Understanding Alexa’s Light Rings
June 27, 2024
You would probably have a tough time these days finding someone who’s not familiar with asking questions starting with ‘Hey Alexa.’ And that the voice assistant would answer the question or complete the command. But did you know there were other ways Alexa can communicate with you? Or you may have noticed colored rings on your devices but had no idea what they meant.
Echo devices such as the standard Echo, the Echo Dot, the new Echo Pop, and the Echo Show can display indicator lights in multiple colors. Yes, multiple. And they can be a little confusing if you don’t know what they mean — or how to make them stop. Luckily, deciphering the light signals on your Echo device is simple, and once you know the code, the lights can warn you when something’s gone wrong with your Echo, when you have incoming messages, or alert you when Alexa is listening, and more.
Blue light with spinning light-blue segment
This one’s pretty simple. Whenever you speak to Alexa, a blue light will appear with a light-blue segment that’s facing the direction in which she’s listening. You’ll also see the blue light when Alexa is processing what you just said. If there’s no blue light, Alexa isn’t listening (or didn’t hear you).
Pulsing yellow light
A pulsing yellow light generally is accompanied by an audible ‘bum, bum!’ alert tone to let you know when Alexa has a notification for you, or if you missed a reminder. One of the most common times you’ll see the yellow light is when Alexa wants to tell you that a package from Amazon has been delivered, or when Amazon is about to ship a ‘Subscribe & save’ item.
Just say ‘Alexa, tell me my notifications’ to hear your Alexa alerts, and the yellow light will disappear once Alexa has read them to you. If you want to delete all your notifications without hearing them, just say, ‘Alexa, delete all my notifications.’
Solid red light
The most likely use for the red light is a pressed microphone mute and/or camera-off button. Press the mic mute button again, and the red light should disappear. Seeing the red light, but no one pressed the mic mute button? If so, the red light means that there’s some kind of error, such as a lost WiFi connection or a problem with Alexa.
Spinning orange light
When you first plug in a brand new Echo speaker or display, the spinning orange light will let you know that the Echo device is in setup mode. If you see the spinning orange light and you’re not setting up your Echo for the first time, it means that the device is trying to connect to the internet, indicating that you might have an internet service outage.
Pulsing or spinning green light
A pulsing green light means that you have an incoming call on your Echo device. Just ask Alexa to answer the call, or say ‘Alexa, ignore’ to cancel the call. If the green light is spinning rather than pulsing, it means that someone just did a ‘drop in’ on your Echo device or that your Echo just started a call — usually because you asked her to call someone. To end the drop in or call, just say ‘Hang up.’
Purple light
Putting your Echo speaker in ‘do not disturb’ mode will make a purple light briefly flash. This blocks incoming calls and notifications, but not timers or alarms. A steady purple light while you’re initially setting up an Echo means something went wrong during the WiFi setup process.
Spinning white light
If you’re an Alexa Emergency Assist subscriber, you’ll get a spinning white light if you set Alexa to ‘away’ mode before leaving the house. Just say ‘Alexa, I’m home’ to make the white light disappear.
The only other time you’ll see a while light on your Echo device is when you’re adjusting the volume.
The Amazon Fire TV Cube has a similar light show as the voice assistants described above. If you have one of these you’re probably familiar with some or most of these. We’ve been using Fire TV Cubes for years and even I was a little surprised with the list of light signals. Here is the LED indicator colors for Fire TV Cube:
- Solid blue with sweeping cyan lights: The device is starting up.
- Solid blue with cyan light pointing in one direction: Alexa is busy processing your request.
- Alternating solid blue and cyan light: The device is responding.
- Alternating blue and cyan pulsing light: Time has ended — Alarm is going off.
- Sweeping blue light: Controlling external device — Voice remote pairing mode.
- Three blue flashes: Connecting to — Disconnecting from Bluetooth.
- Pulsing red light: Device error.
- Solid red light: Device is muted.
- Pulsing purple light: WiFi connection timed out, setup failed.
- Sweeping orange light: Device is in set up mode or has WiFi issues.
- Slow pulsing orange light: Unheard SMS.
- Pulsing orange light (from sides to center): Wake word is changing.
- Sweeping green light (left to right): Outbound call — Drop In ringing.
- Pulsing green light (from center outwards): Incoming call — Drop In.
- Sweeping green light: Call — Drop In connected.
- White light (incremental increase / decrease): Device volume is being adjusted.
Unfortunately you’re out of luck if you want to turn Alexa’s light ring off completely, but you can keep the lights to a minimum by putting your Echo speaker into Do Not Disturb mode. While in this mode, Alexa won’t bother you with lights or other notifications unless an alarm or timer goes off. To set that up …
- Open the Alexa app, tap the Devices tab, tap the Device Type filter, tap Echo & Alexa, tap Apply, then select an Alexa device from the list.
- Tap the Do Not Disturb button.
- To put Do Not Disturb on a schedule, go to the Settings screen for your Echo speaker, scroll down to Do Not Disturb, flick the Scheduled toggle, then enter the daily Start and End times for Do Not Disturb mode.
For me personally, I like the lights and knowing what they mean. It’s a good communication method without being intrusive. But it’s all about personal preference. What are your thoughts around this? Are you surprised at the number of lights? Do you find them helpful or distracting? If you could change how they work what would you do?
Let Debbie and I know what you think in the comments, DMs and emails as we really enjoy hearing from you. Thanks again to all those following Debbie and I through our home building journey. It’s great to hear your success stories and suggestions as we move through the process. And if you like the content I’m posting each week, don’t forget to ‘Like’ and ‘Follow.’
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