Flashing, pulsing, spinning, or just staying steady – different actions from Alexa light colors on Amazon Echo Dots and Echo Show speakers could be performing.
But what do they all mean and stand for? What’s Alexa trying to tell us?
If your Echo isn’t showing any Alexa light colors, that means it’s listening and waiting for a voice command, so you’re all good. Otherwise, let’s see what these different LED lights could be telling us.
Alexa Light Ring Colors List
All these colors might do different things like pulse, spin, and just hold steady. I’ll go through what various versions of the colors mean in more detail below.
But for those in a hurry, here’s the list of the possible colors that your Amazon Echo could show and the features or areas that they’re related to.
- Blue and Cyan: Alexa is listening, processing, or starting up
- Green: Incoming call, an active call, or active Drop In
- Orange: Setup mode or Internet connectivity related
- Purple: Wi-Fi network issues or Do Not Disturb feature
- Red: Microphone or camera related
- White: Volume or Alexa Guard security related
- Yellow: Messages and notifications
Blue and Cyan Lights
The blue light and cyan light colors are often used together by Echo speakers. There are three different light actions that can occur depending on what Alexa is doing.
- Cyan on Blue Solid Ring – When the blue and cyan colors are solid and holding steady on the ring, that means Alexa heard your wake word and is now listening to your voice command.
- Cyan on Blue Pulsing – When the lights are flashing, Alexa is processing your command.
- Spinning Cyan and Blue – When the cyan light is spinning around the blue ring, it means the Amazon Echo is starting up.
Green Ring Lights
Green lights have two different actions – pulsing and spinning.
- Pulsing Green Light – Green pulses mean the device is receiving an incoming call or a Drop-In. The call could be coming from another Echo device or the Alexa app. You can use voice commands to answer or ignore/deny the call.
- Spinning Green Light – The green light spins when it’s in the middle of a call or in Drop In mode. If you want to end the call or Drop In, then say “Hang up.”
Worried about unwanted Drop In guests? Don’t, because only approved contacts can join the call and you’ll receive a notification prior to them joining.
Maybe you still don’t want that person on the call? You can still always turn Drop In on/off for an Alexa device by following these steps:
- Open the Alexa app
- Open DEVICES
- Click ECHO & ALEXA, and Select our device
- Click COMMUNICATIONS
- Click DROP IN, and enable or disable the various permission settings
Orange Lights
Orange spinning lights can mean your echo device is in setup mode or trying to connect to the internet through your Wi-Fi network, or possibly experiencing internet connection issues.
When you’re going through initial device setup, the spinning orange light is what you’ll see.
If you have trouble during the Wi-Fi setup process, you can test if network connectivity issues and Wi-Fi errors are due to the network you’re trying to connect to by connecting to another Wi-Fi network. Most people don’t have multiple networks at home, so a tip and trick you can use is to tether your smartphone’s cellular connection.
Most smartphones have a way to turn your phone into a Personal Hotspot and share its cellular connection to allow other devices to have an active internet connection (3G, 4G, 5G, etc).
Look up your phone manufacturer’s site for instructions on how to turn on your Personal Hotspot. For example, here are Apple’s instructions on how to set up a Personal Hotspot for an iPhone or iPad.
Purple Lights
A pulsing purple light will show when you encounter Wi-Fi issues during the initial setup on your device.
Another reason you’ll see purple is if the Do Not Disturb feature has been turned on. Do Not Disturb mode will prevent receiving notifications, reminders, calls, and messages. You can also schedule the mode for certain times, like at night when you’re getting ready for bed.
If you want to turn Do Not Disturb On or Off, follow these instructions:
- Open the Alexa app
- Open DEVICES
- Click ECHO & ALEXA, and Select our device
- Click DO NOT DISTURB
- Toggle DO NOT DISTURB On or Off
Red Lights
When you see a solid Red and Alexa isn’t responding, don’t worry, the Echo device hasn’t died. It just means the Echo device microphone is turned off, so Alexa isn’t listening to you.
To fix it and re-enable the microphone, press the Microphone On/Off button on the device. The red light should turn off at that point.
For Echo devices with a camera, like an Echo Show, a red light bar means that your camera is off and not sharing video.
Learn about the different causes and fixes for the Alexa red ring.
White Lights
The white light on the ring will fill and adjust as you change the volume on the device. The ring fill acts as a volume percentage guide for how high or low the device’s volume level is.
If there’s a spinning white light, it means that Alexa Guard is activated and in Away mode. Guard is free and helps protect your home. You can set it up inside the Alexa app:
- Open the Alexa app and go to the HOME screen
- Open the MORE menu and Select SETTINGS
- Select GUARD
- Follow the instructions to set it up
If you’d like extra protection for those times when you’re away and want to deter potential intruders with activity sounds like dogs or a siren, you can look at Amazon Alexa Guard Plus. Guard Plus is a nominal amount each month or pay annually for a nice discount.
Yellow Lights
Flashing yellow light rings means that you have a new, unopened message or notification. You can tell Alexa to read you the messages by saying “Alexa, what are my messages?” or “Alexa, what are my notifications?”
The yellow light should stop pulsing at that point.
Yellow lights will also flash with product delivery notifications. And if you happen to ask Alexa where your shipment is, it’ll tell you the delivery and products, potentially ruining surprise gifts.
I’ll explain how to turn off these notifications next.
How to Turn Off Alexa Light Colors
The only lights you’ll be able to turn off are the Yellow lights for new notifications and the Green lights for incoming calls and Drop In’s.
You can turn off the those lights in the notification settings are of the Alexa app.
- Open the Alexa app and go to the HOME screen
- Open the MORE menu and Select SETTINGS
- Select NOTIFICATIONS and then AMAZON SHOPPING
- Turn off the delivery status notifications that you don’t want like “out for delivery” or “delivered”
Unfortunately, you can’t turn off the orange, purple, or red lights. But it’s also good not to turn those lights off because they’re alerting you to device problems.
Can I Change the Alexa Light Ring Color?
Unfortunately not. Amazon doesn’t allow permanent changes to the ring color. You can make temporary changes manually, but it doesn’t really make sense.
You can press the device’s microphone button and turn off the microphone. The light will then turn red, but then Alexa isn’t listening.
You can send yourself a message or notification, and now you have a pulsating yellow light. You can do things like that to get around the lack of an ability to change colors.
Final Thoughts on Alexa Light Colors
There you have it, all the colors from the Echo indicator lights when Amazon’s Alexa is trying to tell you something.
If you’re new to Amazon Echo speakers, it can be confusing. I know I was at first. It took me awhile to instantly recognize what the colors meant, but what helped was keeping a cheat sheet nearby I could refer to.
Other Alexa articles to see:
