Question

NOTE: I am not really looking for sympathy, OR to be told how my concern is not valid. I was really only trying to be silly and looking for camaraderie and comic relief. :-) __________________________________ I know this is the wrong group for this, technically speaking, but socially and technologically speaking, I know you guys have my back on this. lol I'm sooooo damn tired of saying, "Echo, screen off! ". It drives me NUTS! You know which model/size of which line of gadgets I'm talking about, right?  

Answer 1

I'd love an answer to this, at least to be able to do it with a routine. This is for the Spot in our bedroom and I can't sleep with it on

Answer 2

Why do you turn it off? Have lots of shows and never do that?  

Comments

@vertigo Can you possibly express your opinion without dismissing another's genuine and valid concern, or denigrating them with insults?  

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@shoer2397 if you consider an act being described as "rather frivolous" an insult, perhaps the internet isn't the place for you? Respectfully.  

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Right. Thank you for doubling-down on saying that my opinion on this particular 'feature' of this particular device is invalid. Do you have any idea how ironic it is that you just used the word, 'Respectfully'?  

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@shoer2397 get bigger problems

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@forbes Ya. I thought this was supposed to be a place for people to get together and have a good time talking about this stuff, not a place to come and get belittled for sharing about a frustration they've encountered in the clockwork of it all.  

Answer 3

To my point, I posted this the moment after I had to say it, and just now, only 7 minutes since I posted this, I had to say it again. This is just dumb. Regarding usability and user-friendliness (i. e. I'm not addressing security concerns that the entire line may have) they botched it on this one. If it didn't have this one stupid thing about it, I would have handed them more money to outfit many rooms with these, because it's a perfect size of this sort of tech for so many locations around the house.  

Answer 4

I don't ever turn my screens off either on any of my shows or spot. Why are you doing it?  

Comments

Please see my response to @cookhouse above. :-)

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@shoer2397 I see. I would say that if you are concerned about that, perhaps a Kindle Fire in Show Mode would be a better option? I believe that setup has a screen off option.  

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@irisation Well, ya, and so do the other, higher, larger models in this same product line as the Show5, but again, this size is otherwise ideal for some use cases where the tablets are not.  

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@shoer2397 Maybe setting it on night mode all the time? The screen isn't completely off but there would be a power savings, since it is dark and only the clock would be visible. Just brainstorming and playing with settings on my 10, so I haven't tried it myself.  

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@irisation Ya. I've tried all settings, and honestly, it just doesn't work for me.  

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It's OK. I totally get that this is a first-world problem. lol

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In posting, I was sort of trying to be silly, and more so looking for camaraderie and comic relief than sympathy.  

Answer 5

Turn off the screen and cover the camera. Motion wakes it.  

Comments

Sorry, but no. It does not. Not on the Show 5. It neither comes on automatically by camera, nor goes off automatically by inactive timeout. Also, I always have its camera cover closed anyway.  

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That's my whole point. There's an entire, major, no-brainer feature set that was completely left out of this particular model/size of this product line.  

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@shoer2397 oof

Answer 6

With the screen on it averages about 3W, so it is already very efficient. How much does turning the screen off save?  

Comments

Ya, and I have some LED bulbs which only draw that much, but I don't leave them on all day and all night just because they only have a small draw. My thing is more about 'unnecessary' waste (at any level) AND the annoyance about not being able to have the gadget do what I want it to do, especially in light of the fact that the other models in the same line of product do allow for what I'm talking about.  

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When I got going with ActionTiles, I worked out a pretty sophisticated mechanism that involved many pieces of both hardware and software to achieve only having the wall-mounted tablets turn on with motion and off after inactivity timeout. and it did NOT involve the camera on the device, because that would take more electricity than the separate motion sensor in the room.  

