Amazon TV stick - can Alexa be turned off?

[FoxOnABox]

A client of mine has expressed interest in streamed TV, Netflix etc. She does have an Amazon Prime account but I've realised today that she doesn't know this gives her access to Prime Video.

I've been struggling with ideas for a Christmas present as she is very financially comfortable and pretty much has everything she needs and thought 'Yippee, I can get her an Amazon TV stick!'

I'm trying to look into it but it seems these sticks now come with voice controlled Alexa but client has previously said she would not like anything like that in her home.

Is it possible to turn the Alexa function off?

Does Prime Video include TV shows as well as movies?

Today she said she would really like to try Netflix and I see the app is on the stick so that's great.

TV is not a smart one so no apps on it but under the pretence of clearing a load of non-existant cobwebs from down the back today I have managed to confirm it has HDMI ports so it seems this could be a great gift if I can just disable Alexa.

The first generation one doesn’t have Alexa I don’t think. I’m not sure if you can still get it from Amazon but you might be able to track one down from a third party seller.

From what I could see on google it's a little different from amazon echo in that Alexa doesn't listen for commands. You have to hold down a button and speak into the mic. If she never does that Alexa won't hear her,

Yes we have this type of Firestick in all our TVs. For the voice control to work you need to hold down the microphone button.
I don't believe there is any passive listening from the Firesticks but it's hard to tell in here because we all have iPhones and we do have the proper Alexa

You could get her a Roku stick. It has been a couple of years since we bought ours but you can get netflix and prime on it, and also the nowtv app (this is why we got roku rather than the fire stick not sure if fire now has nowtv) though you need to pay for that (monthly flexible subscription)

our roku has no voice activation though new models may do

There are other sticks like roku or now that may be suitable.

Thank you very much everyone. It looks like a Roku with the Amazon app will do the job so I will check them out.

The stick only listens if you specifically press the button.