The Alexa-powered Amazon Echo, along with the Amazon Dot and Amazon Tap, have proven to be very useful smart home gadgets, offering users with a variety of conveniences to make their daily lives easier.
However, the smart speakers are not perfect devices, and users run into certain problems with them from time to time. One of the most frustrating issues that users can experience is having their Amazon Echo not understanding or not hearing them properly.
If you are one of the Amazon Echo owners who are experiencing this problem, here are a few things that you can try to solve the issue.
Light Ring Should Not Be Red
The light ring of the Amazon Echo indicates a variety of things for the smart speaker. Spinning cyan and royal blue lights mean that a user in the room has said the wake word for the Amazon Echo, an orange light means that the smart speaker is trying to connect to a wireless network, a violet light means that there is an issue with the Wi-Fi setup, and a white light indicates the volume level of the Amazon Echo when the user is changing the smart speaker's volume.
The light ring of the Amazon Echo should never be red. This means that the mute switch at the top of the smart speaker has been activated, which is why it is not hearing your commands.
Find An Ideal Location
Another possible reason on why the Amazon Echo could not hear or understand user commands is due to interference, which may be caused by walls and other objects.
The ideal location for the Amazon Echo, as stated by Amazon Support, is at least 8 inches away from walls and appliances such as baby monitors and microwave ovens. The smart speaker should also be on a high location such as on a table.
In addition to being a certain distance away from possible interference, Amazon Echo owners should bear in mind that the smart speaker will hear commands best when there is little to no ambient noise in the room where it is in. A common culprit for increasing noise levels within a room are air conditioning units, and so the Amazon Echo should be placed as far away as possible from them and their vents.
Use The Voice Training Tool
The voice recognition capabilities of Alexa has the ability to improve the more that users interact with the Amazon Echo, but there is also a tool that will help Alexa better understand what users are saying.
Named the Voice Training tool, it can be accessed under the Settings menu of the Alexa companion app. Upon launching the tool, users will be asked to speak 25 phrases that will help the digital assistant better understand what a person is saying.
Users can also view the History of the commands that Alexa hears, also under the Settings menu of the app, to see which words are the ones that the digital assistant could not understand. Users can then try to speak these words clearer for the Amazon Echo to properly pick them up.
LED/Microphone Board Replacement
If the problem still persists after trying out these proposed solutions, there is the possibility that the microphone array of the Amazon Echo is malfunctioning.
Users are suggested to have the LED/Microphone board of their Amazon Echo replaced, which they can do by themselves or they can have done by contacting Amazon's support team.
