Ryan - sorry can't work out where to post. Do you know if the new 3rd gen Amazon Echo Dot will play her replies through a Sonos speaker if connected? I know on the 2nd gen only music would play through the speakers, not her replies. Keen to find out if they've changed this with the update. Thanks
Ryan - sorry can't work out where to post. Do you know if the new 3rd gen Amazon Echo Dot will play her replies through a Sonos speaker if connected? I know on the 2nd gen only music would play through the speakers, not her replies. Keen to find out if they've changed this with the update. Thanks
Hi, you can ask here, and you can always open a new thread by clicking the button above to
create a post. This isn't a feature in any model of Echo device. It's a good idea, but it's not currently possible to link a Sonos speaker with an Echo device so that all the audio plays out of Sonos. I'll make sure your name is on the list requesting this to be added as a feature in the future. I can't make any promises though.
Hi we have a little workaround for our play5 in the kitchen. We hooked a bluetoots streamer to the 5, originally it was for my daughter’s friend to sometimes play music (in retrospect that was a mistake!) on it, before airplay became available. I don’t really use it anymore but my wife for some reason still do. Anyway streamer are relatively cheap and if you have a play5 you could plug it in, i actually also cennected the streamer in wemo plug so it’s not always on. Take care!
Sorry for the typos, old eyes, big fingers, small screen!?
@Ryan - first I applaud a nice rundown of some of the items. It's helpful for sure. But I'm really getting frustrated with the lack of progress on ducking. You can find threads here going back at least a year complaining about it. I was told by support you cannot comment on roadmap items due to the agreement with Amazon on Alexa development but this is kind of ridiculous that a known issue has lasted this long. And an issue that renders the integration completely useless for us with large sonos systems that are actively used across the house at the same time. Nothing is more annoying that being on the patio with some friends and the music starts cutting in and out because the kids are doing something in their bed rooms asking Alexa questions. Can Sonos please either kill this altogether or commit to a resolution? We've had to strip Alexa integration altogether b/c of this bug.
Hi, is there any chance of getting Room/Group control via alexa. Even a very basic "party mode" option would help but would really like to be able to add and remove Rooms as and when desired.
Ryan,
I would love to see the Alexa part of a Sonos Speaker become authorised for 'Alexa Enabled Smart Groups' please, so you can, for example, create a Group in the Alexa App called something like ‘Grouped Lounge' and then add the Alexa part of a Sonos Speaker to it, to make the group what is currently termed as 'Alexa Enabled'.
Then once you add other things to the group, like smart-lights, such as Philips Hue bulbs etc. you can then talk to the Alexa device in the group and control just the lights contained in the group, by simply saying instructions like 'Alexa, turn on the lights'. (Just as an example).
The Alexa device knows that when no room name is mentioned in the instruction, then she just has to control the lights that the Alexa device is grouped with and a user can therefore then eliminate the need to mention any room names etc.
This currently works with Amazon Alexa products, but the Sonos Alexa products (Sonos One etc.) are presently not in the list to create such 'Alexa Enabled' Controlled Groups.
It would be a 'nice to have' feature, I think.
@Ryan - first I applaud a nice rundown of some of the items. It's helpful for sure. But I'm really getting frustrated with the lack of progress on ducking. You can find threads here going back at least a year complaining about it. I was told by support you cannot comment on roadmap items due to the agreement with Amazon on Alexa development but this is kind of ridiculous that a known issue has lasted this long. And an issue that renders the integration completely useless for us with large sonos systems that are actively used across the house at the same time. Nothing is more annoying that being on the patio with some friends and the music starts cutting in and out because the kids are doing something in their bed rooms asking Alexa questions. Can Sonos please either kill this altogether or commit to a resolution? We've had to strip Alexa integration altogether b/c of this bug.
Thanks! It's a great question, and the ducking is absolutely something I confirm to be under further development. Timelines with partners are in a word, complicated, and we don't want to promise dates that might not be kept. To be clear, this isn't considered a bug or something that is broken. It's a feature that while performing as expected, we're working to improve it. The audio is expected and supposed to drop down when Alexa is in use by non-Sonos Alexa enabled devices in your household. What we'd like is for there to be a better/smarter way for your Sonos players to know which rooms need to duck, and only have those rooms do so. I know the weaknesses of the feature surface mostly for larger systems, I personally have the same problem when I use my Dots, though it's great with my Sonos Ones and Beam.
Hi, is there any chance of getting Room/Group control via alexa. Even a very basic "party mode" option would help but would really like to be able to add and remove Rooms as and when desired.
There's a chance of all sorts of things. I'll make sure to pass along your interest to the team, but don't have any specific details on if it might happen, and or when
I would love to see the Alexa part of a Sonos Speaker become authorised for 'Alexa Enabled Smart Groups' please, so you can, for example, create a Group in the Alexa App called something like ‘Grouped Lounge' and then add the Alexa part of a Sonos Speaker to it, to make the group what is currently termed as 'Alexa Enabled'.
I'll pass this along for you too, Ken.
Thanks all for your feedback!
A year later and still no drop-in support 😞
A year later and still no drop-in support :(
As I understand it, Amazon has not released that feature to anything but it's own echo product line at this point. I could be wrong about that, but if so, not sure Sonos can do much about that.
