Stop Alexa’s annoying “By the way…” behavior

When I wrote about why I’m excited for the HomeView, I mentioned an annoying behavior that Amazon’s Echo often exhibits. Because I’m hip and young and cool, I could have described the behavior as “thirsty.” But I exhibited restraint. Earlier, anyway.

Amazon’s Echos are increasingly desperate to increase engagement. The ones with displays show constant, ever-changing messages. And when you use an Echo — to set a timer, to check the weather — it very frequently prompts you to use it for something else. It’s obnoxious. “It’s going to be sunny and 56 degrees today. By the way, I can also play you a news brief—” “ALEXA STOP!” is a frequent callout.

Lex On Tech member BJ Simpson shared a comment on that post, and it’s so magical I felt I should share it with everyone:

BJ wrote:

You can disable Alexa’s constant “By the way” suggestions by issuing the command “Alexa, stop by the way.”

I tried it. It worked. I highly recommend saying this to your Alexa device.