Alexa is always listening! This is true to an extent. As it is made to respond to its wake word as quickly as it can, it is constantly in the listening mode.
This has been regarded as a threat to one’s privacy. However, not if you keep deleting your conversations with Alexa at frequent intervals. You can also delete your notifications, voice history, voice recordings, and even shopping notifications to be on a safer side.
If you have one of Amazon’s Echo devices or any smart device compatible with Alexa, here is how you can delete Alexa notifications.
If you are getting seriously annoyed with the constant notifications by Alexa on your smart device and the yellow flashing light one every time something comes up, there is a way to stop them from coming.
Further reading: What Is Alexa And What Does Alexa Do?
There are two ways to delete Alexa notifications:
By Voice
You can command Alexa to delete notifications, provided you are sure you want all of them to get deleted. For this, just say, ‘Alexa, delete my notifications’.
Thereafter, Alexa will respond with its confirmation reply in a fancy manner to which you can just reply ‘Yes’, and all your notifications will be deleted.
Another way is to just ask Alexa to read your notifications by saying, “Alexa, read my notifications”. In reply, she will read all your notifications to which you can choose not to give attention. This will make all your Alexa notifications clear away i.e. delete them.
Manually
You can choose never to require deleting Alexa notifications ever. You can save yourself from constant Alexa blabbering or get rid of yellow flashing lights as well.
To do so, you can choose to turn off the notifications. Follow the steps below to achieve this:
- Open the Alexa app and go to ‘Settings’ by tapping on ‘More’
- Select the Notifications under the ‘Settings’ options.
- Select a feature or service shown.
- Now, toggle off to turn the notifications.
You can also choose silent notifications if you are troubled by constant reminders. For this, follow:
- Open the Alexa app.
- Go to the Devices icon at the bottom.
- Tap on Sounds> Notifications
- Turn off the sound of notifications by tapping on None.
You will no longer have to hear the notifications, but the yellow flashing light may still appear.
See More: Can You connect a Microphone to Alexa
Deleting Voice History On Alexa
While you are at it now, why not delete everything that may be hampering your privacy. The recent updates on the Alexa app have made deleting your conversations, voice history, and other activities easier.
Before the update, deleting anything from Alexa’s history was a bit tedious and a difficult task. Here is how you can delete your voice history i.e. all the conversations you previously had with Alexa. Like always, there are two ways to do that.
Through Voice Command
One can easily activate the feature of delivering the voice history through voice commands. Once activated, Alexa will be able to delete your voice history on voice commands like “Alexa, delete what I just said” or “Alexa, delete everything I said today or “Alexa, delete all voice history”.
To activate deleting voice history through voice commands, first, follow:
- Open the Alexa app, go to Settings through the menu bar.
- Go to Alexa Account> Alexa Privacy > Review voice history.
- Toggle on ‘Enable Detection by Voice’ to allow deleting voice history through voice commands.
Once enabled, now you can delete your voice history through voice commands conveniently and precisely. According to Alexa, a day starts from midnight and will delete all voice recordings from this time of a specific day when commanded to delete today’s voice history.
Through The Alexa App
For more flexibility and ease, one can also delete voice history manually through the Alexa app. For this, follow these steps:
- Open the Alexa app and go to Settings through the Menu bar.
- Go to Alexa Account > History
This will provide a full list of interactions and further settings under it. Tapping on each interaction will provide you with a variety of options like playing the recording to hear it, the date and time of interaction, and an option to ‘delete voice recording’.
You need to open each of the interactions to delete them.
Also, this means not only you but all the other family members of the house can choose to listen to your previous interactions with Alexa. Not only this, but anyone also who can access the Alexa app can access them. Therefore, deleting them is a good option if you want to protect your privacy.
You may also like: What Are The Best Alexa-compatible Devices?
How To Disable Alexa Voice Recording?
Well, if the voice recordings are not recorded in the first place, you won even have to delete them. If you don’t want Alexa to record your conversations with you, you can simply disable the Alexa voice recordings.
To attain this, follow these steps:
- Open the Alexa app.
- Go to Settings under the Menu bar.
- Go to Alexa Account> Alexa Privacy
- Now tap on ‘Manage how your data improves Alexa’
- Toggle off ‘help improve Amazon services and develop new features option’.
- Now toggle off if on ‘use messages to improve transcription’ option.
Looks a bit confusing but by doing so, you can disable voice recordings on Alexa.
Deleting Messages On Alexa App
Alexa app receives messages just like your cell phone. At some point of time, you will have to think about deleting them all. Thankfully, doing so on the Alexa app is very easy.
Follow these steps to delete messages on the Alexa app:
- Open the Alex app
- Tap on the small speech microphone at the middle bottom of the screen
- The list of ongoing conversations will appear. Select one of them to delete
- Swipe left to delete the conversation
- A red ‘Remove’ button will appear as a confirmation popup. Tap on it to delete the conversation.
- Repeat the process with every conversation to delete them all.
Conclusion
These were some of the related ways to delete Alexa notifications that will allow you to save your privacy better.