Amazon has added a fourth choice to the possible words that you can use to wake up one of its Alexa devices. Previously, the options were ‘Alexa’, ‘Echo’, and ‘Amazon’, but now, you can use ‘Computer’.
Indeed, it is every Star Trek fan’s dream come true.
Image of man attempting to use ‘Computer’ as a wake word before Amazon made it possible
According to The Verge, the feature has slowly been rolling out for about a week. It should be available to everyone now though, as it’s listed on Amazon’s support page.
It should work with any Alexa device that has far-field speech communications, such as the Echo and Echo Dot. Other Alexa-powered devices, such as a Fire TV or Amazon Tap, require you to press a button to activate the voice assistant, so there’s no wake word. Plenty of far-field devices were announced at CES containing Amazon’s digital assistant, such as Lenovo’s Smart Assistant, and those will be coming soon.
To change your wake word, open the Alexa app, go to Settings, select your device, and scroll down to the wake word section.
Back in September, the @roddenberry Twitter account said that Majel Barrett, the voice of LCARS, had her voice recorded phonetically, and that they are working to use it for “things such as Siri”. If Barrett’s voice could come to Alexa, combined with the ability to use ‘Computer’ as a wake word, well, make it so.
