What are the five stages of how an Amazon Echo processes a voice command?

Local device (wake-word detection) → encrypted network transmission to AWS → cloud processing (speech-to-text, NLP, intent) → skill execution → response (text-to-speech back to the device).

* How an Amazon Echo handles a command — audio leaves the device only after the wake word. *

The Echo ecosystem splits work between the local device and the cloud:

1. Local device: continuous audio capture, local trigger-word detection ("Alexa"), recording starts only on activation.
2. Network transmission: the audio recording is sent encrypted to Amazon Web Services (AWS).
3. Cloud processing: speech-to-text conversion, natural-language processing, intent recognition.
4. Skill execution: the matching Alexa skill (third-party or Amazon's own) runs.
5. Response: text-to-speech generation, sent back to the device, audio output.

Tip: The privacy-relevant design point is that wake-word detection is local — audio is only supposed to leave the device after "Alexa" is heard. The whole "are we being recorded constantly?" debate hinges on trusting that boundary.

Go deeper:

• Amazon Alexa (Wikipedia) — wake-word, cloud processing and skill architecture.