How to Get Amazon Alexa to Give You Shorter Responses

Introduction

Amazon Alexa devices are great for playing music and giving you quick access to information. However, sometimes Alexa can take a while to get to the point. Thankfully if you’d prefer that Alexa kept her responses shorter and more concise, you can change your settings to get shorter responses going forward.

Some of the images associated with the steps are included inline below. All images associated with these steps can be seen in the embedded YouTube video. Also, please note that you’re not able to leave a comment directly on this article. If you have a question or feedback, please leave it on the YouTube video.

YouTube player
Shop Halloween decorations on Amazon and save up to 50%!

Steps to Get Amazon Alexa to Give You Shorter Responses

  1. Launch the Alexa app on your iPhone, iPad or Android device.
  2. Tap “More” at the bottom of the screen to open a menu.
  3. Tap “Settings” to display the Settings screen.
  4. Scroll down this screen to the Alexa Preferences section, and then tap “Voice Responses” in that section. The Voice Responses screen is displayed.
  5. Tap to toggle on “Brief Mode.” Going forward, Alexa will speak less and may play a short sound instead of giving a voice response.

Benefits of Amazon Alexa Giving You Shorter Responses

There are a few benefits of your Amazon Alexa devices giving you shorter responses:

  1. Quicker Answers: Shorter responses from Alexa are great if you’re always in a hurry and need to get information quickly.
  2. Easier to Understand: Shorter responses often avoid a lot of clutter and complexity, and as a result are often easier to understand.
  3. Less Interruptive: Setting Amazon Alexa up to deliver shorter responses helps prevent the device from holding you up from doing other things, like working, doing chores, or any number of other day-to-day matters.
  4. More Efficient: If you’re someone who tends to ask Alexa a lot of follow-up questions, getting shorter responses from Alexa is more efficient and will enable you to have a more conversational back and forth discussion with the virtual assistant.
Shop Amazon's Deal of the Day and save up to 50%!

All Tutorial Categories

About Max

Max has nearly 20 years of experience working in IT across three different industries in project management and management capacities: publishing, telecommunications and healthcare. He holds the following degrees and certifications: BS Communications, MA Communications, MBA and Project Management Professional (PMP). His tutorial-focused YouTube channel earned more than 100,000 subscribers in its first four years, and currently has more than 160,000 subscribers, 110,000,000 video views and an insane 2.4 million hours of watch time. Max enjoys learning new technology, reading and collecting comic books, listening to audiobooks and playing video games.

This article contains affiliate links, which means that if you click one of the product links I may receive a small commission. This helps support my content, and enables me to continue creating content like this. Thank you for the support!