I have Echos all over the place. Occasionally the wrong one responds. Normally this is not a big deal, but at 2am when you're having trouble sleeping and you want to listen to an audiobook, having it come on in the hall or the den instead of at your bedside is, well, annoying. In fact that's how I learned that "Alexa shut the f*** up" is actually a valid command.
I'm using Echo Speaks, and I've been searching for a parameter to toggle Alexa's ability to respond to commands, kind of like pushing the "disable microphone" button on the top. The closest I've been able to get is to mute the device using a rule, but that won't actually stop it from responding. I decided the best way was to change the wake word so at least it will not respond to "Alexa."
Here's how I'm doing it... it works, but isn't quite as elegant as if I had pushed the button. And of course I can't undo this change easily from the echo device itself, so if for some reason I am actually in the den at night I have to remember to use a different wake word. The rule will be expanded to include other commands for other modes, which is why I just use the trigger "mode changed."
This used to be a feature that was only in hardware. It's now done in the cloud and is automatic for all supported Echos. The feature is called Echo Spatial Perception (ESP) and unfortunately it now cannot be turned off as far as I'm aware. You could contact Amazon and there might be a way.
However, you can simply Schedule Do Not Disturb to turn on for Echos you don't want to respond.
Thanks for your suggestions. This is a situation where spacial awareness is not achieving the results I want. I don't think turning it off would help.
I have experimented with DND but it does not seem to prevent the Echo from responding to the wake word. It just stops announcements and stuff. And I want to keep control within HE. My evening mode can be activated by lots of HE logic, not just time.
I have the same problem. I’ll be standing 5ft from the kitchen echo and the living room echo 20ft away will answer me. WTH. I just put up with it, don’t know what else to do.
