The Amazon Echo line of devices has slowly made their way into households all around the world. People use them for the smallest of things to some necessary actions — from adding numbers to placing orders or controlling their smart home devices. While performing any of these actions, the Echo line of devices uses its built-in light rings (or lights) to inform the user about the current state.

The lights on the Echo line of speakers function in a slightly different manner individually. Understanding what these colours mean is an integral part of the experience, read ahead to find out what your device is trying to tell you or doing.

Echo, Echo Dot and Echo Plus

The light ring on the Echo, Echo Dot and Echo Plus functions in the following ways:

When it is solid blue with a revolving cyan light pulse: The device is booting up.
When there is an orange light revolving clockwise: The device is working on connecting to the existing Wi-Fi network.
When there is a continuous pulsating violet light: The device has encountered an error during the Wi-Fi set up process.
When all the lights are off: The device is in standby and waiting for a command.
When it is solid blue with a cyan light in the direction of the audio command: Alexa is processing the given command.
When the light is alternating between solid blue and cyan: The device is responding.
When it is solid red: The microphone has been physically turned off.
When the light is a pulsating yellow: A message or notification is waiting to be heard.
When the light is a pulsating green: There is an incoming call, or a fellow Echo user is using ‘Drop-In’ to contact the speaker.
When there is a green light revolving counterclockwise: There is an active call or an active ‘Drop-In.’
When there is a single pulse of purple light after a complete interaction with Alexa: Do Not Disturb is active on the device.
When white light is present all over the ring: The volume on the device is being adjusted.
When there is a spinning white light: Alexa Guard has been set to Away Mode.

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Echo Look

Echo Look is Amazon’s device for your wardrobe, which it expects to provide useful fashion advice. The device works using AI and inputs from professional stylists to help you decide on your outfits. Although the device behaves differently when compared to the line of speakers, it is still Alexa-enabled and has its light ring for specific indications. Read on to learn about what they mean.

When it is solid blue with a revolving cyan light pulse: The device is booting up.
When there is a spinning orange light: The device is in setup mode.
When all the lights are turned off: The device is in standby and waiting for a command.
When there is a blinking white light: This indicates that the camera on the device is on.
When it blinks in multiple colours: There was an error during the WiFi setup.
When it is solid blue with a cyan light: Alexa is processing the given command.
When it is solid red: The device is indicating that the camera and microphone have been turned off.
When it is flashing red: The Alexa service on the device is unavailable.

Echo Tap

For those of you who were unaware of this device, the Echo Tap is Amazon’s wireless solution to make Alexa available on the go. It is a battery-powered Bluetooth speaker, which can perform almost everything that its wired counterparts are known for in the smart speaker ecosystem. Instead of a light ring, this device employs small LED indicators along the top edge to indicate actions or its status.

The LEDs function in the following ways:

When the lights are a pulsating cyan and blue: The device is powering up.
When the lights are a pulsating blue over the others: This indicates that the device is ready to pair via Bluetooth.
When the lights are a pulsating orange from left to right: The speaker is in a Wi-Fi setup sequence.
When the lights turn cyan: The microphone button has been pressed.
When the lights are a pulsating cyan: This indicates that Alexa is working on your request.
When the lights are a pulsating red: This means that Alexa was unable to process your request successfully.
When the lights turn solid red: This that the microphone on the device has been turned off.