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Google needs to copy Alexa’s ability to delete voice recordings
July 31, 2025
Having voice assistants built into smart speakers and smart displays can be daunting. To enjoy the convenience of asking theAssistantor Alexa questions at any given moment, you must havealways-listening microphonesaround you at all times. While Google and Amazon promise that the devicesonly listen for its hotwords, both platforms start recording every time the speakers or displays hears (or think they hear) “Okay Google” or “Alexa.”
Both companies allow customers togo in and delete these recordingsthrough a web interface, but that is far from convenient. Amazon is stepping it up now by enabling users to ask their Echos to delete records from the last day. There are shortcomings to the newly-announced feature, but it’s a step in the right direction.
Google needs to steal this feature from Amazon and expand past where Alexa falls flat.
Where Alexa falls short
There are two significant flaws in Amazon’s current implementation. First, you’re able to only ask yourAmazon Echosto delete any records made “today.” At first, you might think this would wipe everything on Amazon’s servers from the last 24 hours. Sadly, that’s not how it works.
When you state, “Alexa, delete everything I said today,” it removes all recordings from that calendar day. If you asked for everything to be wiped from that day, it starts at midnight instead of the last 24 hours. So if you forget to delete your recordings at 11:50 p.m. via Alexa, you’ll have to log into Amazon’s web presence to remove older data.
The second issue is that Amazon doesn’t provide any extra lengths of time to delete voice recordings through Alexa. I want the choice to wipe my records on a weekly, monthly, or even yearly basis. This limitation is disappointing.
Amazon did announcethat it is working on adding the ability to ask Alexa to delete the previous recording immediately. Amazon didn’t provide a release period, but it did launch a newprivacy hubso customers can learn more about the controls they have over their data.
How Google can improve
Googlefocused heavily on privacyat this year’sI/O developer conference. One of the changes the company promised to make was to be more transparent.
The search giant has been clear that it only stores the recordings to help train the Assistant. The company has also been upfront that customers can visitMy Activityand manually delete recordings. If you’ve ever tried to do this, you know it isn’t an easy process.
If Google wants theAssistant to best Alexain terms of privacy, it needs to copy Amazon’s new feature. As I hinted previously, Google will need to take it up a step and offer more options for removing voice recordings. This could include simple steps such as longer periods than a day and the ability to stop recordings before they’re even made.
Do you think Google and Amazon should be storing your voice recordings? What else should Google do to step up its privacy game? Let us know your thoughts in the comment section below.
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