You can set your Amazon Echo and Google Home or Nest devices to give you audio cues when they start and stop listening for commands.
Both Amazon’s and Google’s smart speakers (such as the Echo Dot and the Nest Mini) and smart displays (e.g., the Echo Show and the Nest Hub Max) always keep an ear out for the “Alexa” or “Hey Google” wake words respectively, but it’s only after you’ve summoned Alexa or Google Assistant that they’ll record and transmit your requests to the cloud.
By default, Alexa and Google Assistant stop listening as soon as they’ve fulfilled a command or answered a query, although you can also set them to keep listening for follow-up questions. If you’ve enabled the “Follow-up Mode” (for Alexa) or “Continued Conversation” setting (for Google Assistant), your device will keep listening for several more seconds in case you want to ask more questions or issue more voice commands.
Both smart speakers and displays already have visual cues that let you know when they’re awake and listening for questions or commands. For Alexa, it has a blue halo around the top of an Echo speaker (with turquoise segment indicating the direction from which its mics have pinpointed your voice). On the Echo Show, it has a horizontal blue line at the bottom of the display; again, with a turquoise segment indicating the direction from which it heard your voice.
The turquoise wedge of color indicates the direction Alexa heard your voice come from.
On Google speakers, four colored LEDs on top of the device will light up (the Google Home Mini shows four white LEDs), and Google Assistant-powered displays will show a horizontal bar at the top of the screen with four pulsing dots in the left corner.
You can also set your Echo or Google Home devices to give you audible cues that they’re listening. Better yet, you can enable an audio cue that lets you know that Alexa or Google Assistant have stopped listening. (Again, keep in mind that your Echo and Google Home devices are always listening for their respective wake words.)
Turn on “request” sounds for Alexa
Open the Alexa app, select the Devices tab at the bottom of the screen, select Echo & Alexa, then select an Echo speaker or display.
Under the General section, select Sounds, then toggle on the Start of Request and/or End of Request settings.
Turn on “start” and “end” sounds for Google Assistant
Open the Google Home app, select a Google Home or Nest speaker or display on the home screen, then select the Device settings button (it’s the one that looks like a small gear, up near the top).
Scroll down to the Device settings section and select Accessibility.
Toggle on the Play start sound and/or Play stop sound settings.
Now, when you say “Alexa” or “OK Google,” you’ll hear a two-tone beep when Alexa or Google Assistant starts listening for commands, and a second, slightly different tone (or pair of tones, in Google Assistant’s case) when your device stops actively listening.
