# How do I suppress standard Alexa responses to hear custom responses

**URL:** <https://discourse.nodered.org/t/how-do-i-suppress-standard-alexa-responses-to-hear-custom-responses/80706>\
**Category:** General\
**Created:** [22 August 2023 10:04 UTC](https://discourse.nodered.org/t/how-do-i-suppress-standard-alexa-responses-to-hear-custom-responses/80706 "2023-08-22T10:04:44Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 5\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![Mikee1234K](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/flex026/user_avatar/discourse.nodered.org/mikee1234k/32/70283_2.png) [@Mikee1234K](https://discourse.nodered.org/u/Mikee1234K)\
**Post date:** [22 August 2023 10:04 UTC](https://discourse.nodered.org/t/how-do-i-suppress-standard-alexa-responses-to-hear-custom-responses/80706/1 "2023-08-22T10:04:44Z")

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I use the Alexa nodes to query my home automation system and it works quite well, but in this case no matter how I word the question I always get some standard response rather than just my custom response.  
In my flow, everything which has Alexa, what is... gets routed to a switch, then looks for contains...  
In this case, its looking for car status. I just want it to tell me how much my car has been charged. But I have tried everything I can imagine, like asking car solar charge, EV6 charge, car status and lots more. I always get a standard response from Alexa. That I want to suppress, so it only speaks my text.  
So the problem isnt really in the flow (Otherwise I would have pasted it here)

This is what the debug shows, maybe that makes it clearer

sync : msg : Object

object

payload: object

data: object

conversionDetails: object

deviceType: "x"

creationTimestamp: 1692698096426

deviceSerialNumber: "x"

name: "Study"

description: object

alexaResponse: "Mike, Currently, traffic on your commute looks quite clear. The fastest route takes about 1 hour 12 minutes via A127 and A13."

destinationUserId: "x"

text: "the car has been charged 0 kilowatt hours"

device: "Study"

So, I want her to speak the text, but not the alexaResponse

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**Author:** ![Sean-McG](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/flex026/user_avatar/discourse.nodered.org/sean-mcg/32/54677_2.png) [@Sean-McG](https://discourse.nodered.org/u/Sean-McG)\
**Post date:** [22 August 2023 22:38 UTC](https://discourse.nodered.org/t/how-do-i-suppress-standard-alexa-responses-to-hear-custom-responses/80706/2 "2023-08-22T22:38:56Z")

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You could use the Q&A skill, explained here -

> **[It's Q&A Time: How to Create Custom Questions and Answers for Amazon Alexa](https://www.pcmag.com/how-to/create-custom-questions-answers-for-amazon-alexa)**
>
> Customize the Alexa experience by cooking up your own Q&As for Amazon's digital assistant.

Create a unique response for each of your "questions" eg checking car charge Then watch for "checking car charge" to trigger your text to speak the result.

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**Author:** ![Mikee1234K](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/flex026/user_avatar/discourse.nodered.org/mikee1234k/32/70283_2.png) [@Mikee1234K](https://discourse.nodered.org/u/Mikee1234K)\
**Post date:** [23 August 2023 07:59 UTC](https://discourse.nodered.org/t/how-do-i-suppress-standard-alexa-responses-to-hear-custom-responses/80706/3 "2023-08-23T07:59:34Z")

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That solution will not work in my case. I am constructing a custom answer with a global variable in node red. So the answer I want is "the car has been charged" + my global variable + "kilowatt hours". I could not do that in the Alexa skill. Next problem I could only have 7 custom responses, I use more already.  
What I am looking for is a blueprint for suppressing the alexaResponse in selected cases.

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**Author:** ![stephenn](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/flex026/user_avatar/discourse.nodered.org/stephenn/32/66644_2.png) [@stephenn](https://discourse.nodered.org/u/stephenn)\
**Post date:** [23 August 2023 09:22 UTC](https://discourse.nodered.org/t/how-do-i-suppress-standard-alexa-responses-to-hear-custom-responses/80706/4 "2023-08-23T09:22:47Z")

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I use the Q&A Blueprint for my room-aware commands with Alexa. Don't try to put your variable response within the blueprint, just put a simple response like "ok". Then use Node Red to generate your custom response.

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**Author:** ![system](https://us1.discourse-cdn.com/flex026/uploads/nodered/original/1X/d073cd938eafa2e558d7c2cd59003b3ef4963033.png) [@system](https://discourse.nodered.org/u/system)\
**Post date:** [22 October 2023 09:23 UTC](https://discourse.nodered.org/t/how-do-i-suppress-standard-alexa-responses-to-hear-custom-responses/80706/5 "2023-10-22T09:23:37Z")

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