Best answer by Ryan S
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Alexa in canada
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When will Alexa be available in Canada?
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Again I call nonsense. Amazon voice has been up and running for months. It is not the infrastructure that is the barrier, it is the cost it the infrastructure. Sonos won't invest in Canada until there are "hundreds of thousands" of users.....so early 2018 ain't gonna happen
Yes. The infrastructure to connect the Sonos cloud to the Amazon Canada cloud, and the ability to support the potential of hundreds of thousands of more users on that infrastructure requires more engineering.
The responses are nonsense. I can take my sonos one to the US and it works as advertised but, in Canada they require additional engineering? Also, it is Alexa compatible but Amazon music is not one of the streaming services offered. I have never been more disappointed in a piece of technology.
The holdup is they have to integrate and test the Sonos cloud with the Amazon cloud in Canada and prepare for millions of new possible users. It is an infrastructure thing. It's not a simple matter of flipping a switch.
Yes! I bought Amazon instead of Goolge home for this feature. If this already works in the US then what is the hold up?
Indeed. How about an update on when this will work in Canada.
When is Alexa skill for Sonos going to be in Canada, why is the engineering so complex that it takes this long to role out as you already have it
Hi, I am a happy Sonos user as well as many other automation devices including Harmony Hub and recently Echo Gen 2 and Alexa. My goal was to use Alexa as the voice prompt for all other integrated home automation. The Sonos speaker is far superior to Echo so I was planning to use Sonos as the main speaker in the Kitchen where the Echo also sits. Was disappointed when so many skills and features were missing from Alexa in Canada.
I started to post a lot on Echotalks.org and got them to open up a separate Category for the support for the Canadians using Echo.
I encourage Sonos to proceed with the Canadian skills roll out like others have such as Harmony. I did get Sonos to work through Harmony Hub and Alexa but it was a bit complex.
However, some users might want to setup the Echo as a US device like I did where you can have the best of the US features as well as Canadian local awareness. Through this method I also got the Sonos skill to work quite well. Now I can just ask Alexa to play any song on My kitchen sonos.
You can see more details at the link below or just go to Echotalk.org and look for the Maple Leaf Canadian Support section.
http://www.echotalk.org/index.php/topic,3263.0.html
I started to post a lot on Echotalks.org and got them to open up a separate Category for the support for the Canadians using Echo.
I encourage Sonos to proceed with the Canadian skills roll out like others have such as Harmony. I did get Sonos to work through Harmony Hub and Alexa but it was a bit complex.
However, some users might want to setup the Echo as a US device like I did where you can have the best of the US features as well as Canadian local awareness. Through this method I also got the Sonos skill to work quite well. Now I can just ask Alexa to play any song on My kitchen sonos.
You can see more details at the link below or just go to Echotalk.org and look for the Maple Leaf Canadian Support section.
http://www.echotalk.org/index.php/topic,3263.0.html
My understanding is that alexa’s Spotify skills are a bit limited at the moment. Mine always plays Christian rock music...
Can anyone shed some light here? I got my Echo dots setup a few weeks ago here in Canada, but at the time was only able to install the Alexa Sonos skill by "moving" my Amazon account device registration to USA temporarily. Spotify integration has been working nicely, with the exception of asking to play music by genre "I can't find any Christmas music on Spotify". It seems others have experienced this issue, and it seems to be an issue with the registration locations for the accounts (mine are all currently set back to Canada). I previously had my Echo device language set to "English (Canada)", but changing this to English (USA) resolved the issues I was having with a separate alexa skill, however it didn't fix this Spotify integration issue.
Fixing this was easy actually. Change your Alexa app location to somewhere in the states and then update you Sonos profile to somewhere in the states. I just got my Sonos Ones working in Canada. BAM!
I used to use Alexa with US postal code to control my sonos devices. Since Alexa became availabke in Canada, the Sonos functionality is broken - it makes no sense. The problem apparently links back to "Canadian English". Our spoken english in Vancouver is the same where I live as it is in Seattle, Portland, northern California, so this problem makes absolutely no sense to me.
Good questions all, but if the Sonos CEO does not have good answers to these - I have asked - nothing more can be forthcoming from his engineers. And even " Early 2018", as someone suggested somewhere, can extend to midnight of June 30.
