It’s surprisingly easy to make a purchase by using just your voice with an Amazon Echo speaker (less so with a Google Assistant speaker, but we’ll get onto that in a bit). Of course, it’s one thing when you’re aware of this ability. It’s an entirely different thing when you’re sticking one of these Alexa-enabled devices in, say, your kids’ room or your parents’ house and your Amazon account is tied in for all of those purchases. You’ll probably want to turn off the ability to make Voice Purchases.
This thought came to mind thanks to Guardian writer Patrick Collinson whose 87-year-old mother, a devout Catholic, asked Alexa for a Hail Mary and was presented with a skill that recites the prayer to her. The odd bit about that was that she didn’t know she had signed up to a £2 per month subscription to use the skill — fortunately, Patrick’s sister caught that fact before the 7-day free trial ended and the skill’s developer was very apologetic when he heard about the matter. Patrick’s mother has little computer literacy if any and may not have noticed that Alexa was dealing out terms of an agreement when she really just wanted to pray for us sinners because, well, we are all sinners.
Amazon Alexa
In order to manage your voice purchasing settings, you’ll need to open the Amazon Alexa app on your phone. Tap on the More tab at the bottom-right corner, then select Settings, and then Voice Purchasing. We’ll go through each submenu one by one.
Purchase controls lets you toggle the ability to make a purchase decision through Alexa with your voice.
- The top option only lets users who have registered with Voice Match on your Amazon account make purchases.
- The next option will require users to recite a four-digit passcode before confirming a purchase. You can change the code to whatever number they like at any time.
- The third option is the most permissive, letting anyone accessing your Alexa device to make a voice purchase.
- The last option turns off the ability completely.
When you make a voice purchase, Amazon will use the default 1-Click payment method set on your account to fulfill it. The Payment method submenu lets you change that. All you need to do is tap on the Edit Payment Method button and follow the prompts.
The Kid Skills page requires you to log into your account again before letting you edit settings — a protective measure in case your kid gets crafty. You’ll be able to toggle the ability to make Kid Skill-related purchases via voice on or off. If you do enable them, you can also require parental approval in which you must answer an SMS or email to accept the charge. This check takes the place of the four-digit passcode if you have it enabled.
Google Assistant
On the Google side, you’ll need to start by accessing Assistant’s settings page. Some of the more straightforward ways to do this is to do a “Hey Google” command on your phone to “open Assistant settings” or open the Google app, tap on your account avatar at the top-right corner, hit Settings, and then select Google Assistant. From that point, select the You box, then hit Payments.
If you haven’t set up functionality to make purchases through Google Assistant yet, you’ll be prompted to follow a number of prompts to do so. They include attaching a card for payments, setting an address for deliveries, and then toggling whether you want to allow purchases through Assistant and whether purchases should be authenticated before being confirmed.
There are multiple interfaces with which you’re able to use Assistant to purchase things, but if you’re specifically concerned about using a smart speaker, you’ll need to toggle Pay with Voice Match on or off. This requires your participation in Voice Match which lets you access Assistant by saying “Hey Google” on your phone whenever you’re not on your home screen, even if the screen is off. Unlike with Alexa, this is a binary option, there aren’t any codes you can set up to authenticate purchases or the like.
