If you are new to Alexa you may be wondering is it safe to leave Alexa playing music all day.
Alexa is set to stop playing background music in 2 to 3 hours if there is no activity. If you wish to let Alexa play music all day, you must issue a specific command or use Alexa Skills.
While this is possible, the bigger question is whether playing music all-day is safe.
It is generally safe to use Alexa to play music all day. Alexa is energy efficient and mostly operates in standby mode. If you are worried about energy costs, there is nothing to fear. Further, most echo devices do not overheat. They produce high-quality sound that will not affect your hearing or cause distractions.
With that said there are some important factors you must consider about using Alexa all day.
It is sometimes not easy to let the device play music throughout unless you follow specific settings. Keep on reading to learn more.
Why Would You Play Alexa All Night?
If you are going to play music all day, you must have a reason. First, you must consider how long Alexa plays music.
If you are among those wondering can you leave Alexa playing music All-day, the answer is yes. The bigger question is why would you want to leave it playing music?
The reasons for leaving Alexa playing music all day may include:
- You forgot to turn off your device while going out. You may want to know if it is dangerous to leave Alexa on for hours.
- You suffer from a condition that requires you to constantly listen to music.
- If you simply spend the entire day at home, you would like to play music throughout without stopping.
- If you cannot sleep without background music
Why Is It Safe to Leave Alexa Playing Music All Day
So how long does Alexa play music and how do you make it play music all night? Below are some of the reasons and ways you can enjoy Alexa music all day.
There are a few strong reasons why you should not be afraid of playing Alexa music all night.
These reasons include:
1. Alexa’s Default Mode is Standby or Sleep
All Alexa echo devices are designed to save energy and be efficient. For this reason, you do not have to worry much.
If you want to leave your device playing music all day long, select a playlist and let it roll. Your device will mostly operate in standby mode or sleep mode.
In standby mode, the power consumption for your device is just 2.93 watts. If you left your device on while going on a long trip and are worried, there is no cause for alarm.
Your device will automatically go to sleep and then full standby mode after a while.
2. Alexa Only Turns on When It Detects a Notification or Gets a Command
The other reason you should not be worried about Alexa is that, if it goes to sleep nothing can wake it up.
Your device will not be awakened by a mouse or sounds from outside. This further means that it is still safe to leave your Alexa on even when going to sleep.
All you have to do is set Alexa’s sleeper time. When it sleeps, nothing will be able to turn it back on.
3. Alexa Uses Less Energy When Playing Music
Alexa only uses 6 watts when in Active mode and playing music throughout. This is a more effective energy use compared to modern home theaters and even TV.
An average TV has an output of 56 watts in Active mode. This makes Alexa almost 50 watts more efficient than most TVs.
Besides the small amount of energy used, you can set your device to sleep and wake when you wish.
This way, Alexa is always playing music when you want and turns it off when you are not listening.
Here are the steps to set a sleep timer
- Say “Alexa, Play XXX Music”
- When the music starts playing Say “Alexa Set Sleep Timer for XXX Hours“
- The app will respond by saying timer has been set
- You can go to sleep and leave Alexa playing your music until the set time expires
Note: If your music playlist will come to an end before the set time, your music will also stop. This option should be used when you have a long list of songs to play.
4. You Can Turn off Other Disturbances When Playing Music
The other reason you can play music all day is that Alexa allows you to minimize disturbances.
Unlike playing music on your phone where you get disturbed by notifications, Alexa can stop all notifications.
This way, you get to enjoy your good music without being bothered by any person.
The question of “how long will Alexa play music before turning off?” does not matter. All you have to do now is turn off notifications and you will be good.
How to set “Do Not Disturb” on your Alexa
- Go to your Alexa application and Login
- Tap on Devices to locate your Specific Echo device
- Select Echo and Alexa from the Menu
- Tap on your Device
- Tap on Do Not Disturb
- Toggle the button to turn Do Not Disturb mode on and off as desired
5. You Can Turn off Screen Brightness on Alexa Device
The one frustrating aspect of playing music all day is if your device gives out light. The brightness of your echo device may make it impossible for you to sleep at night.
The good news is that you can turn off any light on your Echo device. This way, you get to enjoy your music and sleep at the same time.
How to Turn off the backlight on Alexa echo and keep the music
- Command Alexa to play music or a specific playlist
- When the music starts playing, command Alexa to turn off the backlight
- Use commands such as “Alexa, Turn off Screen” or “Alexa, Turn off Backlight”
- To turn the screen back on, issue a command such as “Alexa, turn on the backlight”
- You can also turn on the backlight by tapping the screen.
5. Alexa Offers Relaxing Music for Sleep
The other reason you are free to play music on your device all day long is the wide selection of features.
One of the most interesting features is the ability to play relaxing sleep music.
You can either play relaxing sleep music such as white noise on Amazon Music or use Ambient Sounds Skill on your phone.
The Ambient Sounds skill will allow you to play any type of soothing sound without the need to subscribe to Amazon music.
How to activate Ambient Sounds on Alexa
- Open the Alexa app on your smartphone or tablet.
- Tap on the Menu button in the top-left corner of the screen.
- Tap on Skills & Games
- Search for Ambient Sound in the search bar at the top of the screen.
- Select the Ambient Sound skill from the search results.
- Tap on the Enable button to activate the skill.
- Follow any additional prompts or instructions to set up the skill, if necessary.
How to Play Ambient Sounds
- Say “Alexa, open Ambient Sounds”
- Alexa will respond with a welcome message and a brief introduction to the skill.
- Say the name of your preferred Ambient sound, eg ocean waves, rain, fireplace, birds, etc.
- To stop the sound, say “Alexa, stop”
Summary
The reasons above answer the question of is it safe to leave Alexa play music all day.
As you can see above, it is safe and even helpful to play music on Alexa all day long. Nothing bad will happen if you keep playing your favorite music.
All you have to do is ensure that the songs are set to play continuously.
Read Next: How To Make Alexa Louder Than 10?
Finn Wheatley holds a Master’s Degree in Computer Science from UCL, London. He helped small data science consultancy firms, helping large corporations to grow their data capabilities, deploy advanced machine learning-based analytics and troubleshoot tech-related issues. Check out more about him here.