I am still confused and dismayed by the fact that I can not play songs from my SONOS playlists through Alexa. I have a great deal money and time invested in my SONOS playlists. The fact that I can only use Pandora, Spotify or any other source is, in my mind, a waist. I want to have more control over what plays and when.
Actually, I think it is a waste, not a waist. :8
Look forward Sonos with Google Home.:D
Are there plans to add alexa in amp or connect:amp? And when I ask about adding alexa in those sonos products, I'm talking about a built in alexa (like sonos one and beam have), rather than just an enabled skill allowing an external echo to control sonos via a skill. Thanks.
They don’t lend themselves to integrated alexa. I’m sure it is s no. No real advantage building in.
Ryan -
I'm not sure where best to post the following, but this "megathread" sounded like a good starting point.
My question is:
With the recent addition of the Apple Music skill for Alexa (which, thankfully, allows Apple Music subscribers, like myself, to play my entire iCloud Music library on Amazon Alexa devices) and, keeping in my mind the Sonos skill for Alexa, do you happen to know if and/or when there will be the ability to instruct Alexa to play music from my Apple Music on my Sonos speakers? As of right now, that functionality does NOT exist and one can only play music via Alexa commands to Sonos speakers if that music falls under "Alexa music services."
I do NOT use my Amazon echos to play music in my house, as my Sonos speakers offer far superior audio quality. So, while the addition of Apple Music as an Alexa skill is certainly a step in the right direction, the inability to use Alexa voice commands to play that same music on Sonos speakers forces me to still use the iPhone app to initiate music play.
Do you know if there are plans to add this functionality? It seems silly to allow one to play Apple Music on Amazon-branded equipment, but not to allow one to use Alexa commands to play it on Sonos speakers.
Any input and/or feedback you can provide would be appreciated (and, if there's a better thread for this post, please let me know).
Thanks,
Adam
Hi Adam, the main thread for that question is
here .
The most recent message is:
Hello everyone and thanks for all the discussion about this. Rest assured, our team is always interested in helping you control the music service you love with voice. Nothing to share now, but stay tuned. We will share information directly on this post as soon as it is available.
First time post. I recently bought a Sonos Beam. I have a Echo Dot in the kitchen and a Beam in the living room. Is it possible to ask the Echo Dot to set a timer and the Beam to sound the alarm when the timer is finished?
Ryan - Any update on the "ducking" issue with Amazon / Alexa ?
Ryan - Any update on the "ducking" issue with Amazon / Alexa ?
Ducking has been fixed, along with Alexa groups functionality. See this link:
https://en.community.sonos.com/announcements-228985/sonos-now-playing-with-alexa-groups-6817588
Ryan - Any update on the "ducking" issue with Amazon / Alexa ?
Ducking has been fixed, along with Alexa groups functionality. See this link:
https://en.community.sonos.com/announcements-228985/sonos-now-playing-with-alexa-groups-6817588
Awesome. Thanks! Will check it out.
I have a bit of an issue with my Sonos ones not being able to activate routines, I understand that it is not possible currently. But I have an Echo plus that I use to control all of my routines in my living room and kitichen. The problem is that the Sonos one on my kitchen counter always hears me when I activate a routine with the Echo. To which it always responds that it isn't capable of doing the routine, which I am aware of. Most of the time I am with in a few feet of the echo and the Sonos one is at least 15-20 feet away and still responds even when I talk quietly. Another odd thing is that I have another Sonos one in my master bedroom which I am closer to then the one in the kitchen and it never responds. I though maybe it was just that one and tried swapping the two around, but had the same result with the kitchen one responding to a rountine command that the echo also hears and carries out while the Sonos one is telling me It can't do it.
This gets rather annoying quickly and have currently had to mute Alexa on my Sonos One in the kitchen, which doesn't work well as the Echo that is in the living room has a hard time hearing me when I'm in the kitchen. Hence why I put a Sonos one there in the first place. Is there any plans to have a mute or similar function for things the Sonos ones can not carry out with Alexa, as hearing it tell me it can't do something multiple times a day is pointless. Even if it just responds with the no connection tone, would be a vast improvement.
Does anyone have the problem of Alexa hearing itself say “Alexa” and going on an endless loop?
I’m using a Sonos Beam with Alexa - been a few months now and been running into weird things like this.
Does anyone have the problem of Alexa hearing itself say “Alexa” and going on an endless loop?
I’m using a Sonos Beam with Alexa - been a few months now and been running into weird things like this.
No. In fact, I don't ever recall 'her' saying 'Alexa', much less triggering herself. What command is causing this to happen? Is there more than one Alexa device involved with the loop?
Does anyone have the problem of Alexa hearing itself say “Alexa” and going on an endless loop?
I’m using a Sonos Beam with Alexa - been a few months now and been running into weird things like this.
No. In fact, I don't ever recall 'her' saying 'Alexa', much less triggering herself. What command is causing this to happen? Is there more than one Alexa device involved with the loop?
Ergh, unfortunately I've forgotten which exact command made this happen. I was trying to get it to do something with my Philips Hue + smart home stuff and it got confused (likely by naming issues) after a few tries. So, it gave up and said something like "Sorry, I'm having a bit of trouble. Go to the Amazon Alexa app to -- Sorry, I'm having a bit of trouble. Go to the Amazon Alexa app to --" ...it would stop and repeat every time it got to "Alexa" in sentence until I cut it off!
It's only the single Alexa device – my Sonos Beam – involved in this.