The Echo Show is a fun and useful device, but there are times when you want to dim or turn off the screens in your home. Thankfully this is often straightforward to do, and the gist is:
You can turn off the Echo Show screen by using the “Alexa, turn off the screen” voice command or by turning on the Do Not Disturb mode. The Echo Show has several other options you can toggle for dimming and turning off the screen. You can even use a smart plug to turn the device fully off when you’re out of the house.
Let’s turn down the lights and get in control of one of the most important features on the Echo Show.
The Amazon Echo Show
The Amazon Echo Show that’s an interactive touch-screen (which supports live view mode), as well as a camera, along with all the other features that you’ve come to expect from the Amazon Echo.
This adds plenty of functionality whether you are looking to video chat with friends and family or you want the added functionality of being able to watch visual media with all of the connectivity of the echo.
However, the brightness of the Echo Show screen can be a problem, especially when we’re looking to dim the lights.
Why Would You Want to Turn Off the Echo Show Screen?
The Echo Show is all about the screen, so why would you want to turn it off?
There are plenty of reasons to turn off your Echo Show screen:
- One of the biggest is that the light coming from the screen can interrupt our natural sleep cycles.
If it feels like it’s getting harder to turn the lights off and get to bed, you’re not alone. All of our smart devices are constantly pushing notifications and activating LED lights that can mess with the natural rhythm of sleep. Turning off your Echo Show screen can help put you back in charge of getting a comfortable night’s rest. - You can also save some power by turning off your Echo Show screen. Even though these screens don’t use a lot of electricity, every little bit counts and adds up over time.
- You might also want to turn off your Echo Show screen for privacy reasons. You don’t always want your photos on display, notifications showing up, four people interacting with a device that they might think is on and open to the public.
You can probably think of a few more reasons why you’d want to temporarily dim or turn off your Echo Show screen. Regardless of why you want the screen off, we’re going to show you how to get it done.
How to Turn off the Echo Show Screen
Amazon devices don’t always give us a lot of options when it comes to staying again in control of their settings, but the Echo Show screen is the exception that proves the rule.
We have an abundance of tools at our disposal when it comes to staying in control of how bright your Echo Show screen gets. We’re going to start by looking at the building features and then look at a few interesting options you’ve got for adding more smart devices to stay in control of your Echo Show.
Use the Built-In Settings
Your Amazon Echo Show comes with plenty of options for adjusting the brightness of the screen. Each of these options are either inside of the echo show or the Alexa app itself. Don’t give you plenty of options for adjusting the brightness, turning the screen all the way off, and customizing when and how your screen lights up.
Note: These settings have been cross-checked on both 1st gen and 2nd gen Echo Show devices in the UK, but sometimes the menu options vary between models and countries. If you can’t find a specific option, please either click around – or leave a comment and I can investigate further. Thanks!
Night Mode
You can find your night mode settings in your Settings > Clock & Photo Display menu (scroll to the bottom, to see the “Night Mode” option). Night mode has two functions: automatic and schedule:
Automatic night mode will turn off and dim your screen once it gets to the evening wherever you’re located. This is automatically determined based on your time zone.
You can also set night mode to a custom schedule. This can be a great choice if you want things to get dimmer faster or things to stay a little brighter even after sunset.
Night mode will only ever dim the screen unless you disable the ambient clock setting. We’ll cover how to do that later, but a lot of these features will leave the clock up and running unless you turn that feature off.
Auto Sleep
Autosleep is another great feature if you’re looking to have your Amazon Echo Show automatically turn off after not being used.
Auto sleep will automatically turn off the screen after 10 minutes of not being used. This is an ideal option to save some power and keep the screen off when the device is not being used.
This is also a great choice for combining with night mode or other settings on this list. This gives you even more coverage when it comes to keeping your screen dim or totally turned off.
Here’s how you can turn on auto sleep on your Echo Show.
- Settings
- Clock & Photo Display
- Toggle Auto Sleep On
Brightness Settings
Did you know that you can manually change the brightness of your Echo Show screen just by swiping down from the home screen?
All you need to do is swipe down, click “Brightness” and you’ll be able to see the brightness slider. You can turn down the brightness as far as you want or crank it up if you need things to be a little brighter:
This is a great choice for making on the Fly adjustments. If things are just a little too bright at the moment, just swipe down from the home screen and you can get in control of your screen brightness right away.
Adaptive Brightness
Adaptive brightness is also a great future when it comes to dimming things on your Amazon Echo Show.
Adaptive brightness adjusts the ambient light levels in the room and adjusts your screen to match. This means your screen will get dimmer when the room is darker and the screen will get brighter when the room is more brightly lit.
This feature is a great choice when combined with night mode for the auto sleep setting.
Here’s how you can turn on adaptive brightness on your Echo Show:
- Swipe down and click “Brightness”..
- OR go to “Settings” and then “Display”
- Toggle Adaptive Brightness On
This is in the same screen as the brightness slider covered above, but there’s a few extra options:
Do Not Disturb Mode
No matter what path you take for disabling the Amazon Echo Show screen or adjusting its brightness, you want to make sure that you have a do not disturb mode set up.
Do Not Disturb prevents any notifications from brightening up your screen. However, reminders and alarms will still go through.
This is vital for preventing your screen from turning on even if you have adaptive brightness settings and night mode already activated. If you aren’t near your Echo Show, you’ll be able to set up a do not disturb mode in the Alexa app. Here’s how you can set it up quickly:
- Open your Alexa app
- Select Devices
- Select Echo & Alexa
- Select your Echo Show
- Tap Do Not Disturb
- Toggle Do Not Disturb on or off
You can also swipe down and go to “Do Not Disturb” and see all the settings on the Echo Show itself:
Disable Ambient Clock
Want to really make Do Not Disturb mode work? You’re going to need to disable the ambient clock feature.
This is the feature that makes the screen display a basic clock even when everything else has been turned off. This could be a useful feature, but sometimes you just need to dim the lights and fully turn off the screen.
Here’s how to disable, and then enable, your ambient clock as needed.
- Settings
- Clock & Photo Display
- Scroll down and toggle the “Ambient Clock” Setting (also sometimes called “Night-Time Clock”)
Turning Off Amazon Echo Show Screen with Voice Commands
By far the easiest way to turn off the Amazon Echo Show screen is by using a voice command. All you need to do is say “Alexa, turn off the screen” and your Echo Show will automatically go dark.
This is the easiest way to stay in control of your screen. However, it does have some specific rules about when and how it works.
This turns your screen off until you interact with your Echo Show again. This means that notifications will turn the screen back on and so will tapping the screen or using your Echo Show.
However, you’ll still be able to use voice commands with the screen off. Your Echo Show is still on and running, but this voice command turns the screen.
Use a Smart Plug to Turn Off the Screen
If you want to get really clever and use some DIY smart home fun to turn off your Echo Show screen, you can add a smart plug to the system.
All you need to do is plug your Echo Show into a smart plug and then connect that into the socket in your wall. You can then control that smart plug with whatever app you use to control all of your smart devices. Just tap the “off” button in the app, to turn your Echo Show off completely:
When you want it back on, just press the “on” button in the app (or use a voice command, if you’ve integrated your smart plug with a smart speaker) and your Echo Show will come back on.
This is a great option because it puts you in control of turning on and off your Echo Show when you’re out of the house. This is the best choice for keeping your Echo Show in check when you’re gone for work or on vacation.
Best of all, it introduces you to the world of smart plugs. These are some of the most underrated smart devices that you can pick up today. They add so much additional smart functionality beyond just turning off your Echo Show when you’re out of the house.
