How to train Amazon's Alexa to recognize your voice

Does your Amazon Echo often misunderstand your questions and commands? Do you live in a household with other Amazon Echo users, making it difficult for Alexa to figure out who is speaking?

If so, there's a solution. You can train Alexa to recognize you by creating a voice profile. After you set up your profile, Alexa can call you by your name and deliver personalized results based on your voice. Further, Alexa can distinguish your voice from those of other people in the house. Anyone over the age of 13 can create a voice profile. Here's how.

Recognized voices

Open the Alexa app on your mobile device. Tap on the hamburger menu (≡) and select Settings > Alexa Account > Recognized Voices.

Talk to Alexa

Tap Your Voice. A welcome menu will explain what a voice profile is: a way for Alexa to send and play messages or place shopping orders without asking who you are. Tap Begin at the bottom of the screen.

The next page will tell you that Alexa is "now ready to get to know you." Within five minutes of pressing the Begin button: 1) Mute other nearby devices 2) Make sure you're in a quiet place, and 3) Get within 1-5 feet of your Echo. Then, say "Alexa learn my voice."

Repeat after Alexa

Alexa asks for your name, then asks you to speak 10 phrases, like "Alexa, play 'Hot Stuff' by Donna Summer on Amazon Music," as well as phrases that begin with Alexa's other wake words: Amazon, Echo, and Computer.

Repeat each phrase after Alexa. When you're done, Alexa says it's nice to meet you and suggests you ask her to do something to try out your new voice profile, such as make a call, send a message, or play music.

Add another voice

To add another member of a household, have them sign into the Alexa app on their mobile device or log out on your phone and log in with their Amazon account. Then have them go through the steps above. If at any point Alexa has trouble identifying the correct person speaking, you can correct her to ensure it doesn't happen again later.

Delete your Alexa voice profile

Was your throat a little scratchy the day you recorded your voice? You can delete and start again. Tap on the hamburger menu (≡) and select Settings > Alexa Account > Recognized Voices > Your Voice. Under the "Your Voice" section, tap "Delete my voice."

Help Alexa recognize speakers

The Your Voice menu offers several other options, too. Tap "Learn my voice" if you want to go through another training session with Alexa. To train Alexa even further, you can play a series of recorded phrases from someone with a voice profile. You then tap the name of the person who uttered the phrase so Alexa can more easily identify each speaker. To set this up, tap "Get started."

Who is speaking?

At the next screen, tap Begin. Play the first phrase and then tap the name of the speaker. Play the next phrase and tap the name of the speaker. Continue with each screen until you're done. Tap Finish.

Listen to more phrases

At the "Great job!" screen, tap Exit to leave the training or tap "Listen to More Phrases" for additional training. If you opt to listen to more phrases, the Alexa app takes you through another round of recordings. After the second series of recordings, you can listen to even more phrases. But if you feel Alexa has gotten the hang of the voices in your household, just exit the training.

'Alexa, who am I?'

Now, you can ask Alexa to perform certain tasks, and she should respond accordingly without having to ask who you are. Ask Alexa to play your messages, send a message, call another person, shop at Amazon, play a flash briefing, or play music, and she'll provide a personalized experience based on your voice profile.

Even if you switch to another person's account, Alexa should be able to identify you by voice. If you want to make sure Alexa knows who you are, say: "Alexa, who am I?" or "Alexa, whose profile is this?"

For help or feedback on using voice profiles, return to the Recognized Voices screen and tap the link for Need Help with Voice Profiles?