How to stop Alexa from ruining gift surprises

Amazon’s smart voice assistant Alexa can automatically tell you what’s being delivered if you have an Echo. This is useful if you want updates on a package, but sometimes that says too much.

For example, Alexa might pop a Christmas present saying something like “A new PlayStation 5 just delivered” when your kids are in the room.

If you want to keep the element of surprise in the Christmas gifts you order for other people, you can turn this feature off in the Alexa app. Here’s what you need to do:

• Open Alexa on your phone.
• Tap Settings.
• Choose Notifications.
• Select Amazon Shopping.
• Uncheck the “For items in delivery updates” box in the “Let Alexa say or show titles of items you ordered” section.

You will also notice that there is an option to remove updates from items in your cart marked as freebies. That means you can still receive updates on other plans – but it’s up to you to properly mark freebies when you order them. There is so much going on during the holidays that it may be safer to turn off all notifications in case you forget to report something as a gift.