How to stop Alexa from ruining Holiday Surprises

Echo smart speakers and smart displays have a handy feature that can show and tell you when there’s a package sitting on your doorstep and even what’s in it. While this is usually pretty helpful, this time of year it could seriously put a major Bah Humbug in your holiday season.

Avoid making any Grinch-like moves this holiday and manage your Amazon shopping notifications in the Alexa app to help keep the magic alive. Alongside options for tailoring package announcements, the notifications section of the app also has a number of settings you can toggle on or off to help make the voice assistant a little more helpful when it comes to purchases you make on Amazon.

Thanks to The Verge, here a few of the most useful that you might want to tweak this holiday season.

How to turn off package notifications on Alexa

• Open the Alexa app.
• Tap on More in the bottom right hand corner.
• Select Settings > Notifications > Amazon Shopping.
• Under “Say or Show Item Titles” toggle off “including items in your shopping cart marked as gifts, or those that might be gifts during major holidays.”

Once this is done, you will still get announcements on Echo speakers and on-screen notifications on Echo smart displays for your packages, but those you tagged as gifts in your shopping cart (or that Alexa suspects may be) won’t include a description of what they are.

This is handy if you actually do want the household to know there’s toilet paper on your doorstep, but not that the Nintendo Switch arrived. To ensure this works correctly, check “send as a gift” when the item is in your Amazon cart.

To be on the safe side, you can toggle off all the items under “Say or Show Item Titles.” Then you will just get word when a package is out for delivery or delivered but never what it is.

If you don’t want any package notifications from Alexa — anywhere, any way — and want to be surprised when you open the door toggle off all items on this screen. (Note — these settings only affect announcements on Echo speakers, you will still get any push, email or other notifications you’ve signed up for.)

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