Choose how fast Alexa speaks
Ever been in a hurry and wish Alexa could speak faster? Me too.
Good news: Alexa’s speaking speed is customizable, which is a little-known feature.
Partly this is because people (hand up) can get frustrated when she goes too slow.
But it’s also for accessibility. Foreign-language speakers and people who are hard of hearing can often understand her better when she speaks more slowly. On the other hand, users with vision issues who are accustomed to listening to a lot of audio are often happy to have her go faster.
Here’s how to customize the speed:
- If you want to slow her down, say, “Alexa, speak slower.” She’ll give you an example of how that sounds, and use that speed as a default. She can go down two levels in tempo.
- If you want to her to speed up, say, “Alexa, speak faster.” She has four fast-tempo settings.
- Want her to go back to usual? Say, “Alexa, speak at your default rate.”
Pro Tip: The voice speeds only work for Alexa’s voice; it won’t change the speed on things like podcasts and audiobooks. But hopefully the folks at Amazon are working on that, because it would be great to be able to adjust podcast and audiobook speeds on Alexa as well.