Altering audio to improve automatic speech recognition

A computer-implemented method comprising:

• receiving, while a speaker of a device outputs audio, an indication that a user is going to provide a subsequent voice command to the device;
• determining a distance between the user and the device;
• determining an amount to attenuate the audio output by the speaker of the device, the amount to attenuate the audio increasing with increasing distance between the user and the device;
• and
• attenuating the audio by the determined amount to increase an accuracy of speech recognition performed on an audio signal that includes the subsequent voice command by increasing a signal-to-noise ratio of the audio signal.

A method comprising:

• under control of an electronic device that includes a microphone, a speaker and executable instructions,
• outputting audio via the speaker;
• determining that a user is going to provide a voice command to the device based at least in part on an utterance from the user represented in an audio signal generated by the microphone;
• determining a distance between the user and the electronic device;
• determining an amount to attenuate the audio, the amount to attenuate the audio increasing with increasing distance between the user and the electronic device;
• and
• attenuating the audio by the determined amount to increase an accuracy of speech recognition performed on an audio signal that includes the subsequent voice command by increasing a signal-to-noise ratio of the audio signal.