Amazon Echo: Meaning of Flashes of Different Colors

Amazon Echo devices use colors to communicate a number of things. Here are their meanings.

Ever since the first Amazon Echo smart speaker, one of the key design features has always been the ring of light — or, in the case of Echo Show smart displays, the light bar. When you say “Alexa,…”the indicator turns blue and starts spinning while Alexa processes your voice command. But when the light is yellow, green, white, or alternates between blue and cyan, what does that mean?

The glowing ring serves as a status indicator and notification for a range of information. When the Echo ring or Show bar is displayed in different colors, Alexa is trying to tell you something important.

In most cases, the light ring remains off. If the device is connected and the indicator is off, the speaker is on and waiting for you to say the wake-up phrase. When you interact with Alexa, you will see white and blue variations. The ring will also let you know if there is a problem with Alexa. The status indicator can be red, purple, or orange. Now that Alexa lets you send messages and make calls, Amazon has introduced two new notification colors: green and yellow. You can ask Alexa what the colors on your Echo device mean, or you can read the file below.

Blue and Cyan: Why is Alexa Showing Blue?

• If you say a wake up phrase or wake Alexa manually, the ring of light will turn solid blue with a small blue part pointing to the speaker.
• Solid blue with spinning cyan: After you give a voice command, this means that Alexa is processing your request. This also happens when the speaker starts up.
• Alternating blue and cyan: Alexa is responding to your command or request.

Green: Why is Alexa displaying green?

• A pulsing green light indicates an incoming call.
• A rotating green light means you are currently on a call or Drop In is active.

White: what does it mean when your echo is white

• The glowing ring shows the volume percentage in white when you manually turn on the light ring on an Amazon Echo or first generation Echo Dot, or press volume up or down on a second generation Echo Dot, or when Alexa asks you to adjust the volume.
• A constantly rotating white light means the Alexa Guard is in away mode.

Purple: Do not disturb or Wi-Fi issues?

• A pulsing purple color indicates a problem with the Wi-Fi configuration.
• A rotating blue light ending in a purple flash indicates Do Not Disturb is on.
• A purple flash after interacting with Alexa means Do Not Disturb is still on.

Yellow, orange and red: explanation of other colors

• Rotating orange means the device is connecting to the network.
• Solid red means the microphone is muted and Alexa is not actively listening to you.
• A pulsing yellow light indicates that there are messages in your inbox. You can say “Read my messages”or “Check my notifications”for more information.

Echo Show Lightbar Meaning

Unlike the Amazon Echo smart speakers, the Echo Show makes full use of its large screen, but the device still uses speaker-like lights and they appear at the bottom of the screen in a small bar. Here is their meaning:

• A solid blue bar with a light blue patch indicates the direction of whoever is talking to Alexa when the wake up phrase is spoken.
• A solid red bar means the microphone and camera are off. After a few seconds, the indicator turns off, and only the microphone and camera mute icon remains in the upper right corner of the screen.
• An orange bar means your Echo Show is having connection issues.
• A purple bar means you’ve put Echo Show on Do Not Disturb. After a few seconds, the light will turn off and only the crescent moon symbol will remain in the upper right corner of the screen.