Virtual assistants can be incredibly useful. In fact, Alexa has proven to be an integral part of my smart home system. The fact that I can walk into my house and say, “Alexa, turn on bedroom,” and the lights in my bedroom will turn on is certainly convenient. But there’s a dark side to these virtual assistants, and we’re not just talking about spying on you. Sometimes, they just don’t know when to shut up.

If you’ve ever used Alexa, you’ve probably heard the question “did you know…” at some point. This can be useful when you’re asking the assistant a question or trying to figure out what you can do with Alexa. But most of the time, it’s just an attempt to promote some other service or “plug-in” that Alexa offers, like playing rain sounds. I don’t want to hear ads when I’m trying to turn off my lights and go to sleep, thank you very much.

These suggestions can be hard to stop. Telling Alexa not to suggest things didn’t work for me. But if you know the magic words, there’s actually an easy way to stop Alexa from suggesting things.

To stop Alexa’s “in brackets” suggestions, simply say, “Alexa, stop by the way suggestions” or “Alexa, stop by the way.” It’s really that simple. I know because I tested it, and sure enough, Alexa responded by saying it would stop sending suggestions. And it hasn’t. (You never know with these virtual assistants.) Thanks for the tip, Reddit.