If you want Amazon’s Alexa digital assistant to do something for you all you need to do is say “Hey, Alexa” and it will wake up and start listening for a command. However, if you want to give multiple commands one after the other, it can be a nuisance to say “Hey, Alexa” over and over again before every command. Amazon has now made it easier to give follow-up commands to Alexa and speakers powered by the assistant will now be able to listen to back-to-back commands.
Users can now enable Alexa’s Follow-Up Mode which will ensure that the speaker continues to listen for a second command a few seconds after the first command is given. This will eliminate the need for users to say the “Hey, Alexa” hotword before every single command.
Amazon points out that Alexa won’t register the follow-up command until the assistant is “confident” that the user is speaking to it. This means that the user will have to clearly issue the command because if they don’t, Alexa probably won’t separate it from the background noise. Moreover, it won’t wait for follow-up commands if Alexa is streaming music or playing an audiobook.
Users also don’t have to worry about Alexa thinking that it has been given a follow-up command when they’re talking to someone else in the room. They can end their conversation with Alexa by simply saying “thank you,” “stop,” “cancel,” or “go to sleep.”