Echo Show screen dimming

[Gary_Berg]

I've been using an Echo Show for about a week. It seems that every night at 10PM exactly the screen dims to it's lowest setting. It doesn't matter if it's playing music or doing nothing; the screen dims. I can "undo" this by going into the settings on it and sliding the brightness back up. It doesn't matter if I have the brightness set to adaptive or not. And my do not disturb time doesn't start until 11PM.

I chatted with Amazon support but all they had me do was to deregister and register it again. That made no difference.

Do they all do this?

Gary Berg

[The Hooded Claw]

Could there be a time zone issue where your device is set to a different time zone?

I'm assuming there is no sleep mode separate from do not disturb.

[Gary_Berg]

It's time zone is correct. I'd be happy to find out that yes, this is normal. I'd be ecstatic if they said a future update would let me change it. When in this mode the screen brightness is set to it's lowest value. It doesn't go into Do Not Disturb mode. In the morning, at an unknown time, the brightness goes back to normal.


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[gdae23]

Mine does this too. (Actually, I bought the 2 pack and they both dim at 10 P.M.) I'm not sure what time in the morning the dimming effect ends - maybe 6 A.M.?  I'm taking a guess it was programmed this way to match a "typical" sleep schedule. It doesn't match my schedule though! Since they all seem to do this, I'm surprised the Amazon rep didn't seem to know about it at all when you called. I also hope this will be changed in a future update so that it's customizable.

[Gary_Berg]

Thank you!! I think the Amazon rep wasn't very familiar with Echo's, at least the Show. I do wish I could change the schedule, but it's not much of a problem for me. Now if I worked 2nd or 3rd shift...

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[gdae23]

One morning, I caught the Show brightening up at 7 A.M., so it appears the cycle was to dim the screen from 10 P.M. To 7 A.M.

I say "was" because there was an update yesterday, and tonight I realized the screen was still bright at 11:30. I take it this was changed, but I couldn't find any documentation about it. I checked the settings on the Show but I didn't see anything new related to this, such as a way to customize this feature. I don't know yet whether the screen will dim on a different schedule, or just stay on all the time unless you request that Alexa turns off the screen. Time will tell...

Edited 8/30/17 to add: I was about to take this statement back because yesterday the screen dimmed at 10 P.M. as it did previously. But now today it's not dimming again.  So I've no idea what the story is here!

[Gary_Berg]

I think it's finally working right and not dimming at 10PM. The last few days it's done it right.

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[gdae23]

At this point, mine dims at 10 on some days but not on others. I'm not sure why, but I've stopped paying much attention to it. Thanks for your update, though.

[Sandpiper]

Any update comments here about screen dimming?

I have two Echos -- one in living room/dining room/kitchen and one in the bedroom.  That's all the sound I need in my one bedroom condo.  I have a Spot on pre-order, but I'm thinking of canceling it and getting a Show instead.  I wasn't previously interested in it.  Now I'm thinking if I want a screen -- get a big one instead of 2.5" round. 

Screen dimming is a concern.  I'd like to be able to turn screen off and on by voice.  That seems reasonable.  Otherwise, do you enjoy your Echo Shows?  Worthwhile purchase?

[gdae23]

 I definitely like having the screen.  When it dims, you can just say your wake up word and it comes on right away. You can also turn the screen off via voice control. I just heard that YouTube is back to use with the Show, but I'm out of town for the holiday week so haven't tried it yet. I really like having the screen to use with lists and timers /alarms. I use the photo function as well, mostly for real photos, but I have a "reference" photo album as well, with screen shots of documents, like all the Sleep Sounds choices, for example.

The one drawback for me is that, being used to the 360 degree sound of the basic Echo, I've found I don't like the sound of the Show quite as much. I think the tone quality is actually better on the Show, but the sound doesn't fill the room the same way. I actually have Sonos speakers as well which recently got a software update to allow for Alexa voice control with existing Alexa devices. So to be honest, I mostly use those for music now. I do like using the Show for music when I'm listening to something new, and want to see track titles and other info on the screen.

Overall, I really like the Show and to me, the screen dimming is a minor issue and no big deal.

[7vn11vn]

I was going to wait for a Spot but got the Show instead. Now I'm really glad I got the Show. I really like it for music with the album art and lyrics. Personally I think it sounds a lot better than my Echo because it has dual speakers and stereo. I saw the last post and tried YouTube and sure enough it's back! I was able to sign in with a different email address and get my subscriptions. I like being able to do things like watch movie trailers and stuff. Now with YouTube back the Show is a must have.

They have it on sale today for $179.99 or $36.00 for 5 mo. This would be a great time to pick one up.

[gdae23]

Forgot about the movie trailers - I definitely like using the Show for that.

[Sandpiper]

Echo is good with giving info from Wiki.  If you ask for info from Wiki, does it show on the screen?

[7vn11vn]

Yes. The wiki text shows on the screen and scrolls as Alexa reads it

[Sandpiper]

Yes. The wiki text shows on the screen and scrolls as Alexa reads it

[Gary_Berg]

The screen dimming on the Echo Show seems to have been resolved. You can turn the screen off by voice.

<Wake word> Screen Off


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[Sandpiper]

I keep going back and forth between a Show and a Spot.  I don't really need either, but now a screen is intriguing me.  Yesterday I did pre-order an Echo Connect.  I use my ol' land line at home.  I only recently started using my cordless phone.