Based on how often I speak with Amazon Alexa, you would think this AI assistant is one of my dearest friends Unlike human acquaintances, however, Alexa's ability to adapt our conversations to our environment has been limited

Adaptive Volume is a new Alexa feature that promises to make the Amazon assistant more aware of the sounds around it When Alexa notices a noisy disturbance, the speaking volume can be increased so that Alexa can hear what is staying Whether there is construction going on outside her window or her roommate is playing music on the other side of the wall, Alexa should be able to adjust

Alexa can pause or lower the volume coming from the Alexa speaker when it is speaking, but it cannot control non-smart speaker sounds, TV sounds, or everyday noises

Amazon has evolved the microphones in the best Alexa speakers so that the assistant can detect wake words for the best Alexa skills even in loud environments Don't get me wrong - excellent listening skills make Alexa a better communicator than most of my past significant others But I would also demand excellent response perception from my voice assistant

Alexa's latest upgrade reminds me of the unique adaptive audio features of my Samsung Q80T QLED TV Auto Volume is one of Samsung's best TV features, and when my apartment gets noisy, it raises the voice of the person speaking on the screen I live near a fire station, so sirens are a staple of my show and movie-going experience

There were at least a couple of times I had to ask Alexa the same question two or three times because I was distracted by some sort of cacophony or didn't catch the assistant's answer

Adaptive Volume is available now If you want to enable it, simply say "Alexa, turn on adaptive volume" within a certain range of the Echo speaker I tested this on an Amazon Echo Dot with Clock, but this feature should also work on newer devices like the Amazon Echo Show 10 (3rd generation) and Amazon Echo Show 8 (2nd generation)

In March, Amazon gave Alexa the ability to communicate in essentially the opposite way Whisper mode, in which Alexa speaks in a low voice and keeps responses as brief as possible, is useful when trying to wake someone sleeping in the house

Of course, if you know how to create an Alexa Smart Home routine, you can assign specific speaker volumes at different times of the day For example, you might want to turn the volume down in the morning At least until you have your coffee

Looking for more Alexa communication tips? See how to change Alexa's voice, how to make Alexa speak faster or slower, and how to rename Alexa to give the assistant a new wakeword

For everything else you need to get the most out of Amazon's voice assistant, be sure to check out our guide to using Alexa