“Alexa put on some relaxing music,” “Alexa create a reminder for tomorrow,” Alexa, Alexa, Alexa. If you are already tired of communicating with the Amazon assistant always using the same name and want to change it to another, you will be happy to know what can be done (yes, with certain limitations).
If you have a son named Alex or a sister named Alexia, which causes your Echo Dot to activate by mistake constantly, take a look at the following indications.
How to change your Alexa name
“Alexa” is the name of Amazon’s smart assistant, but it is also the wake-up word that launches the assistant. This requires that the word that replaces it must have a certain loudness that is easy for the assistant to distinguish.
For this reason, the system does not allow you to use just any name but one of the replacement names suggested by Amazon itself. That is, names like “Antonia,” “Jarvis,” or “Smithers” are completely out of our range.
- From your mobile phone, open the Alexa app.
- In the lower menu, click on “Devices.”
- Go to “All Devices” and select the device you want to change the Alexa name. Note: if you want to change its name on other devices on the list, you will have to do it individually, one by one.
- On the next screen, click on the “Status” card to enter the device configuration settings.
- Scroll down to find the option “Trigger word” and enter to see the available options.
- Select one of the available names. Currently, you can choose between “Alexa,” “Amazon,” and “Echo.”
Finally, you will see a message indicating that the change may take a few minutes to apply. Simply click on “Ok” to confirm the change, and that’s it.
How to make Alexa call you by another name
Now we are going to do the opposite. Instead of changing the name to Alexa, we will change the name ourselves (figuratively, of course). Thus, it will refer to you with that other name that you have decided.
For example, if Alexa calls you “Manuel” but everyone knows you by “Manu,” you can correct this information. You can also use your nickname or any other nickname you want to use to communicate with Alexa.
- Open the Alexa app on your mobile.
- In the menu below, enter “Communication.”
- Click on the icon of two people that appears in the upper right corner of the screen.
- Now select your name. It will appear at the top, just above your contact list.
- Click on “Edit,” located in the upper right corner of the screen.
- Now type a new name or nickname in the “Name” field.
- Click on “Save” to apply the changes.
As in the previous case, keep in mind that the changes may take a while to apply. You must also consider that this will be your new name for Alexa, and therefore if you use the app to make a phone call or perform any other action, from now on, that will be the name that will appear on all sites.