The flashing yellow light ring on your Echo speaker is Alexa’s way of communicating you have a message, notification, alert or reminder.
I shop a lot on Amazon, so in my experience, it is usually a message from Amazon shopping letting me know that a delivery is due to arrive today.
However, it can also be an audio message received from one of your contacts, an alert that an Amazon “subscribe & save” item is about to be dispatched, a missed reminder that you had previously set or a calendar event.
Note: In certain lighting conditions, it can be difficult to see the exact color of the flashing light. If the below does not solve your issue, then I recommend, following the instructions here for the orange ring and green ring.
You can also watch my video below where I go over the various topics discussed in this article.
How to dismiss the Alexa Yellow Ring
The easiest way to dismiss the Amazon Echo yellow ring is to simply speak to Alexa about it!
Simply Say:
- “Alexa, what notifications do I have?”
You will then hear Alexa read out your notifications. Afterwards, the Yellow light will disappear.
If you don’t want to hear the notifications, then you can say:
- “Alexa, clear notifications”
You can log into your Alexa app to see notifications, messages and reminders also. Notifications should appear on the app home screen. Messages appear in the “Communicate” tab at the bottom while reminders are visible in More > Reminders.
Disable Amazon Yellow Ring Notifications on your Echo devices
If you would rather not receive the Alexa yellow ring, you can disable Amazon notifications completely from showing.
- Launch the Alexa app on your phone.
- Navigate to More, then Settings.
- Select Notification.
- You can then go into each notification type and toggle off the various notifications.
- Once complete, you will no longer get the Yellow flashing ring.
Stop Alexa from reading out product names you have ordered
Notifications may be an issue for many who just bought a surprise present for a family member and want to keep it a secret. You don't want your Alexa smart speaker reading out what you bought in front of the person you bought it for, ruining a potential surprise!
There is a section under Amazon Shopping Notifications where you can instruct Alexa to include or exclude product names in notifications. By default Alexa will not read out product names if it is marked as a gift or during major holidays. However, you may still want to suppress it, just in case.
- Launch the Alexa app on your phone.
- Navigate to More, then Settings.
- Select Notification >> Amazon Shopping.
- Toggle off the “For items in delivery updates” and “For items in return updates.”
- All done. Your Alexa notifications will no longer list the products you have ordered by name.
Benefits of the Alexa Yellow Notification
There were an estimated 260 million packages stolen last year, based on a report from SafeWise. If you live in a bad neighborhood, and the delivery man leaves your parcel at your doorstep, the yellow light can help you pick up your package before the porch pirates get it.
Conclusion
The next time you get the blinking Alexa yellow ring, don’t panic. It simply means you have a new unread notification on your Amazon Account. You can make your Alexa smart speaker read it out loud, or you can also check it by logging into your Amazon app.