Turn off Alexa hands free but keep button functionality

chinesejpl

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Vancouver, BC
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Air GT
Over the last month or so I've noticed that I am unable to turn off Alexa "hands free" feature (i.e. activating Alexa by saying "alexa" without having to press the mic button) without deactivating Alexa completely. If I turn off the hand free then when I press the mic button on the steering wheel I get a red line in the pilot panel showing that Alexa is inactive. The issue I have is that I don't want to activate Alexa by saying "alexa" because my daughter's name is Alyssa and it continuously gets the 2 confused.
 
Over the last month or so I've noticed that I am unable to turn off Alexa "hands free" feature (i.e. activating Alexa by saying "alexa" without having to press the mic button) without deactivating Alexa completely. If I turn off the hand free then when I press the mic button on the steering wheel I get a red line in the pilot panel showing that Alexa is inactive. The issue I have is that I don't want to activate Alexa by saying "alexa" because my daughter's name is Alyssa and it continuously gets the 2 confused.
The obvious answer is to just change your daughter's name.
 
My assistant's name is Alexis so when I'm working from home or in my car, it's mayhem. You can't change Alexa so I call my assistant Lexi during those times.
 
Over the last month or so I've noticed that I am unable to turn off Alexa "hands free" feature (i.e. activating Alexa by saying "alexa" without having to press the mic button) without deactivating Alexa completely. If I turn off the hand free then when I press the mic button on the steering wheel I get a red line in the pilot panel showing that Alexa is inactive. The issue I have is that I don't want to activate Alexa by saying "alexa" because my daughter's name is Alyssa and it continuously gets the 2 confused.
Try a long press.
 
Over the last month or so I've noticed that I am unable to turn off Alexa "hands free" feature (i.e. activating Alexa by saying "alexa" without having to press the mic button) without deactivating Alexa completely. If I turn off the hand free then when I press the mic button on the steering wheel I get a red line in the pilot panel showing that Alexa is inactive. The issue I have is that I don't want to activate Alexa by saying "alexa" because my daughter's name is Alyssa and it continuously gets the 2 confused.

There is a solution, at least theoretically. Alexa allows the wake word to be changed, except that for the Lucid, the option doesn't show up in the app. Also missing from the app is the ability to change Alexa's voice, but I was able to do that with a voice command. Once I did that, Alexa told me in the car that I could also change the keyword with the appropriate command, but it didn't work. Since the car said that I could, I'll have to insist that it's a bug rather than a missing feature. Lucid, if you are listening, these two are standard features that show up in the Alexa app for almost all other Alexa devices. Also. Lucid lacks some basic Alexa features that Amazon has on their overview page for Alexa in vehicles, such as the "drop in" command. If Lucid is going to tell people that the cars have Alexa, and people look up what Alexa is supposed to do in cars, then they have a reasonable expectation that those things will be there. That's especially true of something so fundamental as changing the wake word. When I picked up the car at delivery, the DA couldn't even tell me about Alexa without the car hearing "Alexa" and trying to respond.

It's also annoying when I try to use the same wake word in the car that I use at home out of force of habit and the car ignores me.

I understand that Lucid has a lot on its plate and there are plenty of other features that I'd like to see, but missing features that the car itself or Amazon's website tell me should be there should at least be on somebody's to do list. Also, assuming that the Alexa team isn't necessarily the same one that would do other enhancements anyway, it might not be an either/or thing.
 
There is a solution, at least theoretically. Alexa allows the wake word to be changed, except that for the Lucid, the option doesn't show up in the app. Also missing from the app is the ability to change Alexa's voice, but I was able to do that with a voice command. Once I did that, Alexa told me in the car that I could also change the keyword with the appropriate command, but it didn't work. Since the car said that I could, I'll have to insist that it's a bug rather than a missing feature. Lucid, if you are listening, these two are standard features that show up in the Alexa app for almost all other Alexa devices. Also. Lucid lacks some basic Alexa features that Amazon has on their overview page for Alexa in vehicles, such as the "drop in" command. If Lucid is going to tell people that the cars have Alexa, and people look up what Alexa is supposed to do in cars, then they have a reasonable expectation that those things will be there. That's especially true of something so fundamental as changing the wake word. When I picked up the car at delivery, the DA couldn't even tell me about Alexa without the car hearing "Alexa" and trying to respond.

It's also annoying when I try to use the same wake word in the car that I use at home out of force of habit and the car ignores me.

I understand that Lucid has a lot on its plate and there are plenty of other features that I'd like to see, but missing features that the car itself or Amazon's website tell me should be there should at least be on somebody's to do list. Also, assuming that the Alexa team isn't necessarily the same one that would do other enhancements anyway, it might not be an either/or thing.
Don’t get too comfy with Alexa in your Air. And definitely don’t get your hopes up for new features.
 
