Amazon Alexa for Guide Dogs

If you’re a Client of Guide Dogs NSW/ACT, you’re eligible to receive a free Amazon Alexa device. For existing Clients, please either call our Client Services team or ask a Guide Dogs practitioner to request one for you. All new Clients will be offered an Amazon Alexa device upon completing their service intake.

If you’re not a Client of Guide Dogs NSW/ACT or you would like to use a different device, they are available for purchase through all major electronic retailers.

Your Amazon Alexa device displays a light when it is listening, but if you can’t see this or would prefer to hear a sound when the microphone is active, open the Alexa app on your smartphone and follow these steps:

1. Tap Devices
2. Select your device
3. Tap settings in the top right corner of the screen (this looks like a gear icon)
4. Select Sounds
5. Under Request Sounds, toggle on both Start of Request and End of Request

Alexa will now play a sound every time the microphone is on and listening to your commands and again when it is turned off.

Yes, there are various ways you can manage your recorded voice history. Keep in mind that if you choose to delete your voice history, it will impact Alexa’s ability to learn and respond to your commands.

If you would like to delete your Alexa voice recordings at any time, open the Alexa app on your smartphone and follow these steps:

1. Tap Menu
2. Select Settings
3. Select Alexa Privacy
4. Select Manage Your Alexa Data
5. Toggle on Enable Deletion by voice

You may now delete your recorded voice history at any time simply by saying, “Alexa, delete what I just said.” or “Alexa, delete everything I said today.”

You may also choose to delete your recorded voice history automatically. You can do this from the Alexa Privacy menu and tapping ‘Choose how long to save recordings’.

You will be given the option to delete all recordings after three or 18 months. Or you may choose to not save any recordings by selecting ‘Don’t save recordings’.

If you find that you’re accidentally activating Alexa by saying her name aloud, you can avoid this by changing the ‘wake’ word (Alexa) to something else.

To change the wake word, open the Alexa app on your smartphone and follow these steps:

1. Tap Devices
2. Select your Echo Dot or other Alexa-enabled device
3. Tap the Settings icon
4. Select Wake Word
5. Select a new wake word from the list
6. Select OK

Yes, in fact, you can create an entire ecosystem of smart devices in your home, which you can control with Alexa. Depending on what devices you have installed in your home, this will give you the ability to control them through voice, for example you may ask Alexa to “switch the lights on” or “vacuum the house.”

To connect your other smart device to Alexa, open the Alexa app on your smartphone and follow these steps:

1. Tap Devices
2. Select the plus (+) icon
3. Select Add Device
4. Select the type of smart home device you want to connect
5. Select the brand and follow the on-screen instructions

Alexa receives information about the status and use of third-party smart home devices to better personalise your experience, but if you don’t want Alexa to store this data, you can either delete it manually or choose for it to be deleted automatically after a pre-determined period.

To manually delete the data, open the Alexa app on your smartphone and follow these steps:

1. Tap More
2. Select Settings
3. Select Alexa Privacy
4. Select Manage Your Alexa Data
5. Under Smart home device history, select one-time deletion of history
6. Tap Delete

If you’d rather delete the data automatically, you can select ‘choose how long to save history’ and choose between three or 18 months before it is deleted.

You can also request to have your smart home device history emailed to you by selecting ‘Email history’.

For the convenience of the user, the microphone on your Alexa device is always turned on. However, this can also be turned off when you’re not using it by pressing the microphone on/off button located on top of the device. On the Amazon Echo Dot, for example, this looks like a circle with a line running through it.

One of the benefits of connecting your Alexa-enabled device to your Amazon account is that it allows you to easily make purchases from the Amazon store using your voice.

To make purchases you must first be an Amazon Prime member. Once you’re a member, open the Alexa app on your smartphone and follow these steps:

1. Tap Menu
2. Select Settings
3. Select Account Settings
4. Select Voice Purchasing
5. Toggle on Voice Purchasing and go to 1-click preferences to set-up your preferred payment method.

You can turn off Voice Purchasing at any time by repeating the steps above and toggling off Voice Purchasing.

While making purchases through Alexa is convenient, it’s important to protect against unwanted purchases made by others, especially children, who may unintentionally (or otherwise) make purchases using your Amazon account.

This can be easily avoided, however, by either setting up a four-digit voice code or creating a voice profile.

The four-digit voice code will be requested any time a purchase is made using your Amazon account to complete the transaction. A voice profile, on the other hand, means that purchases can only be made through your Amazon account using your voice.

To set up your four-digit voice code or voice profile, open the Alexa app on your smartphone and follow these steps:

1. Tap More
2. Select Settings
3. Select Account Settings
4. Select Voice Purchasing
5. Select Purchase Confirmation
6. Select Manage
7. Either select Voice Code and type in a four-digit code or select Voice Profile and toggle on the profile with your name.