How To Stop Alexa From Saying "Okay"

Alexa is a popular cloud-based voice service that is available on millions of devices made both by Amazon and third-party manufacturers. It is used to stream music, listen to daily weather reports, control smart appliances, provide information, and more. One of the best aspects of Alexa is your ability to customize its features to better suit your lifestyle. One of these features is whether Alexa speaks back to you after being delivered a command or not.

If you want your Alexa device to stop saying “okay” after every command, you must turn Brief Mode on. You can either do this by simply saying “Alexa, turn on Brief Mode” if you are close to your device or by opening the Alexa app on your phone and manually turning this mode on under the “Voice Responses” section of the settings.

Let’s take a closer look at what all that really means, so you know exactly what changes you’ll be making to your Alexa system and how you’ll be doing it.

Brief Mode is a setting that will make Alexa talk less by removing confirmations. If you want to get your Alexa to stop saying “okay,” this is the way to do it. Once Brief Mode is toggled on, Alexa will instead emit a brief beep rather than responding back to you.

This can be especially useful if you have Alexa hooked up to your smart home devices since you’ll be using those more consistently throughout the day and night. On top of stopping the constant “okays,” brief mode will also make Alexa’s answers shorter in general.

If you want to streamline your Alexa device even more, turn off Alexa’s purchase suggestions. These unwanted commercial messages will often pop up after you ask a question. When this feature is turned on, Alexa will randomly ask if you want recommendations for things to buy after answering a query.

To stop this from happening, go to the Alexa app and navigate to Settings > Notifications > Amazon Shopping.

From there, you can turn off the option to “receive personalized recommendations and deals based on your shopping activity” and the “requests to rate products you’ve purchased. To top it off, you can turn off the option to get notifications for “Order Updates (Inc. Subscribe & Save.)”

This should clean up your notifications for your Alexa, which will make your day-to-day seem less cluttered, too.

This one is pretty self-explanatory, but we’re going to explain it anyway. Sometimes, it’s necessary to stay quiet as you finish tasks throughout your home. With Alexa’s whisper mode activated, you can speak in hushed tones, and it will respond back in the same octave.

Turning on Whisper Mode can be done in two simple ways. First, you can say “Alexa, turn on whisper mode.” Otherwise, you can use the Alexa app. Should you go with the latter option, here’s what you should do:

Oftentimes, there will be multiple people using devices with Alexa. If this is the case in your home, you can enjoy a more personalized experience by creating voice profiles for each user. That way, Alexa can get to know you better and will be able to give you more personalized responses.

To make this happen, go to the account settings in the Alexa app and navigate to “Recognized Voices.” From there, you can create a voice profile by following the prompts on the screen. Afterwards, you can simply say “Alexa, who am I?” and it will know who is speaking.

If you want to create your own personal replies from Alexa, the process is quite simple. First, navigate to the Amazon Blueprints page, select Custom Q&A, and click Create Your Own. There are endless options that you can select for every one of your Alexa devices.

Many users have started utilizing these custom actions to inform house guests about the location of items in your home, great places to eat in the area, and more. They can also be used on a daily basis for reminders. Here are a handful of useful examples to give you an idea:

Alexa offers a masculine counterpart to the traditional female voice that all users recognize. However, you can also select one of the celebrity voice options. Currently, there are three options for your Alexa’s voice: Samuel L. Jackson, Shaquille O’Neal, and Melissa McCarthy.

These celebrity voices are programmed to react to certain phrases and commands. Most notable are their responses to alarms and timers, weather reports, and jokes. If you want to use a celebrity voice for your Alexa, you will need to purchase it for $5.

You can change Alexa’s voice through the device or the app depending on what is more convenient for you. However, it is important to note that the voice change will only affect the device you are using. As of now, you will have to change the voice on each device manually—not all at once.

Related Questions

Do I have to say “Alexa” every time?

Thanks to Alexa’s Follow-Up Mode, you do not have to say Alexa before every command. After you give an initial request to Alexa, it will listen for up to five seconds for another command. If you give another command within this time period, you will not have to say, “Alexa” again at the beginning of your sentence.

What is the difference between Alexa and Echo?

Amazon Alexa refers to the actual virtual assistant that processes information, saves calendar dates, answers your questions, and more. Amazon Echo is the physical speaker to which Alexa can connect and from which it can project these functions.

What is an Alexa voice remote?

An Alexa voice remote allows you to control your TV and sound system through one single device. With a voice remote, you can navigate through TV shows, apps, and other streaming services. As the name suggests, you can talk to it instead of using the actual buttons if that is more convenient for you.

The point of Alexa is to make your life easier, which is why there are so many options to help you adjust your devices to better suit your wants and needs for your home. This includes customizing all voice commands, wake words, responses, and more.

One especially easy fix is getting your Alexa to stop saying “okay” after completing tasks.

The process of doing this is simple and straightforward, but it’s always good to know about all the other great things you can do with your Alexa, too. There is an endless well of information out there about how to improve Alexa and your devices to match your preferences.

There is also plenty of useful information out there about how to fix other common problems with Alexa. This article exists to help you scratch the surface.