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Alexa Commands in multiple Rooms

  • 5 December 2017
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I have several Sonos Play1, Sonos Connect and recently got a Sonos One. Voice command works just fine to play music throughout all rooms. Requires to be close to Sonos One, and have all speakers grouped.
Added a Alexa Dot in the bed room, thinking I could add the Alexa Tab to the system and control the Sonos Players also from the Dot. The charm would have been to start music in one room, and basically go to bed and command Sonos/Alexa from there. Is that possible? That would be awesome
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Best answer by UKMedia 5 December 2017, 09:15

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I have several Sonos Play1, Sonos Connect and recently got a Sonos One. Voice command works just fine to play music throughout all rooms. Requires to be close to Sonos One, and have all speakers grouped.
Added a Alexa Dot in the bed room, thinking I could add the Alexa Tab to the system and control the Sonos Players also from the Dot. The charm would have been to start music in one room, and basically go to bed and command Sonos/Alexa from there. Is that possible? That would be awesome


Yes, this is how it is intended to work. Just specify a Room name in the group that is outputting the audio when using an Echo Dot. e.g. If you have a group of Kitchen Sonos, Lounge Sonos and Bedroom Sonos, the command from the Echo Dot would be 'Alexa, Stop Kitchen Sonos' (Would also work if you named any room within the group or used 'Pause' instead of 'Stop')

In the morning if you wanted to resume what is playing just use 'Alexa, Resume Kitchen Sonos' or 'Alexa, Play x Playlist on Kitchen Sonos' would play a new playlist.
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I have several Sonos Play1, Sonos Connect and recently got a Sonos One. Voice command works just fine to play music throughout all rooms. Requires to be close to Sonos One, and have all speakers grouped.
Added a Alexa Dot in the bed room, thinking I could add the Alexa Tab to the system and control the Sonos Players also from the Dot. The charm would have been to start music in one room, and basically go to bed and command Sonos/Alexa from there. Is that possible? That would be awesome
Yes, this is how it is intended to work. Just specify a Room name in the group that is outputting the audio when using an Echo Dot. e.g. If you have a group of Kitchen Sonos, Lounge Sonos and Bedroom Sonos, the command from the Echo Dot would be 'Alexa, Stop Kitchen Sonos' (Would also work if you named any room within the group or used 'Pause' instead of 'Stop')

In the morning if you wanted to resume what is playing just use 'Alexa, Resume Kitchen Sonos' or 'Alexa, Play x Playlist on Kitchen Sonos' would play a new playlist.


Hi. I've tried doing it this way and it doesn't resume... maybe my naming is wrong? If I pause in the Lounge, I can't get it to resume whilst continuing to play in the bedroom 😞
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What is the source of the music playing in the bedroom?
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What is the source of the music playing in the bedroom?


Hi there. Thank you for your reply. It's Apple Music.

For the moment I've gone with "Alexa, mute the Lounge speaker" or "Alexa, mute the Bedroom speaker" instead of stopping the music in that room. I guess its taking up my bandwidth (maybe?) but other than that... it seems to have the same affect.

I won't ever want to play separate tracks I don't think but if I/someone wanted to, it would be good to know how to bring the speaks 'together' again without the app.
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What is the source of the music playing in the bedroom?
Hi there. Thank you for your reply. It's Apple Music.

For the moment I've gone with "Alexa, mute the Lounge speaker" or "Alexa, mute the Bedroom speaker" instead of stopping the music in that room. I guess its taking up my bandwidth (maybe?) but other than that... it seems to have the same affect.

I won't ever want to play separate tracks I don't think but if I/someone wanted to, it would be good to know how to bring the speaks 'together' again without the app.



Outside of the app, there are two ways to Group sonos devices via voice control:

1/ Via Preferred Speakers in the Alexa App (Please see https://en.community.sonos.com/amazon-alexa-and-sonos-229102/an-overview-and-explanation-of-the-new-support-for-alexa-grouping-6817788 ) or
2/ Via a Harmony Hub - please follow these steps:

1/ Open the Harmony Hub App>Harmony Setup;
2/ Add your Sonos players as devices;
2/ Next create an Activity - Named 'Group Sonos';
3/ Add your required Devices to the Activity;
4/ Disable the Harmony skill in the Alexa App and then Re-Enable. During this process you have the ability to define 'Friendly Names' - there doesn't seem to be a way of doing this any other way. I created 'Group Sonos' and 'Sonos Everywhere' as friendly names;
5/ Save the Activity in the Harmony Hub App;
6/ Ask 'Alexa, Discover devices';

Now the command 'Alexa, Turn on Group Sonos' or 'Alexa, Turn on Sonos Everywhere' groups all of my Sonos speakers and displays the new grouping in the Sonos App. You just need to repeat for any other named Sonos groups you require and you can switch between them by turning on the required Activity.
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What is the source of the music playing in the bedroom?
Hi there. Thank you for your reply. It's Apple Music.

For the moment I've gone with "Alexa, mute the Lounge speaker" or "Alexa, mute the Bedroom speaker" instead of stopping the music in that room. I guess its taking up my bandwidth (maybe?) but other than that... it seems to have the same affect.

I won't ever want to play separate tracks I don't think but if I/someone wanted to, it would be good to know how to bring the speaks 'together' again without the app.

Outside of the app, there are two ways to Group sonos devices via voice control:

1/ Via Preferred Speakers in the Alexa App (Please see https://en.community.sonos.com/amazon-alexa-and-sonos-229102/an-overview-and-explanation-of-the-new-support-for-alexa-grouping-6817788 ) or
2/ Via a Harmony Hub - please follow these steps:

1/ Open the Harmony Hub App>Harmony Setup;
2/ Add your Sonos players as devices;
2/ Next create an Activity - Named 'Group Sonos';
3/ Add your required Devices to the Activity;
4/ Disable the Harmony skill in the Alexa App and then Re-Enable. During this process you have the ability to define 'Friendly Names' - there doesn't seem to be a way of doing this any other way. I created 'Group Sonos' and 'Sonos Everywhere' as friendly names;
5/ Save the Activity in the Harmony Hub App;
6/ Ask 'Alexa, Discover devices';

Now the command 'Alexa, Turn on Group Sonos' or 'Alexa, Turn on Sonos Everywhere' groups all of my Sonos speakers and displays the new grouping in the Sonos App. You just need to repeat for any other named Sonos groups you require and you can switch between them by turning on the required Activity.


OK - thank you. I was using the "mute" command before as I couldn't get "Resume" etc to work so I guess that's the best/right/only way to get Alexa to do that for now.

I can't see the Groups benefitting me in this instance...

Thank you anyway.