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Ask HN: How to stop annoying Alexa “follow ups”?

2 points by thebiglebrewski ↗ HN
Wondering if anyone else has this problem, Alexa is now asking me if I want other things after almost every single request now! A song finishes playing and it tells me it can tell me when the next release is coming out for the artist, I set a timer and it asks me if I want to set another, I ask for the weather and it says, "by the way, I can do blalh blah" after giving it.

I know there's "Brief Mode" and I already have that on which isn't helping. This to me is a completely unacceptable VX change that I'm really disappointed in. It has gotten so annoying in the last few days I'm considering selling all of my Alexa devices and exiting the ecosystem entirely.

If I did go that route, any more reliable/configurable suggestions are appreciated too!

3 comments

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nobody9999
> It has gotten so annoying in the last few days I'm considering selling all of my Alexa devices and exiting the ecosystem entirely.

A good choice. The only better choice would have been not to enter it at all.

I hope this works out well for you.

thebiglebrewski
Haha ok, you seem pretty pessimistic about all of this. Have a nice day though!
nobody9999
I'm only pessimistic in the sense that current offerings only work when devices with microphones (and sometimes cameras too) are inside your home and always listening/watching.

The technology itself is great. If I could have an agent like Alexa that was fully under my control and only connected to the Internet to execute my instructions (rather than to recognize/record my speech/activities) and all other processing was done locally, I'd be all over it.

But since that's not the case, I don't want that technology anywhere near me. Which is why I love doing stuff like this[0].

I hope you had a good day too.

[0] https://xkcd.com/1807/