Amazon's Alexa voice assistant experienced an outage that affected thousands of users in the United States on Sunday, according to Downdetector.com.
As of the time of writing, more than 15,000 users reported issues with Alexa, with an additional 500 users reporting problems accessing Amazon's mobile app and homepage.
Thousand of Users Report Alexa Outages
The outage began on Sunday morning, April 16, and lasted several hours, with users reporting issues with Alexa's voice control and connectivity. The majority of reports (72%) were about Alexa's voice control, while 25% were about connectivity issues.
"At first, I thought there was something wrong with my Echo Dot, so I kept unplugging it and plugging it back in. When I went out into the kitchen and discovered my Echo Dot isn't working out there either, it was obvious the issue wasn't the DOT. I went on here to check if there was an outage and then saw the big spike in complaints," one user wrote.
Many users also took to Twitter to see if others were experiencing the same issues, with some expressing frustration at Amazon's lack of communication about the outage.
Outage Peaked Around 11 AM
Downdetector, which tracks outages by collating status reports from various sources, including user-submitted errors on its platform, showed a peak in Alexa outage reports around 11 AM. ET on Sunday. The website also showed an increase in reports related to Amazon's mobile app and homepage.
This is not Alexa's first outage. In 2018, the voice assistant experienced a widespread outage that lasted several hours and affected users in multiple countries.
Amazon's Alexa has become a standard fixture in many homes, with users relying on the voice assistant for tasks such as setting reminders, playing music, and controlling smart home devices.
As of Monday morning, there had been no updates from Amazon on the cause of the outage or when it was expected to be resolved.
Suggested Quick Fix
One of the most common reasons Alexa may not respond is a device glitch. Makeuseof advises that in such cases, the best solution is to reboot the device. This can be done in two ways, depending on whether your Alexa device is battery or power-operated.
To restart your Alexa device, unplug it for about 30 seconds to a minute and then plug it back in. Remove the batteries from battery-powered devices for 30 seconds to a minute, then re-insert them and turn on the device.
Another possibility for Alexa's silence is that you have pressed the microphone button on your Amazon Echo device, which disables the microphone. In this case, the device's red light will be lit, indicating that the microphone has been turned off.
To reactivate the microphone, press the physical microphone button on the Echo. Alexa should now recognize and respond to your voice commands. It can also help if your device is plugged in properly or connected to the internet.
In the event that there is a widespread system-related outage, we will be required to wait for Amazon to address the issue.
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