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Alexa announcements and routines


Alexa announcements generated from Alexa routines do not work on my Sonos One (2nd Gen). Although, announcements do work from voice activated commands.

Announcement through routines also seem to work fine on Beam and Arc, it's just my Ones that it does not work. Confirmed the Ones have alexa setup properly.

This was a previous tropic, but that topic was closed, and no resolutions were provided. So, I’m re-opening this issue. The last one got a response that it would be investigated, but I could not find any additional follow up.

Alexa announcements not working from routines | Sonos Community

Thanks for your help!

 

 

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Best answer by Corry P 13 January 2023, 12:27

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Just me having this issue now? :) 

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Hi @cyhefe 

We’ve been tracking this issue since your last post, and so far it literally has just been you and myself that have reported this happening - and I only knew about it because I was checking for you! For resources to be deployed on this issue, we’d need to see more than one complaint, to be honest.

I don’t know if this is because hardly anyone uses the feature, or if it is because people do, but don’t have an issue. My more-qualified colleagues are in Europe and could not replicate the problem, whereas I am in the UK and could - this may be relevant, it may not be.

I’m sorry I can’t help you more. You could try reaching out to Amazon, but I can well imagine their (not unjustified) response will be to contact us.

 

Would it be useful to remove Alexa as a voice control assistant from the specific speaker that is having an issue, and then re-add it as a reboot of sorts?  You could also remove and re-add the Sonos skill on Alexa, but I suspect that may damage your existing routines and force you to recreate them.

When I step through an Alexa routine, using the ‘Announcement’ option to say things like it’s Sunset/Lunchtime etc. then the Alexa App only lists the Amazon echo devices only as per the screenshot attached. I presume therefore this feature is just for Amazon echo devices only and not for third-party Alexa ‘enabled’ Speakers, but there are perhaps some workarounds to this using the ‘Alexa Says’ option for routines, but it’s not easy, as it requires a routine for each Sonos speaker that has Alexa built-in.

@Ken_Griffiths  I see all my echo and third party alexa enabled devices listed, including Sonos.  I do not see my Sonos rooms where none of the speakers has Alexa enabled, such as a room with amp.

@Ken_Griffiths  I see all my echo and third party alexa enabled devices listed, including Sonos.  I do not see my Sonos rooms where none of the speakers has Alexa enabled, such as a room with amp.

Yes… as mentioned, for the ‘Alexa Says’ action its just those Sonos devices with Alexa on-board, in fact it uses the Alexa component, rather than the speaker component. It also only allows one device only to be selected, so you have to create multiple routines to mimic the Alexa ‘Announcement’ routine action, which (as also mentioned) only supports Amazon echo devices only and not third-party speakers. 

These things are definitely something that Amazon would need to change, rather Sonos.. I’m not sure however if it applies just to the UK as @Corry P mentions 🤔?

@Ken_Griffiths  I see all my echo and third party alexa enabled devices listed, including Sonos.  I do not see my Sonos rooms where none of the speakers has Alexa enabled, such as a room with amp.

Yes… as mentioned, for the ‘Alexa Says’ action its just those Sonos devices with Alexa on-board, in fact it uses the Alexa component, rather than the speaker component. It also only allows one device only to be selected, so you have to create multiple routines to mimic the Alexa ‘Announcement’ routine action, which (as also mentioned) only supports Amazon echo devices only and not third-party speakers. 

 

 

I was referring to the Announcement routine action.  In the Announcement routine action section, I can see all alexa enabled speakers, rather then be echos, Sonos, or other 3rd party devices….anything that has alexa voice enabled.

These things are definitely something that Amazon would need to change, rather Sonos.. I’m not sure however if it applies just to the UK as @Corry P mentions 🤔?

Since I’m on the left side of the Atlantic, and you guys are on the right, it makes me think the difference is geographically related.

 

I was referring to the Announcement routine action.  In the Announcement routine action section, I can see all alexa enabled speakers, rather then be echos, Sonos, or other 3rd party devices….anything that has alexa voice enabled.

These things are definitely something that Amazon would need to change, rather Sonos.. I’m not sure however if it applies just to the UK as @Corry P mentions 🤔?

Since I’m on the left side of the Atlantic, and you guys are on the right, it makes me think the difference is geographically related.

Ah I see, thanks @melvimbe🙏, that at least provides some hope that it’s just a ‘bug’ in the Alexa App over here and that Amazon will perhaps fix this.

Thanks all! I’m in AMER as well, so don’t believe it is geo related. It’s also unique that the announcements work on my beam and arc just fine. It’s just the standalone Ones that do not announce and only through premade routines. If I ask Alexa to announce either by voice or through the app, then the Ones will announce just fine.

I have tried disabling the Sonos skill (which did not blow away my routines as they are all stored in Alexa app), and then re-adding but that did not help. 

I have several Ones so I wondered if that could be an issue, but again since it works on beam/arc, certainly not.

I’m using the option to send announcement to all speakers, so I’m not picking and choosing specific speakers but my sonos ones do show up for me.

