How to Change Alexa’s “Wake Word”

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Q. I have an Amazon Echo which should be amazing and helpful, except that our daughter’s name is Alexa. If I had known Amazon was going to name its virtual assistant “Alexa” I definitely would have chosen a different name for my daughter.

But she’s a teenager now, so it’s too late to change her name, and we’re very tired of our Echo getting confused by her name. Someone told me there’s a way to change Echo’s wake word to a different name. Can you do a Wonder of Tech article about how to change the name to something different from Alexa and what names you recommend?

Thanks, I hope you can help.

A. I feel your pain. While we don’t have a family member named Alexa, we do have a family member whose name gets confused with Siri, Apple’s digital assistant. While we don’t think the name is confusing, Siri sure does.

The good news for you and your family is that you can easily change the wake word of your Echo device to a word other than Alexa. The bad news for my family is that Siri doesn’t offer alternate wake words.

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Changing Alexa’s Wake Word

If your name is Alexa, Alexis, Alex, Alexander, Alexandra, Lexi, or Alice, you may be weary of Alexa, Amazon’s digital assistant, getting confused. Amazon choosing a wake word for Alexa that’s an actual human (or pet) name, and can be confused for many other names, was a questionable decision at best.

So you and your family probably want to change Alexa’s wake word to something other than Alexa to avoid constant confusion.

You may also want to change Alexa’s wake word if you have houseguests who think it’s hilarious to ask Alexa to play loud music waking everyone up in the morning or to ask it to perform other obnoxious tasks.

Not all tech problems are easily solved, but changing Alexa’s wake word is an easy fix. By taking a few minutes to change Alexa’s wake word, you can avoid future frustration.

How to Change Alexa’s Wake Word

You can easily change Alexa’s wake word, but you can’t get creative with the new wake word. You can’t change Alexa’s name to “Hal”, for example.

Amazon offers these four wake word options for Alexa:

• Alexa
• Echo
• Amazon
• Computer

There are two ways to change Alexa’s wake word, by using your voice or by changing settings in the Alexa app. Note that you must change the wake word for each Alexa device individually. There is no way to universally change the wake word for all of your Alexa devices at once.

Asking Alexa to Change the Wake Word

The easiest way to change Alexa’s wake word is to ask. “Alexa, change your wake word.” Alexa will then tell you the other three wake words available and ask you which one you’d like to use. Speak your selection and Alexa will confirm your choice.

Using the Alexa App to Change the Wake Word

Another way you can change Alexa’s wake word is to use the Alexa app on your phone. This can be handy when you’re not nearby your Alexa device or want to change the wake word for multiple devices without leaving the comfort of your couch.

To change Alexa’s wake word, open the Amazon Alexa app, then tap the More icon in the bottom menu bar. Tap Settings => Device Settings. You’ll see a list of your Alexa devices. Tap the device whose wake word you want to change.

You’ll see a list of settings for that device. Scroll down and tap Wake Word.

On the next screen, you’ll see a list of wake words you can choose from. Tap the wake word you want to use.

Note if you have any celebrity voices for Alexa, you can turn on a separate wake word to access that celebrity voice directly.

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Changing the wake word in the Alexa app changes it for one device at a time.

Which Wake Word You Should Choose

As your choices of wake words are limited to four, you can experiment to see which wake word has the fewest false triggers. If you have a family member (including pet family members) whose names are similar to any of the available wake words, you can rule those out quickly.

CNET did a recent experiment and found that “computer” was the wake word that was accidentally triggered the fewest times, with “Amazon” being a close second. Of course, your results may vary. See, CNET We tested all 4 Amazon Echo wake words. Here’s what we learned about Alexa

If you have Alexa devices that are near to each other you may want to use different wake words for each one. You may want to use different wake words for your Alexa devices with a screen versus those that are just a speaker.

Or if you prefer uniformity, you may want a single wake word for all of your Alexa devices.

Your Thoughts

Have you had issues with Alexa being a wake word for Amazon’s digital assistant? Have you changed Alexa’s wake word? Which wake word do you use?

Share your thoughts in the Comments section below!