Amazon Echo yellow flashing ring: how to turn it off
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(Pocket-lint) – If you have an Amazon Echo, you’ve probably come across the flashing yellow ring. This can be an irritation for a lot of people and is a big deal – because the causes could easily reveal your purchases to other people in your household. And that’s a problem if you ordered a gift for the Black friday .
The flashing yellow ring is a notification. You probably won’t know, as Amazon doesn’t seem to have officially told anyone about the feature – it just seemed to light up.
Due to the tight integration into your Amazon account, Alexa knows what you are buying. You’re probably used to receiving emails confirming shipment of orders and alerts from the Amazon shopping app on your phone – but Alexa has joined the party, eager to let you know when your next package will arrive.
As part of this, Alexa will also say what is in the packaging. Great if you live alone – a nightmare if you have kids and just ordered your partner’s Christmas presents.
You can also just say “Alexa, where are my things” and she will resend the bean to anyone who asks. Tsk. What happened to the discretion?
How to turn off yellow ring notifications on Echo
Ok, so let’s get rid of those yellow rings first. If you just want to know what it is, ask Alexa on your Echo if you have any notifications. It could be a notification, it could be a message.
Once you have heard the message, the yellow ring should disappear. But here’s how to turn off these notifications:
- Open the Alexa app on your phone.
- Open the More menu and tap Settings.
- Select Notifications then Amazon Shopping.
- Here you can control delivery notifications and you can turn off “to be delivered” or “delivered” notifications.
Of course, if you live in an area where deliveries are left on your doorstep, having these notifications can help – but at least you know how to control them.
How to hide your Alexa commands
But let’s take it a step further. Because Alexa will proudly announce what is delivered, it is very easy for anyone in your household to find out what you have ordered on Amazon, just by talking to one of your Echo devices.
Here’s how to hide what you ordered from Alexa.
- Open the Alexa app on your phone.
- Open the menu and tap Settings.
- Select Notifications then Amazon Shopping.
- In the section called “Say or show item titles”, you should turn this option off, so that Alexa doesn’t blurt out “Your Lego Death Star will be delivered tomorrow”.
It’s as far as you can go. You can always ask Alexa “where is my stuff” and they’ll tell you when your next delivery is due, but they won’t now say what’s in the package.
And while you’re here, it’s also worth disabling Amazon voice purchases on your Echo devices. This feature allows anyone to buy anything from your account – so if you have kids, it’s worth disabling it. Here is a complete guide to help you do that.
Written by Chris Hall. Originally published on .