Todd Haselton | CNBC

You may have noticed that your Amazon Echo sometimes has a flashing ring around it. The light might glow yellow, red, orange or green. All of these lights mean something, and sometimes they can be annoying if you have an Echo in your room and you want to sleep while it's flashing. Here's a quick guide to what each of those lights on your Echo mean, and how to turn them off.

Green light

The green light is used for calls on your Amazon Echo. It spins if you're currently talking to someone, but it also glows as you're placing a call to someone. The light turns off after a call is ended.

Yellow light

The yellow light means Alexa has a status update on your recent Amazon order. If someone has left you a text message using Alexa from a phone or another Echo, your device may also have a yellow ring. To get rid of it, just listen to your messages by saying, "Alexa, play my messages," "Alexa, read my notifications," or "Alexa, what are my notifications?"

Red light

The red light means you've muted the microphone. You can turn it off by tapping the mute button again. Note: When the device is muted and the red light is on, your Echo won't respond to "Alexa."

Orange light

You might see an orange ring pulsing around your Echo from time to time. This happens when it's trying to connect to your Wi-Fi network. You're most likely to see this if you lose internet or power briefly and your Echo needs to reconnect to the network. If it can't connect, it may turn purple.

Purple light

Purple means your Echo wasn't able to properly connect to your Wi-Fi. It's most likely to happen if your internet has gone completely offline. (It may stay orange as it tries to manually reconnect.) You can fix this by opening the Alexa app on your phone and then choosing Settings > Wi-Fi and reconnecting to your Wi-Fi network. Make sure you have the right password!

How to turn them off

Controls are similar to the original Echo. Twist the top to adjust the volume. Todd Haselton | CNBC