While Alexa and other voice assistants have made using the internet on the go easier than ever before, it comes with certain risks. The most significant risk revolves around uncertainty about how long Alexa records and stores all your conversations. However, you’ll be glad to know that Amazon had made it conveniently easy to delete any such conversations using the voice-powered digital Echo speakers.

When it launched the new Echo devices, Amazon was careful to update its Alexa Privacy Hub. These new updates are essential in explaining Alexa’s exact privacy settings and how users can customize them whenever they want. This is in addition to the new voice commands and controls that Amazon plans to add in the near future.

Most users remain skeptical about Alexa’s ability to access, read, and forward their private conversations. Amazon’s vice-president of public policy, Brian Huseman, confirmed just how long Amazon keeps detailed recordings of its users’ voice commands. Responding to Senator Chris Coons at a congressional hearing, he confirmed that “Amazon keeps all data related to voice searches until a user manually decides to delete them.”

Deleting Alexa Conversations History With Your Voice

Since now you know that the only guaranteed way to delete all your Alexa conversations is by deleting them manually, you’ll naturally want to get on with it. Fortunately, it’s not a cumbersome process and should take no more than a few seconds. All you need to say in a clear voice is, “Alexa, delete everything I said today.” You can also add “delete everything recording between midnight and the moment you’re commanding Alexa to delete your conversations.”

And that’s that. All your conversations recorded in the period you specify will be promptly deleted. However, you’ll still need to enable this feature through the Alexa app manually. Here is how you can do it:

• Select the Alexa account you’re signed into. 
• Then, select Alexa Privacy. 
• Now, head over to Review Voice History. 
• Toggle down to Enable Deletion by Voice and make sure it’s selected.

Turning On Auto-Delete for Alexa Recordings

You can also ensure that all Alexa conversations are deleted on their own within a set timeframe. It’s just as easy to enable manually as with voice commands. Here is the process to do it:

• Head over to Settings within the Alexa app. 
• Now, click on Alexa Privacy, followed by Manage Your Alexa Data. 
• Now, click on Manage your voice recordings. 
• Scroll down to the bottom, select “Automatically delete recordings,” and set the time period to whichever one suits you. You can choose from a timeframe of 3-18 months.

How to Delete Alexa History Manually

A lot of users don’t feel entirely comfortable trusting Alexa to delete their voice recordings properly. If you want to delete them all on your own manually, you can do so by simply following these few simple steps diligently:

1. Open the Alexa app on your phone and click on Settings.
2. Now, click on Alexa Privacy.
3. Toggle through the options and select Review Voice History. From this screen, you can both enable and disable voice commands related to deleting voice recordings. Additionally, you can review which recordings Alexa has retained.
4. Click on any recording.
5. Select the Delete Selected Recordings option. If you want to delete only that day’s recordings, you can tap on the Today option and click on All History.
6. Now, tap on Delete All Recordings for All History.