How to make Alexa understand you better using voice profiles on an Amazon Echo

Amazon Echo
(Image credit: Amazon)

As well as giving you weather reports and controlling your smart home devices, Alexa can also provide personalized responses such as a flash briefing with set news sources, or even let you make calls and send messages to your contacts. But what happens when there are several people in the household?

There’s nothing more frustrating than asking Alexa to call Dad and getting your father-in-law answering the phone because Amazon’s voice assistant has mistaken you for your other half, and called the wrong parent. 

So whether you’re using Alexa on one of the best smart speakers, or one of the best smart displays, ensuring your voice is recognized can make using Amazon’s voice assistant even easier, and a far smoother experience. 

This is where Alexa voice profiles come in - the handy feature helps Amazon identify that it’s you when it hears your voice and offer up relevant, personalized results. 

Fancy grabbing yourself one of Amazon’s smart speakers or smart displays? Check out the best prices on offer right now. 

What is an Alexa voice profile? 

A voice profile enables Alexa to learn your voice, so it can recognize when you are talking to the voice assistant on a smart speaker, smart display, or through the app. 

Alexa can then serve up personalized results when using Alexa messaging and calling, asking for a flash briefing, purchasing goods with your voice, or playing your favorite playlists if you have an Amazon Music Unlimited Family Plan. 

A voice profile can be created for up to six people in a household in the Alexa app, as long as they’re over 13  - although Amazon can’t verify this so it’s down to parental discretion. It’s currently not possible to set up voice profiles for younger children. 

 How to set up an Alexa voice profile 

You’ll need the Alexa app on a smartphone or tablet to set up a voice profile. Open the app and from the More tab, select Settings followed by Your Profile. 

Select the Add your Voice option. Follow the on-screen prompts and repeat the four phrases displayed on screen to create your voice profile. 

If you want Alexa to recognize other voices in your household then open the Alexa app of their smartphone, or if they don’t have one, log out of the Alexa app on your smartphone and ask them to log in with their Amazon account, and get them to repeat the steps above to create their own voice profile

If you want to delete your voice profile, either to re-record it or because you no longer want Alexa to recognize your voice, open the app and once again, tap More followed by Settings. Select Your Profile and then choose Voice. Press Delete voice profile and confirm the action. 

Carrie-Ann Skinner

Carrie-Ann Skinner was formerly Homes Editor at TechRadar, and has more than two decades of experience in both online and print journalism, with 13 years of that spent covering all-things tech. Carrie specializes in smart home devices such as smart plugs and smart lights, as well as large and small appliances including vacuum cleaners, air fryers, stand mixers, and coffee machines. Carrie is now a copy editor at PWC.

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