How soon should I say my command after I say "Alexa"

[c375314110]

Hi guys,

  I am considering to buy one Amazon Echo for my parents and have a small question for Echo. After I say "Alexa" to wake up my Echo, how soon should I say next command like "turn on my light" so Echo are still awake and do the command? Since my mother can't speak too fast...

  Any help or advice will be highly appreciated!
 
  Thanks
  Yuxuan

[jwlv]

Just speak in the same manner as you would to a person. When speaking to a person, you normally wouldn't say "Mary................. Have you seen my car keys?"   

Hi guys,

  I am considering to buy one Amazon Echo for my parents and have a small question for Echo. After I say "Alexa" to wake up my Echo, how soon should I say next command like "turn on my light" so Echo are still awake and do the command? Since my mother can't speak too fast...

  Any help or advice will be highly appreciated!
 
  Thanks
  Yuxuan

[xFlip]

I have the impression Alexa is always listening but doesn't know to take action until she hears her name.  If this is true then she is listening before she completes her acknowledgement of her name.

[mike27oct]

Even if Alexa is always listening, sound "goes in one ear and out the other" unless it hears the command word (Alexa), THEN it pays attention and reacts to the command that follows.

[StevenR]

I remember reading that it actually has a temporary buffer which contains a few seconds of audio, which is uploaded when the wake word is heard to allow for the fact that voice recognition isn't instant (even when it is local to the device).
You can see this in action if you look in the History and play back the recordings, there is often a bit of noise before the speech.

[mike27oct]

Seriously, what does this matter?  It pays no attention to anything until I say "Alexa, play station X."  Anything it hears before that is gone!

[jwlv]

As I understand it, Echo has a very rudimentary speech recognition for its wake words built-in to the hardware. It will try to recognize the wake words: Alexa, Echo, Computer, or Amazon. Because the built-in speech recognition isn't very good (it is limited by the Echo hardware), it will ask the Amazon cloud servers to confirm that the correct wake word was spoken. Amazon's cloud servers are far more powerful than the Echo hardware. While it's doing that, to save time, it is also streaming any words you say after the wake word to Amazon's cloud server. Once the Amazon cloud servers determine that you in fact did say the wake word, then it starts to process all the words you said. But if the Amazon cloud servers determined that you did not say the wake word, the entire recording is discarded and that's the end of that. That's why the blue ring will light up briefly when words that sound like the wake word is spoken.

[mindmagic]

I have my Echo and Dot set to beep when they hear the wake-up word, and I usually wait for that beep before giving a command.

[Tessa]

Once you say, "Alexa" a ring of lights come on at the top, make sure you make your command immediately after saying "Alexa" and before the lights go out; otherwise you must start over.

Tessa

[stusviews]

As soon as you say, "Alexa."

[Alpha Bitch]

Hi guys,

  I am considering to buy one Amazon Echo for my parents and have a small question for Echo. After I say "Alexa" to wake up my Echo, how soon should I say next command like "turn on my light" so Echo are still awake and do the command? Since my mother can't speak too fast...

  Any help or advice will be highly appreciated!
 
  Thanks
  Yuxuan

Have your mother take the "Voice Training" which is located in the alexa app under "settings."
She may need to run through the training more than once back to back. 

[JohnWB]

I've looked for the voice training section and I cannot see it anywhere, could you check to see exactly where it is located please.

[AlanH]

I've looked for the voice training section and I cannot see it anywhere, could you check to see exactly where it is located please.

If you're in the U.K., we don't have Voice Training as an option.

[JohnWB]

I've looked for the voice training section and I cannot see it anywhere, could you check to see exactly where it is located please.

If you're in the U.K., we don't have Voice Training as an option.

Ok, that's why I couldn't find it