How to Control Your Smart Home when Alexa Goes Down
Using Your Echo During an Alexa Outage
Today, for the first time, Alexa experienced widespread outages. Sometimes, she'd light up, and the blue ring would keep flashing, but she would not respond to any commands. Other times, Alexa would blink red, indicating she was not connected. Additionally, even if she was not flashing, she failed to respond to any commands. Sometimes, she would apologize. Other times, she'd look like she was listening and responding, but she would just fade out. Alexa was unable to respond to a simple command, such as "What time is it?" let alone operate any Smart Home Devices.
As of the time I write this, Alexa still has not come back. And unlike in the Super Bowl commercial, there are not a stable of celebrities waiting to take her place.
So what can you do when Alexa goes down? Does it mean you are out of luck until the network issues resolve? Thankfully, there are some ways you can still command your Smart Devices, even when your Echo is not responding.