There is a solution, at least theoretically. Alexa allows the wake word to be changed, except that for the Lucid, the option doesn't show up in the app. Also missing from the app is the ability to change Alexa's voice, but I was able to do that with a voice command. Once I did that, Alexa told me in the car that I could also change the keyword with the appropriate command, but it didn't work. Since the car said that I could, I'll have to insist that it's a bug rather than a missing feature. Lucid, if you are listening, these two are standard features that show up in the Alexa app for almost all other Alexa devices. Also. Lucid lacks some basic Alexa features that Amazon has on their overview page for Alexa in vehicles, such as the "drop in" command. If Lucid is going to tell people that the cars have Alexa, and people look up what Alexa is supposed to do in cars, then they have a reasonable expectation that those things will be there. That's especially true of something so fundamental as changing the wake word. When I picked up the car at delivery, the DA couldn't even tell me about Alexa without the car hearing "Alexa" and trying to respond.

It's also annoying when I try to use the same wake word in the car that I use at home out of force of habit and the car ignores me.

I understand that Lucid has a lot on its plate and there are plenty of other features that I'd like to see, but missing features that the car itself or Amazon's website tell me should be there should at least be on somebody's to do list. Also, assuming that the Alexa team isn't necessarily the same one that would do other enhancements anyway, it might not be an either/or thing.
Thank you for this. I will try this out (at least to change the voice) and see if it maybe works for me.
Don’t get too comfy with Alexa in your Air. And definitely don’t get your hopes up for new features.
Do you have some "insider" information? :oops: I'd love for it to change to Google or Siri!
 
Don’t get too comfy with Alexa in your Air. And definitely don’t get your hopes up for new features.

I wouldn't have bought a Lucid if I hadn't gotten my hopes up for new features, not specifically for Alexa, but in general. With Alexa, lots of it is at Amazon's end, and with these issues in particular where it's more a matter of being able to use certain settings than to implement something that interfaces with the car, it shouldn't be too bad.
 
I wouldn't have bought a Lucid if I hadn't gotten my hopes up for new features, not specifically for Alexa, but in general. With Alexa, lots of it is at Amazon's end, and with these issues in particular where it's more a matter of being able to use certain settings than to implement something that interfaces with the car, it shouldn't be too bad.
“on Amazon’s end” is the key phrase there.

Lucid is happy to build new features, as you can see from the study flow of updates.
 
Do you have some "insider" information? :oops:
"No."

But seriously, Amazon has, across even their own product line, stopped investing in Alexa nearly as much as they once did. The very large team that once built it is very very small now.

Makes me sad, as I have Alexa all throughout the house. But some future black friday, I plan on buying a bunch of homepods and doing away with Alexa.
 
"No."

But seriously, Amazon has, across even their own product line, stopped investing in Alexa nearly as much as they once did. The very large team that once built it is very very small now.

Makes me sad, as I have Alexa all throughout the house. But some future black friday, I plan on buying a bunch of homepods and doing away with Alexa.
I was thinking the same the other day. But, my smart house has so many things connected to Alexa that it would be a project. When I mentioned to my wife she said “you mean I wont be able to order stuff from Amazon from any room?” Well, that delayed my project. Haha
 
“on Amazon’s end” is the key phrase there.

Lucid is happy to build new features, as you can see from the study flow of updates.

Amazon already supports changing the wake word and has for a long time. It's on every Alexa compatible product I have except for the Lucid, and Amazon's fire sticks that use a button instead of a wake word. I don't know why it's left out for Lucid but it doesn't show up as an option in the Alexa app and the voice command to set it doesn't work, even though Alexa literally told me to try it when it responded to another command in the car. I don't want to get into finger pointing, but Lucid should figure out why things don't work that Amazon says are included features.
 
I was thinking the same the other day. But, my smart house has so many things connected to Alexa that it would be a project. When I mentioned to my wife she said “you mean I wont be able to order stuff from Amazon from any room?” Well, that delayed my project. Haha
Some things would be easier to move to a different platform but with others it would be difficult or impossible. Having a Lucid makes it even more unlikely that I'd switch. It wouldn't be easy figuring out for every device in the house what alternatives will work. I just checked and saw 53 active WiFi device connections. That doesn't include devices plugged into a wall jack, which I have throughout the house. Most of them are probably work with Alexa. I think that Amazon got a lot of captive people that way. Some devices, such as TVs with Fire sticks and Amazon tablets, aren't going to work easily with something else so I'd lose lots of integration. A lot of the third party hardware and software could work with a number of different things, but if anything, I'd like to be able to go through fewer things to integrate everything. There's a lot of theoretical overlap in terms of what supports what, but too many things fall short on something. Amazon falls short on a lot, and so does Ring, meaning that even though they could support more devices directly, they don't necessarily support them well enough. So my Z-wave devices have their own hub instead of Amazon's (Ring) since it can't handle them as well, but they work with Alexa to the extent possible.

Amazon's problem is that they can't figure out how to monetize Alexa itself and overlook all the money I spent by buying many of these devices through Amazon. I can order through Amazon from any room, but I'll probably still use a smartphone or computer to do it. Using Alexa voice commands to do it wouldn't mean buying things that I wouldn't have bought otherwise.
 
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