How to change the Wake Word for your Amazon Echo speaker

Amazon Echo speaker wake word on iPhone

Unlike Siri on HomePod, Amazon lets you change the Wake Word for your Echo speaker. While there’s nothing wrong with making a request by starting with “Alexa,” it sure would be inconvenient if someone in your house had the same name.

Even though those chances might be small, you may have noticed that if you use a word close to “Alexa” in conversation, it can wake your speaker. This has actually happened in my house.

If you want to change the Wake Word for your Amazon Echo speaker, you can and here’s how.

Changing your Alexa Wake Word

Of course, a change like this needs to happen with an app (unless you have a compatible Echo speaker that lets you access your settings directly on the device). So, open your Alexa app and access the settings for your device. You can do this in one of two ways.

1) Open the menu on the left side and tap Settings.

2) Select Device Settings.

3) Choose your device from the list.

Echo speaker device settings from menu

OR

1) Tap Devices from the bottom navigation.

2) Select either Echo & Alexa or All Devices.

3) Choose your device from the list.

Echo speaker device settings from home screen

Now that you have accessed your device settings, changing the Wake Word is easy.

1) Scroll down to the General section and tap Wake Word.

2) Choose a new word from the list. Aside from Alexa, you can pick Echo, Computer, or Amazon.

3) After you pick a new word, you’ll see a brief pop-up message letting you know it may take a few minutes to make the change. Tap OK. You may also see your Amazon Echo speaker status light flash orange briefly.

Echo speaker change wake word on iPhone

And that’s it, your new Wake Word is set.

It would be great if there was a longer list of Wake Word choices. It seems like you would use the words Computer or Amazon more often when speaking around the house than you would with Alexa or Echo. And thus, waking your speaker by mistake. But just the fact that you can change it is a nice feature.

Wrapping it up

Do you plan to change your Amazon Echo speaker Wake Word? If so, do you have a particular reason? Let us know!

And for related tutorials, check out how to use Apple Music with Alexa or iCloud Calendar with your Amazon Echo speaker.