Alexa Always Listening: An Accidental Trigger of Digital Assistant

What you are thinking about this? Is Alexa listens? Does Amazon Alexa always listen?

Here in this blog, we are going to discuss how Alexa’s home assistant works, its needs and also knows is Alexa always recording you? Let’s start it…

What Is Alexa Assistant?

Alexa Assistant is a utility proposed by Amazon which is used to respond in voice command of the users. This is a virtual assistant developed by Amazon which is previously used in Amazon Smart speakers. It can follow commands, music playback & a lot more. The home assistant of Alexa can control multiple devices easily. In many devices, Alexa can automatically wake up using the command “wake” or in some devices, we have to push the button to access Alexa.

Now we are familiar with Alexa’s work. So, we have to discuss the issue that “Is Alexa Listen or does Amazon Alexa always listen”. In the below sections, we will try to find out what this voice assistant used for and find the answer to is Alexa always recording you.

What Alexa Used For?

Alexa can perform several functions such as set timers, create lists, check weather reports, and many more things. Some of the popular Alexa skills are mention below:

• Home Automation: Alexa can interact with different devices, the home automation feature was developed on April 8, 2015.
• Food Ordering: Food can be ordered using Alexa. Also, users can order meals using Amazon Prime now.
• Music: Alexa supports multiple subscription-based and free services on Amazon devices. These include Prime Music, Amazon Music, Spotify, Pandora premium. Amazon Alexa is directly able to stream media and music.
• Sports: Alexa also allows users to hear updates on supported sports teams. Add the sports which you like to the lists created under the Alexa sports app.
• Messaging and calls: There are various ways to send messages from the Alexa application. It can send messages only from the Alexa app. But it doesn’t support attachments such as videos and photos.
• Traffic Updates: Through this feature, Alexa can update the users about their traffic conditions or directions.

When does Alexa Listen?

The microphone in these voice assistants is always listening but, they listen only when they are wake by the ‘wake word’ or with ‘activation keyword’. So, when you say ‘Hey Alexa’ or any other wake word, the audio gets analyzed and is being listened to by the microphone present on the device. And only if the ‘Alexa’ or any other wake word is detected, then everything that you say after that gets recorded or you can say Amazon Alexa constantly recording your voice.

Once the device records, Alexa uploads the recorded voice to Amazon’s cloud where they have algorithms in the server. The algorithms analyze the voice pattern and try to figure out the words which you have spoken. The process seems instantaneous but it has to work with Amazon’s cloud. This means that each time you wake up Alexa, the voice assistant is recording your conversations.

Does Alexa is an Accidental Trigger of Digital Assistant?

In the above sections, we have discussed when Alexa listens and records. The reality is, there are various reasons when the device gets accidentally activate and record in the situation when you are not expecting it. The study says if you just use Alexa in a conversation or you say something that sounds like Alexa, then the voice assistant gets activated. Sometimes these voice assistants misinterpreted things and do such tasks that they are not commanded to do. Due to these unwanted activities, they can be accidental triggers of digital assistant and we think that does Amazon Alexa always listen?

Bottom Line

In this blog, we have discussed how Alexa home assistant work and some of its functioning does. However, Amazon Alexa constantly recording your voice and it is designed to record when it is active. But there is a strong possibility that your Alexa woke up accidentally and starts listening.