I appreciate the poking at this, it’s not the end of the world for me, but would certainly love to have my routines rocking through the Ones.

I haven’t read through all the posts yet. I am having the same issue with my Sonos One (2nd gen). My Alexa routine will not play through the speakers. The Alexa app sees the speaker in devices yet does not allow it to be selected in the routines set up. 

No solutions yet, @Ish33. Can also confirm that announcements work on Moves. So it’s only the ones 2nd gen that do not work. I’ve removed and re-added them to sonos, still no luck. 

So I went into the Alexa app and found my unit said do not disturb. I turned it off and it seems to be making an announcement. I also did de-select announcements and then turn them back on. But I think it was the do not disturb in the Alexa app that was the issue. 

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Only my Sonos Arc and Sonos One Gen 1 appear as Announcement devices but NOT my Sonos One Gen 2!

 

Something must be wrong with the support of the Sons One Gen2!

Having this same issue. 
Bought a Sonos One Gen 2 expressly for routines for my daughter.
Everything else is working, voice commands, say, music out the old Plays.
But announcements from the routines do not come out any of the speakers.

Verified do not disturb is off.
Reset speaker, re installed and connected Alexa app.
Wondering if i should return this one and try again.
Speakers and app are both updated to the latest versions.

Having this same issue. 
Bought a Sonos One Gen 2 expressly for routines for my daughter.
Everything else is working, voice commands, say, music out the old Plays.
But announcements from the routines do not come out any of the speakers.

Verified do not disturb is off.
Reset speaker, re installed and connected Alexa app.
Wondering if i should return this one and try again.
Speakers and app are both updated to the latest versions.

 

Could try! But I have about 5 of the One Gen 2 as standalone speakers or in pairs and none of them work unfortunately. It’s literally the only speaker of the sonos lineup that doesn’t work. Moves, arcs, beams, they all work and will announce properly off of routines. 

That is truly unfortunate. I guess I will be returning it and getting a couple dots to put around instead. I cant justify getting a more expensive speaker for just routine annoucements.
Really odd, you would figure this part of the software would be standard across speakers. I wish there was some other options.

Any update on this? There are now multiple people reporting the same issue. Was hoping for some traction on this.

Just had this happen in the past week; a good-morning routine that’s programmed to turn on my lights and report the time and weather suddenly stopped giving me the time and weather announcements. Playing the routine from an iOS tablet’s Alexa app appears to work.

Updated to add: the routine appears to work as intended on an old 2nd-generation Echo Dot, but not on my Sonos One or my Sonos Beam. 

I am having a similar issue. I just purchased the Era 100 and have connected Alexa to the device. When I try to run my nighttime routine, it doesn’t work. On my Amazon devices I used to say “Alexa, goodnight” and it would set to volume 3 and play thunderstorm sounds by sleep jar. On my Era device, it acknowledges that I say “Alexa, goodnight,” it adjusts the volume, but it doesn’t play. If I say “Alexa play thunderstorm sounds by sleep jar” it plays. It’s just the routine that doesn’t work. 

Not great on the software!  I have an original Echo device, 4 A100 older Sonos devices (2017) and 2 new A300 Sonos devices.  Alexa Announce will ONLY work with the A100 Sonos.  But you can program an Alexa Says to a Sonos A300.  So … I still cannot get Alexa to speak a phrase on all devices.  That’s 5 of 7!!!!  Why on earth would the older Sonos A100 work, but not the New A300????  Sonos is going backwards!  Let’s fix this issue.  Announce should work on all that comes with Alexa built in!  Shocking.

I have the same problem! Alexa routines were working fine on my Era 100 speaker pair, and now they’ve suddenly stopped. The routines work fine from my Alexa devices, but no longer from my Sonos speakers! Very frustrating!

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Hi @Gbrown 

I can only recommend that you - and everyone else that has posted here - get in touch with our technical support team to report this issue, as without related support cases existing, it’s unlikely to ever be a high priority. The more people that report the issue, the better.

 

I have same issue. Alexa routines containing announcements do not play over any of my Sonia speakers (Arc, Besm, Ers 300). When routine runs, the designated speaker says ‘hmmm, you need to enable the Sonos Arc skill in the Alexa app, then ask me to discover devices’. When I look, the Sonos Arc is online and registered in the Alexa app. Also, it must be getting sone prompt as the correct speaker kicks in. It just doesn't play the announcement. I can't find any specific Arc skill fir Alexa. Anyone any ideas?

I have this issue as well. Contacted Sonos support and got this response:

Upon consultation with the support team, I found that there is no information about this issue in our database, and we haven't been notified of it being a current concern. Typically, if there's an issue, our representatives are well-informed, and we have established troubleshooting steps to assist those encountering such problems.

How that makes sense given this thread exists is an interesting take.

Hi rjc77, I don't have the bandwidth to do this now, but I will also contact Sonos support to see if they have logged your enquiry about the same issue. I don't understand how it cannot have been registered with som many people experiencing it. 

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