room. You can also turn on the request sound from your iOS or Android device by going to the device settings and then click the ‘All Devices’ and select your Echo device. Then click on Sounds and switch on the toggle on both ‘Start of Request’ and ‘End of Request’ and you’ll be sorted.
Sound Settings
Last year Amazon rectified the sound settings in Alexa. Former users were annoyed with the fact that Alexa speaks or responds in the same high-pitched volume at midnight as it does during the day. After the registration of this issue, Amazon enabled a default option known as the ‘Whisper Mode’ that allows the assistant to recognise the pitch of the speaker’s voice (which changes according to the time of the day) and respond accordingly to match the commander’s voice.
Brief Mode
Alexa repeats your questions first to confirm and then responds to your command which can be annoying and time consuming. To eradicate the time consumption for response, Amazon has enabled the ‘Brief Mode’ due to which Alexa will, now, respond like “OK”, instead of saying “OK, switching off the lights in the drawing room”. To switch on this option, download the Alexa app. Go to ‘Settings’ > Alexa Preferences > Voice Response section and then click on the switch on option on the toggle for the ‘Brief Mode’.
Now that you are aware of the ways and settings to make better use of Amazon Echo, you’ll have less trouble to use. Hope our readers have good experience with Amazon Echo’s assistance.
David Root is an inventive person who has been doing intensive research in particular topics and writing blogs and articles on Norton.com/setup and many other related topics. He is a very knowledgeable person with lots of experience.

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