How to Turn Off Alexa Notifications (And Which Ones You Can Control)

Alexa notifications come in several flavors — and not all of them are turned off the same way. Whether you're dealing with yellow blinking rings, unexpected chimes, or Alexa speaking up when you didn't ask her to, understanding the notification system first makes the process significantly easier.

What "Alexa Notifications" Actually Means

The term covers a broader category than most people expect. Amazon's notification system includes:

• Shopping and delivery notifications — Alexa alerts you when a package has shipped or arrived
• Announcement and drop-in alerts — sounds or voice messages triggered by other household members
• Skill notifications — third-party Alexa skills (apps) can push alerts to your device
• Communications notifications — missed calls, messages, or voicemails through Alexa calling features
• Reminder and alarm chimes — alerts tied to calendar events or manually set reminders
• Amazon promotional notifications — deals, recommendations, and marketing messages from Amazon itself

Each of these has its own toggle or setting path. There is no single "turn off all notifications" master switch in the Alexa app — which surprises many users.

How to Access Notification Settings in the Alexa App

All notification controls live inside the Amazon Alexa app, available on iOS and Android. The device itself doesn't have a standalone settings menu you can navigate directly.

General path:

1. Open the Alexa app
2. Tap the More icon (bottom right)
3. Select Settings
4. Choose Notifications

From here, you'll see a list of notification categories. The exact options visible depend on which Echo device you own, what skills are active on your account, and what Amazon services you're subscribed to.

Turning Off Specific Notification Types 🔕

Shopping and Delivery Notifications

Under Notifications > Shopping, you'll find toggles for order updates, delivery alerts, and Amazon promotional messages. These can be turned off individually. If you regularly order from Amazon but don't want verbal package updates, you can disable the spoken alerts while keeping email confirmations through your Amazon account separately.

Skill Notifications

Third-party skills that have been granted notification access will appear individually in the notifications menu. Each skill has its own toggle. If you've connected a news briefing, fitness tracker, or smart home skill, those will appear here. You can revoke permission per skill without disabling the skill itself.

Communications Notifications

If you use Alexa Calling and Messaging, notification sounds for incoming calls or messages are managed under Settings > Communication. You can turn off the pulsing audio cue and the green light ring independently — or disable communication features entirely if you don't use them.

Reminders and Alarms

These are managed differently. Go to More > Reminders & Alarms to view, edit, or delete existing reminders. Individual reminders can be cancelled rather than "turned off" as a category, since these are user-set events rather than pushed notifications.

The Yellow Blinking Ring — What It Means and How to Stop It

The yellow blinking light on an Echo device specifically signals a pending notification, most commonly a package update or a message. Saying "Alexa, what are my notifications?" will read the alert and clear the light. If you prefer not to receive those notifications at all, turning off Shopping and Delivery notifications in the app will prevent the yellow ring from triggering for those alerts.

Do Not Disturb vs. Turning Off Notifications

Do Not Disturb (DND) is a separate feature that silences incoming calls, drop-ins, and announcements during a set time window. It does not delete notifications — it buffers them. When DND ends, Alexa may still notify you of queued alerts.

If your goal is permanent silence rather than scheduled quiet, DND alone won't fully solve the problem. You'd need to turn off the underlying notification types in addition to — or instead of — using DND.

Variables That Affect What You See in Settings 🔧

Not every user sees the same options, and that matters when following any walkthrough:

• Echo device generation — older Echo devices may have slightly different app menu layouts
• Amazon account region — some notification categories only appear in certain countries
• Active subscriptions — Amazon Prime, Audible, and other services may add their own notification categories
• Skills installed — more skills means more potential notification sources in the list
• Household or family account setup — shared accounts may show communication settings tied to other household profiles
• App version — Amazon updates the Alexa app interface periodically, so menu labels and locations can shift

Notifications You Cannot Fully Disable

Some system-level behaviors aren't controlled through the notification menu. Alexa's brief mode and whisper mode (found under Settings > Voice Responses) change how Alexa responds to commands but don't affect incoming notification behavior. Certain device status indicators — like the orange light during setup or the spinning blue during firmware updates — are hardware-level indicators, not user-configurable notifications.

Amazon also reserves the ability to push certain service messages as part of the Echo device's operating environment, separate from the standard notification channels users can toggle.

How much of this matters to you comes down to which notifications are actually reaching your device, how many skills you've enabled, and what Amazon services are tied to your account. Someone with a single Echo Dot and no third-party skills has a very different notifications landscape than someone with multiple Echo devices, an active Prime account, and a dozen connected skills — and what counts as "too many notifications" is entirely a matter of personal preference and household workflow.