Can you command Alexa to play music in a group if they have been group on the Sonos app?
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Tell Alexa to play in any one of the grouped rooms and the entire group will play. For instance:
Group of Living Room + Kitchen + Dining Room.
Alexa, play smooth jazz in Living Room.
Smooth jazz will play in Living Room + Kitchen + Dining Room.
Group of Living Room + Kitchen + Dining Room.
Alexa, play smooth jazz in Living Room.
Smooth jazz will play in Living Room + Kitchen + Dining Room.
Jgatie - This does not work for me. I have set up a group 'everywhere' to include the three Sonos devices I have. Whenever I say "Alexa, play smooth jazz Everywhere" it only plays it on the last device used? Any thoughts?
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The group needs to be created in the Sonos app - it's not an Alexa group.
How do you create a predefined group of speakers in the sonos app please? I have 2 speaker in 1 room and want to group them together so I can tell Alexa to play to that group??
From the bar at the bottom of the screen select Rooms. Select a room that you want to be in the group and tick the others too. Done.
Also with the latest software release you can add a device to an active group by simply pressing and holding down the Play/Pause button for a few seconds. The inactive device will then join in with the active group.
Hi SJW - the problem with creating the group in Sonos is that when you say Alexa play music in [say] family room - it will play on all devices grouped in Sonos. What I would like to be able to do is:
Alexa, play music in Family room - I plays in the family room only.
Alexa, Play music in 'group' - it plays in the group I have set up in Alexa.
I Have three sonos players - Den, Dining room, Family room.
I don't mind is I have to play to all three when an Alexa group. BUT I want to also be selective on which individual sonos I want to play on from time to time.
Alexa, play music in Family room - I plays in the family room only.
Alexa, Play music in 'group' - it plays in the group I have set up in Alexa.
I Have three sonos players - Den, Dining room, Family room.
I don't mind is I have to play to all three when an Alexa group. BUT I want to also be selective on which individual sonos I want to play on from time to time.
Thank you - but how do I give it a name e.g. "Lounge" which contains say 2 speakers.. and can save that name "Lounge"?
Sadly none if that is supported yet by Sonos. It's been asked for many, many times.
You can't.
We know Sonos are working with Amazon to enable better grouping or handling thereof via Alexa but at the moment it's a work in progress.
Well there is a slight workaround. If you do not have a group in Sonos and you start music via Alexa in [say] the Den. You can then via the Sonos app add in the other room and you can also get Alexa to stop them. It's a bit of a faf and hopefully Sonos fixes - Of course you could always start the music from Sonos - but you lose the voice command of music selection.
I've been spending a while playing with the sonos groups and the alexa groups in the smart home option. From what I can see it will always be overridden by the Sonos app. I've groups of speakers in "living room", "bedroom1", "bedroom2" and "kitchen". I have made a group called "everywhere" in alexa which I selected all the Sonos groups . If I group all the rooms in Sonos then tell alexa to play radio 1 in the kitchen it plays to all speakers. If I ungroup all the speakers and say the same command it plays just in the kitchen. If I then say play radio 1 in everywhere it plays through the dot. If I then say "play music in everywhere" it then plays music in all the speakers but it's whatever was last played. So it recognises the everywhere command but doesn't seem to be able to control the content of everywhere. If I try to stop the music everywhere it then says it can't recognise the group everywhere. I've tried combination after combination and my conclusion is you have to group in Sonos first then just ask alexa to play one zone and it will play everywhere. It's a shame the Sonos app doesn't allow to group groups into groups. e.g. kitchen + living room = ground floor. Glad I didn't waste £200 on the new Play 1, I used the £25 off the dot so only wasted £25. Either way alexa app needs updating to cope with groups or the Sonos app does as well.
Totally agree - this isn't what I was expecting at all.. makes the whole thing currently not user friendly at all and having to mess about in both apps and the voice control... .seems simpler just to use sonos app.
I think the problem is a combination of Alexa and Sonos.
I have other smart devices hooked into Alexa, and they pass through rooms to Alexa as devices. (Hue lights) So you can say to Alexa turn off Kitchen lights, and because you've created a Hue room called kitchen, Alexa effectively tells Hue to turn off Kitchen which Hue understands. Alexa has no idea that Kitchen has one or more lights. Alexa can address those lights individually as it sees them as devices too, but has no concept of a room...
Sonos doesn't create groups as a device that Alexa can then see... and doesn't allow you to name your groups and presumably provides no interface to Alexa that allows it to group Sonos devices...
Alexa itself doesn't support rooms. so for example it doesn't let you define a room that then has say an Echo device, a light and a Sonos speaker in it. If it did you might expect that Alexa knows you're in that room as it can tell which Echo you're closest to, and you could then say turn on lights, or play music and that would happen by default in the same room... that would be cool.
But Alexa needs to add that support for rooms and allow you to place an Echo device (or Sonos One) in a room, and then Sonos needs to expose a grouping interface to Alexa for either fixed name rooms, or creating them on the fly and naming them so it can manipulate them later.
