How to … change the wake word for the Amazon Echo

In my house, there is an ongoing battle for Alexa’s attention. While I like to get the news rundown first thing in the morning, or listen to a podcast while making breakfast, my five year old has other ideas. She prefers the Cbeebies soundtrack, or a “dance party” to the Spice Girls.

It seems I’m not alone in the Alexa Wars, as anecdotal evidence from my colleagues would indicate.

If you are tired of hearing “Alexa” bellowed at 7.30am, you can change the rules a bit - by changing the wake word for your devices.

This is an Amazon-only fix; Google offers you less flexibility. You have a choice of two phrases at the moment: OK Google, or Hey Google; Assistant responds to both Either way, you are stuck with Google, unless you have the patience and technical skills to download some third party apps and manoeuvre your way around it.

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To change the Echo wake word:

Open the Alexa app on your phone and tap the menu icon - the three horizontal lines - in the top left corner. Scroll down to Settings>Device Settings and choose your Echo device from the list. Scroll down to the General section, and choose Wake Word from the menu. You can then choose from Alexa, Amazon, Echo or Computer.

It won’t take lokng for everyone to cotton on to your scheme though. As a last resort, you can mute the Echo’s microphone, so Alexa won’t respond to anyone’s requests. Problem solved - although it renders Alexa a rather expensive paperweight.