Alexa and Sonos Megathread

Since the first introduction in October 2017, we've been hard at work with the Amazon Alexa team to improve the Sonos skill and Alexa-enabled Sonos speakers. We're constantly fine-tuning and adding new features, along with improving the integration as we work together to bring the ultimate music and sound solution to your homes with Alexa and Sonos. That means new features, improved performance, and everything in between. 

This thread is a resource for people who might have questions that they're looking for answers to; a directory or megathread, so to speak. 

To start with, our home page is here for Alexa on Sonos. It's kept up to date and shows some great information to answer your questions.

We have our getting started thread with the basic setup and questions, and a similar guide here to follow to get yourself all set up with the Sonos Skill for Alexa. 

Also, there's the how it works thread for anyone looking for more details. 

Since launch, there have been many changes and updates to the whole Alexa and Sonos experience. We've added support for many new skills and several more music services got added as well, such as Audible, Spotify, and Deezer. Alexa support on Sonos has expanded to several new countries this year since launch. 

Amazon Alexa is currently available on Sonos in United States, Australia, Austria, Canada, France, Germany, Ireland, Italy, Japan, Mexico, New Zealand, Spain, and the United Kingdom.

Recently, we added Alexa Announcements to Sonos. 

Sonos with Alexa built-in or Echo + Sonos

Alexa and Sonos integration is two-fold, the skill and Alexa enabled speakers. Some features will come to specific Alexa devices first and take some dedicated engineering work to bring them to all other Alexa-enabled devices, like Sonos speakers. There are some features that might only be available on Amazon Echo devices, while others will come to Sonos. Features like Messaging, Calling, and Drop-in aren't available on Sonos with Alexa. You can use an Alexa-enabled Sonos device to start a Routine, but the routines can't include actions on Sonos devices at this time.

The Sonos Skill for Alexa is the link between Sonos and Alexa that allows you to tell Alexa-enabled devices to control your Sonos speakers. This integration is in beta, it's cloud-based, and constantly improving with software updates. For details on controlling Sonos with the Alexa skill, take a look here.

Along with the skill and software, there are now two Sonos speakers with Alexa built in, Sonos One and Sonos Beam. All Sonos speakers can be controlled by Alexa with our skill and an Alexa-enabled device. These speakers are voice-enabled Sonos speakers, with Amazon Alexa built in and features that are a combined effort between Sonos and Amazon Alexa developers. If you need a hand setting up a Sonos One or Beam, see here to start with. 

Why does the volume lower on my Sonos speakers whenever I speak to an Alexa device?

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There's a feature which causes the music that's playing on Sonos to lower in volume when you talk to an Alexa device. This is designed so that Alexa can hear what you're saying, and you are able to hear Alexa's response.

On Sonos, all speakers that aren't Alexa enabled will drop in volume when an Amazon Alexa device (not a Sonos device with Alexa built-in) hears your request. Alexa-enabled Sonos players will also lower their own volume when they hear you, but the other Sonos devices won't unless they're part of the same Sonos room (such as a home theater set up or stereo pair).

There's an Alexa feature called Alexa Groups that can now include Sonos speakers. When you put your Sonos devices into Alexa Groups with your Alexa enabled devices, only the speakers that are part of that group will lower in volume when Alexa is invoked. You can find out more here.

Controlling your TV with Alexa and Sonos

With Alexa built in, Beam is the smart, compact, sound bar for your TV. Find out all about Beam here.  
Controlling your TV and home with Alexa and Beam:  

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For compatible TV’s, with Sonos Beam we introduced commands specific to TV use, including “Turn on the TV” and “Turn off the TV”. Sonos Beam also takes commands such as “Turn it up” and “Mute” and applies them to the TV volume.   
 
Sonos Beam must be connected to your TV’s HDMI-ARC input and your TV has to support these CEC features. You can check which CEC features your TV supports with the manufacturer. Amazon Alexa voice control for your TV will not work if Sonos Beam is connected via the optical adapter.   
  
Where available, you can use Sonos Beam with Alexa-enabled video streaming devices such as Fire TV. Once linked, you can control those services with Sonos Beam by saying “Play Catastrophe,” “Switch to ESPN,” or “Tune to channel 500”. If you’ve logged into Netflix or added HBO shows on your Fire TV, you’ll be able to play shows by name, e.g. “Play Stranger Things” or “Play Game of Thrones”. For steps to set up the Amazon Fire TV with Sonos, check out the article here.  
  
If you're playing music and you need Beam to start playing the TV input, just ask "Alexa, switch to TV," and the source will change on the Beam.

Sonos Amp also has CEC built in, and when used with a Sonos One for surrounds, you can use it with Alexa to control your TV similarly. 

TV requirements, recommendations for Sonos Beam?

 
Sonos Beam was designed primarily to be used with televisions via HDMI-ARC but will also connect with TVs that do not support HDMI-ARC by using an included optical adapter. For the best overall experience with Sonos Beam, we recommend pairing with a TV that supports HDMI-ARC and has full CEC capabilities. We don't have any official recommendations but feel free to make your own.  
See our article here on television compatibility for Sonos home theater speakers. 

There will be lots more to come, and we'll keep on improving features that currently exist as we also add new ones. We'll be updating this thread as there are changes or there's news to share.