All of us who have a smart speaker at some point have suffered problems with command recognition or have not received a response. All the assistants have bugs, but if you have noticed that Alexa does not answer and that your requests sometimes go unanswered, it may be for one of these reasons.
The use of voice assistants has spread among the population in recent years. A large number of homes already have one to automate processes and make our home a little smarter. For users who choose Amazon’s Alexa, it is possible to turn the lights on and off through the Echo smart speakers, control your Smart TV with Alexa or ask you to make a shopping list or add a product to our cart on Amazon. Although Alexa is one of the smartest assistants, on some occasions it may have specific failures or answer us with a “I have not understood you”As no assistant with perfect voice recognition system.
Reasons why Alexa is not responding
For all those moments when we speak out to Alexa, the microphones pick up what we say, there is no external noises and even so the answer is again and again “Sorry, I did not understand you” or “Please try again later” here are some solutions for Alexa to answer us.
Alexa is an assistant that is cloud-based, therefore having a connection to Internet is essential for its proper functioning. If it cannot connect to the company’s servers, it will not answer you or do anything. The vast majority of errors can be related to a lack of understanding of the microphones or specific failures of connection with Amazon’s servers.
To identify some errors, Amazon created a color code for the ring of the Echo speakers and a line that lights up on the Echo Show that will help us identify if there is a connection error:
Meaning of Alexa colors
- Blue: Indicates that the speaker is listening correctly.
- White: This color appears when we adjust the volume of our Echo speaker.
- Yellow: Indicator that there is a pending notification.
- Red: It is the indicator color that we have pressed the on / off button of the
- microphone. In the Echo Show it is also the indicator that the camera is off.
- Purple: WiFi configuration failure or “Do not disturb” function activated.
- Orange: It means that the device is in Configuration mode or trying to connect to the Internet.
- Green: Signal that we are receiving a call through the Drop In option.
Once we know what the different color codes mean, if we do not find any indication that Alexa is not responding due to a failure in the Internet connection, it may be due to a problem inherent to Amazon’s servers.
Solutions for Alexa to answer
To check that it is not a Amazon servers failure or another factor that may be affecting the correct operation of Alexa, these are some of the solutions that we can try:
- As in any other electronic device and as obvious as it may seem, the first step should be restart the Amazon Echo by disconnecting it from the electrical network and reconnecting it after a few seconds.
- If this does not work make sure it is inside the wireless network range and that there is no interference problem. Alexa may be failing because you have moved the router or because you have placed a device nearby.
- The placement speaker is also important. If we have it hidden in a piece of furniture or corner, the solution for Alexa to answer may be by changing the site speaker and re-formulating the request to see if it responds this time.
After knowing the meaning of the Alexa lights and these simple tips, it is likely that all your problems related to Alexa not answering have been solved.