The Amazon Echo line of smart speakers and displays continues to be one of the most convenient and intuitive ways to automate your home. Powered by Alexa, products like Echo Dot and Echo Show 5 can control smart home gadgets, stream music, set alarms, timers and reminders, and even track your Amazon deliveries. Speaking of which, if you’ve ever noticed a yellow light surrounding the base of your Echo Dot or a yellow bar at the bottom of your Echo Show screen, that usually means you have a notification or message from an Alexa contact waiting to be addressed.
When this happens, just say “Alexa, what are my notifications?” or “Alexa, what messages do I have?” The assistant should then read any pending alerts, including delivery updates, purchase reminders, and any messages received through Alexa Calling and Messaging. Once Alexa reviews your alerts, the yellow light/bar should disappear on its own, but if the yellow indicator remains, it means there are notifications and/or messages that you still haven’t responded to. Alternatively, you can simply say “Alexa, clear my notifications” and the yellow light/bar should disappear.
Yellow isn’t the only communicative color Alexa dabbles in
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If you prefer not to receive notification alerts in the future, you can change these settings in the Alexa app. Simply tap More > Settings > Notifications, then turn off notifications for each feature or service you want to ignore. Once updated, Alexa should no longer show a yellow light/bar when there is an Amazon order update, purchase suggestion, or message.
Yellow isn’t the only LED color on Echo devices used to communicate with you. You’ll see cyan blue when Alexa is listening for a voice command, teal when Alexa is waiting for a command, and red to indicate the device’s microphone is muted. If you have an Echo device with a built-in camera, red also indicates that your video stream will not be shared. Learning what all the colors represent isn’t completely necessary, but they are an important part of the Echo experience.
We should also mention that you won’t see any of these color indicators on non-Echo speakers, even if the products have Alexa integration. If you have a third-party speaker powered by Alexa, we recommend using your Alexa app to stay on top of notifications and messages. Or, if you feel like you missed something (and you didn’t turn off notifications), you can simply ask Alexa what your notifications are and the assistant should read out anything you missed.
