How to prevent Amazon's Alexa and Echo devices from accidentally sending private conversations to your contacts

In a perfect world, you could simply turn off Alexa's Calling and Messaging feature with the flick of a switch. But it turns out that you need to enable something called "Free Time" to turn it off, which is an incredibly convoluted process.

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From the Alexa app's home screen, tap the three lines on the top left of the app.

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Then tap Alexa Devices.

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Then tap your Alexa device.

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Scroll down to Free Time.

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And go through the tedious process of setting up Alexa for your kids, even if you don't have any.

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You can turn off Calling and Messaging in the final step of the Free Time setup.

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If you actually like using Alexa's Calling and Messaging feature, you can block individual contacts.

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In Amazon's Alexa app, tap the Calling and Messaging button towards the bottom left of the app.

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Then, tap the Contacts button towards the top right.

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Then tap the three dots on the top right.

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Tap "Block Contacts."

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Now you can block individual contacts to prevent accidentally sending them private conversations.

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