Here’s how to stop Alexa from spilling the beans on gifts you ordered

Amazon‘s smart voice assistant Alexa can automatically tell you what’s being delivered if you own an Echo. It’s useful if you want updates on a package, but sometimes it says too much.

For instance, Alexa might spill the beans about an incoming Christmas present by saying something like “A new PlayStation 5 was just delivered” when your kids are in the room.

If you want to retain the element of surprise in the holiday 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 box titled “For items in delivery updates” under the section “Let Alexa say or show titles for items you’ve ordered.”

You’ll also notice there’s an option to remove updates on items in your shopping cart marked as gifts. This means you can still receive updates on other packages — but this relies on you to mark gifts properly when you order them. There’s so much going on around the holidays, it might be safer to turn off all notifications in case you forget to flag something as a gift.