I have other smart devices hooked into Alexa, and they pass through rooms to Alexa as devices. (Hue lights) So you can say to Alexa turn off Kitchen lights, and because you've created a Hue room called kitchen, Alexa effectively tells Hue to turn off Kitchen which Hue understands. Alexa has no idea that Kitchen has one or more lights. Alexa can address those lights individually as it sees them as devices too, but has no concept of a room...
Sonos doesn't create groups as a device that Alexa can then see... and doesn't allow you to name your groups and presumably provides no interface to Alexa that allows it to group Sonos devices...
Alexa itself doesn't support rooms. so for example it doesn't let you define a room that then has say an Echo device, a light and a Sonos speaker in it. If it did you might expect that Alexa knows you're in that room as it can tell which Echo you're closest to, and you could then say turn on lights, or play music and that would happen by default in the same room... that would be cool.
But Alexa needs to add that support for rooms and allow you to place an Echo device (or Sonos One) in a room, and then Sonos needs to expose a grouping interface to Alexa for either fixed name rooms, or creating them on the fly and naming them so it can manipulate them later.
I really wish there were a way to group my Sonos speakers with Alexa devices (dot, echo, etc.). My intention is to be able to stop yelling things like "Dinner Is Ready" to everyone in the house. It would be nice to be able to tell Alexa to do that, and have a track play on all Sonos and Alexa devices, because there are Sonos speakers in main rooms, and Alexa dots in the kids' rooms. Basically, I would like an old-fashioned home intercom, but just in one direction.
I just took advantage of the $25 coupon on the Echo Dot and the problem I am having is when I create a group of Sonos speakers in the "Smart Home" section Alexa just tells me she doesn't know that group. For example, I made a group called "House" and then added all the Sonos speakers inside my house (not the ones in the yard) but if I say "Play the Beatles in the House" Alexa just comes back with she doesn't know of a group or device called "House".
The other thing is if I say "Play music in the kitchen", if the kitchen is currently part of a group on the Sonos app, it plays music on not just the kitchen but all the speakers kitchen is grouped with at the moment.
Disappointing. Hope this stuff gets fixed.
The other thing is if I say "Play music in the kitchen", if the kitchen is currently part of a group on the Sonos app, it plays music on not just the kitchen but all the speakers kitchen is grouped with at the moment.
Disappointing. Hope this stuff gets fixed.
The other thing is if I say "Play music in the kitchen", if the kitchen is currently part of a group on the Sonos app, it plays music on not just the kitchen but all the speakers kitchen is grouped with at the moment.
Disappointing. Hope this stuff gets fixed.
How can this functionality be so broken and marketed to the public already? Sonos is designed as a multi room audio system yet that does not work with this new API? SMH. 😠
It is Amazon that doesn't support the inclusion of 3rd party speakers in Alexa groups.
It is Amazon that doesn't support the inclusion of 3rd party speakers in Alexa groups.
Sorry, you are mistaken, the fault lies with the Sonos API. The Sonos API does not facilitate presenting a group of speakers as a target for Alexa like every single other smart home capable system. Essentially what needs to happen is you need to be able to group your speakers into logical groups and assign it a name, that name needs to show up in Alexa as a target device.
It is Amazon that doesn't support the inclusion of 3rd party speakers in Alexa groups.
Sorry, you are mistaken, the fault lies with the Sonos API. The Sonos API does not facilitate presenting a group of speakers as a target for Alexa like every single other smart home capable system. Essentially what needs to happen is you need to be able to group your speakers into logical groups and assign it a name, that name needs to show up in Alexa as a target device.
You obviously know better than me and:
https://sixcolors.com/link/2017/08/amazon-adds-multi-room-audio-for-echo-dot-and-show-third-party-support-on-the-way/
https://www.tomsguide.com/us/amazon-echo-multi-room-music-setup,review-4634.html
http://uk.pcmag.com/news/90941/how-to-set-up-a-second-alexa-enable-multi-room-playback
But it is coming soon...
It is Amazon that doesn't support the inclusion of 3rd party speakers in Alexa groups.
Sorry, you are mistaken, the fault lies with the Sonos API. The Sonos API does not facilitate presenting a group of speakers as a target for Alexa like every single other smart home capable system. Essentially what needs to happen is you need to be able to group your speakers into logical groups and assign it a name, that name needs to show up in Alexa as a target device.
You obviously know better than me and:
https://sixcolors.com/link/2017/08/amazon-adds-multi-room-audio-for-echo-dot-and-show-third-party-support-on-the-way/
https://www.tomsguide.com/us/amazon-echo-multi-room-music-setup,review-4634.html
http://uk.pcmag.com/news/90941/how-to-set-up-a-second-alexa-enable-multi-room-playback
Clearly. Since you are showing articles written by other people, talking about a feature that does not work correctly with the immature Sonos API. Sure this is another way to accomplish this, also not working.
My way is easier allowing for greater control within Sonos, the way you highlighted affords greater control in Alexa.... however more importantly that ease within one app or the other I highly doubt Sonos will ever allow it to work this way, as it would enable users to group together other brand smart speakers forming a hybrid sort of system... NO way Sonos lets that fly.
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