Voice-activated Firestick remotes are now available, and as with most things in life, more features typically equate to more issues. There is a simple solution if you observe a flashing blue light on the remote of your Firestick.
Firestick remote has a blue light on it.
When the microphone button on your Firestick remote flashes blue, Alexa, your voice assistant, has been activated. As a result, your remote control is now ready to receive voice commands. Plug your Firestick back in after waiting 20 seconds and remove the batteries from the remote control to turn it off.
Remote control for Amazon Firesticks with Alexa
A microphone is embedded into every Firestick remote, so you can use Alexa voice commands straight out of the box.
The ability to control your TV using voice commands is one of the many new features that can be added to your Firestick device.
There is no longer any need to spend two minutes typing the name of a show/movie into a search bar, or to go around the home screen looking for the movie/show you want to watch.
Simply press the microphone button on your remote and say the name of the program or movie you want to watch into the remote to find it.
In addition to the weather and sports scores, you can also ask your Firestick remote for information.
Alexa is listening if Alexa’s blue light is on.
With any other Alexa devices, you know that a blue light indicates when the device’s wake word has already been used and that it’s “listening” for commands.
You can know that the Amazon Echo is listening when a ring of blue light comes around your voice when you say “Hey Alexa,” as an example.
There is no “wake word” for the Amazon Firestick remote, but rather it begins “listening” anytime you hold down the microphone button.
You can tell whether your remote is ready to accept voice commands by looking for this well-known blue light to flash when you press the microphone button.
How to turn off the blue light that never goes off
In order to stop the blue light on the Firestick remote from flashing all the time, do the following steps:
- Battery replacement is easy.
- Disconnect both the TV and the power line from the Firestick device.
- Before attaching the Firestick, wait around 20 seconds.
- Reinstall the remote batteries when the device has completely powered up.
- For ten seconds, hold down the home button.
In the case of a remote control with a blue light that never stops flashing, Amazon recommends exactly what we’ve done here.
Restarting the device may also be an option if the previous advise doesn’t work.
Pressing the Play/Pause and Select buttons at the same time will do this.
It should be back to normal now.
You should disconnect the Firestick’s power adapter and keep it unplugged for at least one minute if the gadget still displays a flickering blue light.
Reconnect it once a minute has passed.
If the problem persists, I recommend re-following these instructions. There’s a good chance the light will go out eventually.
The problem persists.
I’ve written a post on 5 methods to cure a Firestick remote that won’t operate if you still can’t get rid of the blue light.
Detailed instructions are provided at the end of this piece, and following them step-by-step should help you get your remote up and running again.
Installing Amazon Fire TV and then repairing your remote may be necessary in the end, but only if all previous attempts have been fruitless.
Voice commands for the Firestick’s remote
Using the Firestick remote, you may control your TV with a wide variety of voice commands.
I won’t list them all since they’ve been well-documented, but here are some of my personal favorites.
- “Rewind 2 minutes”
- “Turn TV ON/OFF”
- “Show me new movies”
- “Go to my video library”
- “Show me the weather”
- “Add this to my watchlist”
The addition of Alexa to Fire TV is a game changer in and of itself.
When I interact with my TV, I now use voice-commands approximately 90% of the time — it’s simply simpler than using the remote manually.
(As an added bonus, see PC Mag’s list of 21 Firestick hacks.)
Conclusion
Alexa is now included into Amazon Firestick remotes. Instead of manually entering the title of a program or movie, you may use voice commands to operate your television.
Pressing and holding the microphone button on the remote to activate Alexa. The remote should turn blue when you do this.
The remote’s blue light just indicates that it is actively listening for a spoken instruction from you.
This blue light will come on and stay on from time to time.
You may try removing the batteries from the remote, disconnecting the Firestick, and performing a reset to see if it fixes the problem and turns off the flashing blue light.
Finally, you may use the Amazon Fire TV app to unpair and re-pair the remote using the Amazon Fire TV app.