To do: Change your smart speaker settings before the holidays
True story: Last year, a friend’s toddler ordered 20 pounds of dog food and a karaoke machine using only their smart speaker. Mom had no idea till the Amazon boxes arrived. Voice commands and toddlers? Not a great combo.
Funny, yes, but a massive pain — and it’s more likely to happen around the holidays when you’re busy and ordering lots of gifts and last-minute supplies. I’ll show you how to stop that and get your smart speakers in tip-top shape for guests.
Turn off voice purchasing
- Open the Alexa app, select More > Settings > Account Settings > Voice Purchasing. Turn it off entirely.
From here, you can also set up a code for voice purchasing if you prefer to keep it on but protected.
Know your mute buttons
When you have guests and it looks like overindulgence in voice commands (and/or cocktails) could be a problem, tap the mute button on your smart speaker to stop any commands. It looks like a crossed-out speaker icon. For Amazon Echo displays, an accompanying switch turns off the camera, too … just in case.
Set up parental controls
There are things you don’t want voice assistants to look up when guests are around. Parental blocks prevent certain searches, no matter how naughty or rambunctious people get. It is eggnog season, after all.
- If you use Alexa, open the app and select More > Settings > Music & Podcasts. You can then toggle the Explicit Language Filter on or off.
In the Google Home app, open Digital Wellbeing and add filters to specific devices to block unwelcome content.
Change your wake word
3 essential privacy settings for your Amazon Echo
Amazon’s Echo is more popular than ever, and despite competition from Google, Amazon still dominates the virtual assistant market. With its ever-growing library of skills, Echo becomes more useful with every passing day.
6 ways to protect your Amazon account from scammers
We hear a good amount of news about fraud on the web, and how criminals behind these scams manage to get away with stealing millions of dollars or multiple terabytes of data. Especially now, during the age of COVID-19, online fraud is more pervasive than ever.
5 obscure Amazon settings you should change now
Are you taking advantage of all the perks you get with your Amazon Prime membership? Unfortunately, many people don’t know you get much more than just free two-day shipping. Ready to be pleasantly surprised? Tap or click here for a list of Amazon Prime benefits you get with a membership.
5 security settings to change on your smart speaker
You want all the devices in your home to be safe. For those that connect to the internet and have the ability to listen to your conversations, you need a little extra security.
We’re talking specifically about smart speakers. Tap or click here to adjust the security settings on another IoT device. Smart speakers can be incredibly useful, but also a giant liability for you and your loved ones.