Alexa’s yellow notification ring can RUIN your Christmas – how to turn it off

AMAZON Echo fans will be familiar with the yellow ring of light that shines around the speaker when you have a notification.

What you might not know, however, is that this seemingly innocuous glow could ruin your Christmas by giving away what you’ve bought for your loved ones.

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Often the notification is letting you know that an item you’ve ordered has been dispatched, is out for delivery or has arrived at your home.

All you have to do when you see the yellow light is say “Alexa, do I have any notifications?”.

Then the virtual assistants will read your alerts out loud, including those linked to your Amazon account.

When listing the status of your deliveries, the little speaker can even give away the names of the products that you’ve ordered.

This is all well and good if you’re living alone, but it could prove disastrous if you live with others.

If you’ve been doing some secret Christmas shopping for them on your Amazon account, you may want to turn the yellow ring light feature off.

Otherwise, your cohabitors may ask Alexa to read out notifications and hear what you’ve ordered for them long before December 25.

Bear in mind that the yellow ring light can also appear when you have received a message from a contact.

To hear this just say “Alexa, read my messages” and once you’ve heard them then the light should turn off.

To turn it off altogether follow the steps below.

How to turn off yellow ring light notifications on Amazon Echo 

Go to your Alexa app on your phone and then click “More” and “Settings”.

Find “Notifications” and then click “Amazon Shopping”.

Here you can switch the range of delivery notifications off just by sliding the button next to them.

If you want to turn them back on after Christmas then follow the steps above and turn the toggles back on.

Hide orders from Alexa

You can also stop your Amazon account letting your smart speaker know what you’ve ordered.

Open the Alexa app on your phone and go to “Settings”.

Find “Notifications” and then click “Amazon Shopping”.

 Find the section that says “Say or Show Item Titles” and then turn this off.

Now Alexa can tell you when a package is going to be delivered but it won’t say specifically what the package is so Christmas won’t be ruined.

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In other news, Samsung is reportedly killing off its beloved Note smartphone after more than a decade.

Apple has announced that it will let customers fix their own iPhones for the first time starting next year.

The UK is fighting an epidemic of hack attacks targeting consumers and businesses, according to officials.

And, NASA has slammed Russia after a missile it fired into one of its own satellites forced the space station to perform an emergency swerve.

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