How-To

How to Enable or Disable the Explicit Filter on Alexa

By Adam Davidson

Updated June 7, 2024

Do you want Alexa to stop playing music with NSFW content? Learn how to enable or disable the explicit filter on Alexa.

You’re enjoying a nice cup of coffee with your grandma and listening to music on your Echo in the kitchen. Alexa is playing a selection of your favorite songs when suddenly the track Warning from Ice-T’s Home Invasion album starts to play. Your grandma drops her coffee cup in shock. All of this could have been easily avoided by turning on Alexa’s explicit filter.

This setting stops Alexa from playing any songs or podcasts containing profanity or other explicit content. It means that your grandma (or kids) won’t have to listen to Ice-T listing pretty much every profane word under the sun. Here’s how to enable or disable the explicit filter on Alexa.

How to Enable or Disable the Explicit Filter in the Alexa App

If you want to turn the explicit filter on or off, you can do so through the Alexa app. The explicit filter controls are found in the Music and Podcasts settings section of the app. Changing this setting will enable or disable the explicit filter for all of your connected Alexa devices, except for Amazon Kids devices, which use their own explicit filter settings. The filter will work with Amazon Music, as well as supported apps such as Apple Music and Spotify. It may not work with all music services, however.

1. Open the Amazon Alexa app.
2. Tap More at the bottom of the screen.
   
3. Select Settings.
   
4. Scroll down to the Alexa Preferences and tap Music and Podcasts.
   
5. Select Profanity Filter.
   
6. Toggle Profanity Filter on or off.
   

How to Enable or Disable the Alexa Explicit Filter by Voice

It’s also possible to turn the Alexa profanity filter on or off using your voice, provided that voice deactivation is enabled in the Alexa app. This allows you to simply ask Alexa to turn the explicit filter on or off, without having to go through the app.

1. Find any Alexa device that’s connected to your account.
2. Say something such as “Alexa, turn on the explicit filter” or “Alexa, turn off the profanity filter.”
3. Alexa should respond by confirming that she has turned the explicit filter on or off.
4. You can use another voice command to turn the profanity filter back on or off again at any time.

How to Enable or Disable Voice Deactivation for the Alexa Explicit Filter

If you find that you are unable to turn the explicit filter on or off with your voice, the likely cause is that voice deactivation is turned off in the Alexa app, unless your Alexa device is completely unresponsive. With this setting off, it’s not possible to change the explicit filter settings by voice. Alexa will inform you that you’ll need to change this setting in the Alexa app. This ensures that your kids can’t turn the explicit filter off just by asking Alexa, for example. You can turn voice deactivation on or off within the Alexa app.

1. Launch the Amazon Alexa app.
2. At the bottom of the screen, tap More.
   
3. Select Settings.
   
4. Scroll down to the Alexa Preferences section.
5. Tap Music and Podcasts.
   
6. Tap Profanity Filter.
   
7. Toggle Voice Deactivation on or off.
   

How to Enable or Disable the Alexa Explicit Filter on Amazon Kids

If you have kids’ Alexa devices, such as an Echo Show Kids, you get a free subscription to Amazon Kids+. You can manage the profanity settings through the Amazon Kids+ app. These settings apply independently of your other Echo devices, meaning you have the profanity filter turned off for most devices, but turned on for your kids’ devices. You’ll need to access the Grown-ups section of the app to change these settings.

1. Open the Amazon Kids+ app.
2. Tap the Grown-ups button.
   
3. Enter your PIN or password.
4. Select an account and tap the Settings icon.
   
5. Scroll down to Your Child Echo Devices and tap the name of the device you want to change the settings for.
   
6. Tap Manage Music.
   
7. Toggle Explicit Filter on or off.
   
8. You’ll see all the available music services listed. If they are listed under Explicit Filter Supported, then the explicit filter settings will also apply when listening to music through these services.
   

What is the Explicit Filter on Alexa?

The explicit filter on Alexa is designed to stop your Alexa devices from playing any music or podcasts that contain profanity or other explicit language. This ensures that you don’t hear anything untoward in the lyrics of songs or the content of podcasts if you don’t want to. The feature is particularly useful if you have children in the home, as it’s easy for them to ask Alexa to play music, and there may be some songs that you would rather they didn’t hear!

The filter applies to all content from Amazon Music, but it will also work with other supported music services too, such as Apple Music and Spotify. This means that even if music is playing through one of these services, the explicit filter settings still apply. If a music streaming service is unsupported, then turning the explicit filter on may stop that service from working correctly.

Why Won’t the Alexa Explicit Filter Turn On or Off?

If you can’t turn the explicit filter on or off with your voice, then it’s probably because voice deactivation is disabled. You’ll need to turn on voice deactivation in the Alexa app as outlined earlier in the article.

Sometimes, however, even if you’ve changed the setting in the app, or Alexa has confirmed a change requested via voice, the explicit filter still isn’t working in the setting you’ve selected. If this is the case, you can try restarting your Alexa device. Usually, removing it from power, leaving it for a few seconds, and then plugging it back is enough to restart. Many users have found that restarting their device has fixed the problem with the explicit filter settings not working. Restarting your device is often a good thing to try no matter what issues you’re having with Alexa.

Using the Explicit Filter on Alexa

Learning how to enable or disable the explicit filter on Alexa ensures that you get to choose whether or not to hear profanity and other explicit language in your music and podcasts. If you have a young family, or have people over who offend easily, then being able to turn off profanity when playing music can be very useful. However, it’s also useful to know how to turn the filter off when you want to enjoy lyrics or podcasts the way they were intended.