Engadget Guide Explains Why Smart Speakers Mishear and How to Fix It

The article lists placement, background noise and distance among the most common causes. It advises owners to first check that the speaker is clean, wiping it down with a dry cloth if dust or grime has built up. If problems continue, the speaker can be moved to another spot or a different room. Echoes, nearby noise sources and the distance between a user and the microphone can all change how well a command is picked up, and the report suggests keeping speakers away from fans and surround sound equipment and at least one foot from walls.

Homes with more than one speaker unit can run into a separate problem when the unit responding to a request is not the closest one. Where the app allows it, owners can lower the sensitivity of the speaker that keeps misfiring. On Echo devices, the wake word can be changed per device so that the wrong unit is not activated. If those steps do not help, the report suggests physically separating the devices as much as possible.

After adjusting a speaker's position, the report recommends testing several voice commands to see whether comprehension improves noticeably. It also advises checking that the command issued is one the speaker is actually able to carry out, and speaking clearly and concisely.

For speakers linked to other smart home products, device names matter. Similar titles can cause a speaker to confuse one device with another, so the guide recommends giving each device a name containing a few unique words and giving every room a clear label in the home app.

When basic adjustments fail, the report points to voice recognition settings as the most useful change, since they let the assistant learn how a particular person speaks. On an Echo, that means opening the Alexa app and going to More, Settings, Account Management, Your Profile and then Voice ID, where the app asks the user to repeat various commands to create a Voice ID that works across platforms. For Google-powered speakers, the path runs through the Google Home app to Settings, Google Assistant and Voice Match, which supports up to six distinct voices per home. On an Apple HomePod, the user opens the Home app, taps the More button to reach Home Settings, opens the user profile and turns on Recognize My Voice. For smoother use across devices, the report adds, users can open Settings on their iPhone, tap their name, go to iCloud, tap See All next to Saved to iCloud and enable Siri.

If none of these measures improves the situation, the guide suggests restarting the speaker by unplugging it for a minute and plugging it back in. A factory reset is described as a last resort, because it wipes all custom settings.