# anyone know how to turn off Silk Instant Recommendations?



## 39416

Every time I try to swipe from the right instead of the page moving I just call up "Silk Instant Recommendations." Does anyone know how to turn off this feature? (one forum said to click on the Settings wheel at the top of the the window, but there isn't one; another said to turn off advertising ID but that doesn't do it). I get the bad feeling I am stuck with this new thing.


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## Ann in Arlington

I just went poking around a bit on my Fire 8 . . .which updated on the 16th to 5.3.2.1. Noting appeared to work much differently but when I tapped to open the browser there was a notification about suggestions . . . I'm guessing that's where your issue is?

It looks like, if you have any web page open, you can swipe _from the right edge_ and have the Instant recommendations pop up. If you swipe in from the left edge you get a different menu -- same as what you get when you tap the three line menu icon.

If you close all web pages/tabs you're at "Silk Home" which has 5 page options. Those you can shift between with right and left swipes.

If you're on 'most visited' you'll see recent web pages you've visited. Below that it says "suggested for you". At first it had a thing about how it would suggest sources and keep them sort of queued up so they'd always be ready, but that went away after I clicked "learn more", saw what that said, and went back. As it is NOW, I see the most recent web pages I've visited -- which I can remove by touching the three dots icon and -- and then a list of 'suggested' articles. To the right is a settings icon.

When I tap the settings icon it shows several sources which I can block. At first it showed 4 . . .then it showed 2. I blocked the two it showed, and went back and still had article suggestions. So I tapped the settings icon again and it showed the other two and I blocked them. NOW . . . 'most visited just shows web pages I've actually been to and nothing down below. If I remove all the pages there's a generic 'go explore the web' thing with links to Amazon, You Tube, Bing, etc.

So that's what I've found. If you've blocked all the suggested sites, the instant recommendations available on a web page still works, but it's based on some other algorithm. I went to kboards main page and it's showing me kindle related searches, no related articles (I guess 'cause I blocked sources?) and Trending News, which is fairly generic and not sorted in anyway. I can scroll that side menu up to see more.

It appears to work the same whether in portrait or landscape. Short swipes in the middle of the page don't activate the side menus -- so if, for example, you're at Amazon, there are sometimes rotating product notices at the top. Short swipes let you flip through without problems. Even a longer swipe works so long as you don't _start_ at the very edge of the page.

As far as I can tell, it's ONLY an issue if you're in the Silk Browser, and only if you're on a web page. Since most web pages are navigated by scrolling (vertically) or tapping, I'm not anticipating a lot of issues. But, then, I don't use the Fire that way that often. 

You could go in and change your privacy settings. You can turn off the 'search and URL suggestions' option -- I think that's the thing that shows you suggestions when you start typing into the search bar. There's also a "Do Not Track" that you can turn on. And, of course, you can clear your history, cookies, and cache. There's also 'private browsing'. But none of that is likely going to stop the 'Instant Recommendations' from being available when you're on a web page, as it's apparently a new feature.

Interestingly, having 'blocked' the suggested sites earlier, I'm now not able to get back to that setting to 'unblock' them. So that's . . . odd. . . . . and there isn't anything obvious in the Help section anyway.


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## 39416

Dang it. I hate it. The thing's trigger is right where I swipe. And the recommendations it comes up with are ridiculous to boot. I understand Amazon has to run ads to make money but this is way too intrusive. It's a dealbreaker for me, when my Fire goes I'll have to replace it with something else. (Yeah, I'm sure Amazon will cry buckets.). Nobody I have looked at on the internet has been able to figure out a way to nuke this thing.


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## Ann in Arlington

loraininflorida said:


> Dang it. I hate it. The thing's trigger is right where I swipe. And the recommendations it comes up with are ridiculous to boot. I understand Amazon has to run ads to make money but this is way too intrusive. It's a dealbreaker for me, when my Fire goes I'll have to replace it with something else. (Yeah, I'm sure Amazon will cry buckets.). Nobody I have looked at on the internet has been able to figure out a way to nuke this thing.


I expect Amazon added it as a response to something they percieved customers wanted. Because they're pretty customer-centric and would not be likely to put in ads for the sake of ads. For me, it seems like what it's designed to do is simply provide suggestions of articles/web content based on what you're looking at now. Pretty standard, really.

All that said, Amazon ARE customer-centric . . . so if it's a feature you don't like and would like to be able to turn off, they want to know that. Options are good and it's almost never wrong to allow the user to turn off a 'feature'. Send to [email protected] . . . . that should work for Fire feedback as well. There may also be a link directly from the device. Alternatively, go to the help pages and navigate to the 'contact us' section and let them know how you feel. Politely, of course.


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## adibr

The content on the Silk Home and the gesr icon there is completely unrelated to the right swipe instant recommendations. to get those back after blocking them all. go to Settings from the left panel, Silk Home, Suggested For You and click unblock.


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## 39416

There is no "Home" on my Settings page. And I don't want to unblock the blasted Silk Recommendations, I want to NUKE THEM! Half the time I swipe a page, I pull up those stupid "recommendations"(which are really nothing but Amazon advertisements) instead, no doubt what Amazon intended. If anybody ever does figure out a way to get rid of them_ please _post!


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## adibr

So again, you are mixing up the stuff on rge new tab / most visited page called suggested for you, from the panel you swipw open called Silk Instant Recommendations. You cannot disable the swipe, but it tells me you are swipeing from the bezel of the device. simply start your swipoe more from the middle and you wont have this issue. Is there a site whete thatt doesnt work?


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