Answer 7

First world problems  

Comments

I think perhaps you got my point. lol Thank you for that. :-)

Answer 8

I would prefer it has a shut off as well - lights up the damn bedroom

Comments

Yes, and even though I know there are built-in features that can somewhat mitigate for this, it's not perfect, and I know people who need the room absolutely black dark in order to get good rest, and with this device's screen on, even a tiny bit like it is with all of those mitigating features in place, it's still annoying enough to prevent them from enjoying the kind of environment that they'd prefer to have. What is it, like a tiny fraction of code that would be needed to have added back in to accommodate this feature set that is already in the other Echo Shows?  

Answer 9

I'll give 1 btl hand sanitizer and 2 rolls of single ply TP shipped.  

Comments

I don't know though. I might give a couple cases of each if I actually had that much of the good stuff on-hand.  

Answer 10

You can use the Echo Show “Do Not Disturb” setting to completely turn off the screen, until it hears the Wake word. It can be voice enabled or set with a schedule for automatic operation, say during night time hours.  

Comments

@clyde3 Webster Have you done the research to verify whether this is possible on the Show 5 (the version of the line of Echo Shows we're talking about here)? Even so, if that were possible, it still doesnt address my primary concern at all. Heres the thing. I have it sitting on my desk, right in front of me, because THAT is the ideal location for it so that I can see it best and interact with it the easiest when I need to. However, with it constantly turning its screen on over and over throughout the day, it's pretty annoying, because I can't not see it. its RIGHT THERE. Thus. "Echo, screen off". "Echo, screen off".. "Echo, screen off"... "Echo, screen off". "Echo, screen off".. "Echo, screen off". and on and on, all day long. lol

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@shoer2397 I have been using the Do Not Disturb feature on my Echo Show g1 regularly and it works as I describe; I have just tested it again and the screen goes blank and stays that way until the Wake word is triggered. I believe that I had tested this with the same results on my Echo Show 5 and Echo Show g2 but I have just tried it again and now find that the screen does not blank, and instead shows a purple bar across the bottom edge of the display. Curiously this is how the Echo Show g1 used to behave, so clearly firmware versions for these models has diverged.  

Answer 11

This is something I’d like as well. I’ve got a ten inch show in my bedroom and would rather not have to keep adjusting the brightness each morning/night. I’d actually asked Tony if there was anything he could program into Echo Speaks but sadly not able to.  

Comments

@subtreasury70 Ya, that was good thinking on your part. He's the one who would have been able to if there were an API accessible for that kind of stuff.  

Answer 12

If you care about energy savings you should have gotten a Google Nest Hub.  

Comments

@parcenary894 Thanks, but that's an entirely different animal.  

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@shoer2397 It's the same as an Echo Show but Google.  

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@parcenary894 I thought 'hub' was another level higher, with actual 'hub-like' capabilities (Like the Echo 'Plus' or whatever they call it now), which the Shows are not.  

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@shoer2397 Nope. Hub is a terrible name for it, but that's what they chose. You can control SmartThings devices with it, but that is optional and it still sends its commands to the SmartThings hub to do the work.  

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@parcenary894 Sweet. Thanks, man. So, do they have a model/version small like the Show 5?  

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@shoer2397 It's a 7 inch LCD display with ambiance color correction (color tuning based on surrounding room light color) vs Echo show 5's five inch LCD screen. Not that much bigger. There's no camera on the Google Nest Hub either so no spying issues there.  

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@parcenary894 OK. Well, the Show 8 has the features I'm complaining about being missing on the Show 5. So, if I were OK with something bigger (which I'm not), and already have a well established Alexa environment that I want to stick with (which I do), I would just get a bigger Show. I mean, I do also have Google Home in play as well, but that's more so as a testing mechanism so that I'm familiar with it in case I ever need to support it. Mostly, I just like Alexa more, but it's also true that there is (obviously, I think) better (and easier to set up and manage) support for the Alexa ecosystem in the SmartThings world than for the Google Home ecosystem.  

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If the 7inch display is too large, there's also the Lenovo smart clock with google assistant. I do not own one, but except for the lack of phone call support and having a 4inch screen, I am told that it has similar capabilities to the Google hub.  

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@ondrej Thanks.  

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Actually, I just checked and it looks like they added phone call support to the smart clock.