I need to change the Alexa Wake Word

  • 10 January 2022
  • 12 replies
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Userlevel 1

We are new to the “Alexa” world - except for our 24 year old daughter Alexa.  

We have multiple Sonos speakers, with our newest being the Sonos Move with Alexa enabled.  We thought that we could change the wake word for Alexa on any device.  While I love the name “Alexa”, that is our daughter’s name and we really need to change the wake word to “Echo”.  Either that or we need to change our daughter’s name :). 

Sonos, please help - enable changing the wake word on Sonos speakers.

With thanks,

Sue


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I think it will be easier to change your daughters name! :)  

Same problem in this household.  

Daughter’s name is Alyssa. Still causes the same problem. I came across a hack/workaround that makes this tolerable. Amazon doesn’t allow non-Amazon devices to change their wake word. However, you can create a group/room in the Alexa app. Then add a low cost echo dot to the same room.

There is a Connected Devices/Speaker setting in the dot where you can choose the Sonos to play back responses. Mute the mic on the Sonos speaker. Then the echo dot will listen and play back all responses and actions on the Sonos. You can change the wake word of the echo dot to any of the alt names (ours is Ziggy like in Quantum Leap).
 

Don’t put the dot too close to the Sonos or it won’t be as responsive when you’re blasting music or tv—this is where the Sonos microphone is far better at voice detection. Small price for the convenience, however.

@djcc1 . That is a good workaround, clearly explained and one that I have suggested myself on other threads, eg

There are in my view some advantages to this workaround. For example being able to position the Dot where it can hear you best, the volume of Alexa responses being independent.from the music play volume, and the greater functionality of Echo devices for non-music applications. 

Userlevel 1

Thank you so much for your responses, but wow, it gets so technical (we are only in our early to mid 50’s)  but I can remember when putting 6 CD’s in the turntable on shuffle and there were no issues. Can’t keep up with technology today.

So… if one needs to have a different wake word than Alexa, is there any point in buying an Alexa-enabled Sonos? Or any non-Amazon branded Alexa-enabled device, for that matter?

So… if one needs to have a different wake word than Alexa, is there any point in buying an Alexa-enabled Sonos? Or any non-Amazon branded Alexa-enabled device, for that matter?

If it is genuinely essential to change it, perhaps not, but that applies to relatively few people.

I think it will be easier to change your daughters name! :)  

Or perhaps you could train yourself to put your daughter’s name at the end of any instructions or requests to her.

For example:

  • Use “What do you think, Alexa?”, if what you want is a coherent opinion from your daughter.
  • Use “Alexa, what do you think?”, if you want random gibberish from your speaker.

😉

There’s always the option to use Sonos Voice Control instead:

https://support.sonos.com/en-us/article/list-of-voice-requests-for-sonos-voice-control

I suspect there’s a “marketing” reason why Amazon doesn’t want to extend that capability outside of their own hardware. 

I’ve used several Dots for years, rather than relying on my Sonos speakers to carry that information to Amazon’s cloud, and use a different wake word that Alexa on all the Dots. Got tired of them triggering of of sound from my TV set, mostly commercials. 

 

There’s always the option to use Sonos Voice Control instead:

https://support.sonos.com/en-us/article/list-of-voice-requests-for-sonos-voice-control

I use my Sonos One more like an Alexa than a Sonos, if you know what I mean; weather, smart home controls, pause/play, notifications, Ring stuff, etc., so Sonos Controls wouldn’t work for me.

There’s always the option to use Sonos Voice Control instead:

https://support.sonos.com/en-us/article/list-of-voice-requests-for-sonos-voice-control

I use my Sonos One more like an Alexa than a Sonos, if you know what I mean; weather, smart home controls, pause/play, notifications, Ring stuff, etc., so Sonos Controls wouldn’t work for me.

I still think the best option, if you want Sonos sound quality but full Echo device functionality is to turn off the mic on the One (or buy an SL in the first place). Then use a gen 2; 3 or 4 Echo Dot for the commands. 

By using Alexa groups you can make the Dot and One function more or less as a single unit,

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