I think that Sonos launched Alexa and Sonos One prematurely even in the US. Witness for example the many complaints from those with the One with as simple a matter as mic sensitivity. I say simple only because in comparison, the same work fine on Echo/Dot devices. And the Alexa on Sonos One is a beta. So I can't see much happening outside the US, till the US voice services are stabilised.
By the way, India, where Amazon launched Alexa/Echo on November 1, a month before Canada, does not even get the consolation bone of "Early 2018".
Apple probably did the wise thing and pushed out its HomePods launch to 2018, even at the cost of missing the 2017 year end shopping season sales.
I think that Sonos launched Alexa and Sonos One prematurely even in the US. Witness for example the many complaints from those with the One with as simple a matter as mic sensitivity. I say simple only because in comparison, the same work fine on Echo/Dot devices. And the Alexa on Sonos One is a beta. So I can't see much happening outside the US, till the US voice services are stabilised.
By the way, India, where Amazon launched Alexa/Echo on November 1, a month before Canada, does not even get the consolation bone of "Early 2018".
Apple probably did the wise thing and pushed out its HomePods launch to 2018, even at the cost of missing the 2017 year end shopping season sales.
My question for the Sonos engineers is this. You've got Sonos working with Alexa in the USA and Alexa is now legitimately working in Canada without the need for any bogus addresses or IP addresses. Sonos knew that this was coming. Why does it now need to take months of "engineering" to get this to work in Canada. "Early 2018" is not acceptable to me.
Indeed, Ditto for India. But there is some delay before the command is implemented, which has to be down to server distances from India, and may not be an issue for Canada.
I just discovered another issue though I suspect it has been raised here but I haven't delved into till now. When skills are enabled and Sonos speakers are linked to Alexa, ALL of those playing duck and drop volume when the wake word is uttered even for a command that does not expect a response from Sonos. So if a standalone Echo in one room hears a wake word, a Sonos speaker playing in another room also drops its volume. Very distracting for that room.
For now, I have disabled the Skills and delinked Sonos because there is no benefit at this time.
More so, because unless Prime Music service is added to Sonos as a valid choice, it will not play via Alexa commands. Even though the service is released in India and WILL play via a command for a standalone Echo.
I just discovered another issue though I suspect it has been raised here but I haven't delved into till now. When skills are enabled and Sonos speakers are linked to Alexa, ALL of those playing duck and drop volume when the wake word is uttered even for a command that does not expect a response from Sonos. So if a standalone Echo in one room hears a wake word, a Sonos speaker playing in another room also drops its volume. Very distracting for that room.
For now, I have disabled the Skills and delinked Sonos because there is no benefit at this time.
More so, because unless Prime Music service is added to Sonos as a valid choice, it will not play via Alexa commands. Even though the service is released in India and WILL play via a command for a standalone Echo.
Seems the Sonos skill is US only
I was able to install it by "moving" to the US from https://www.amazon.com/gp/help/customer/display.html?nodeId=202205900
When moving back to Canada, the skill still works so far.
I was able to install it by "moving" to the US from https://www.amazon.com/gp/help/customer/display.html?nodeId=202205900
When moving back to Canada, the skill still works so far.
Alexa Support is 100% active in Canada as I have set up my Amazon Echo Show to my Canadian Amazon Account. However, I am unable to get Sonos working in SKILLS as my Languages (Canadian ENGLISH) are not sync'd between my Alexa App (IOS) and my Amazon Account. Very strange. Anyone have any ideas on how the get this working.
Interesting. I should preface my answer by stating that when I initially set up Alexa I did it on a Raspberry Pi using an Amazon developer account. There are lots of websites which explain how to do this so Google that and try setting up a developer account. I don't know if that makes a difference or not. The other thing is that I had a US address as my default address in my Alexa account at the time. Go to https://www.amazon.com/mycd and switch over to a US address and then try enabling the Sonos skill and linking it. I had a US address because my Flash Briefing had stopped working so I was trying the work around found at http://echoincanada.com/flash-briefing-not-working/ but I used the Amazon.com not .ca website. Try that and let me know if it works. Good luck.
Yes but how did you do that? I have a US Amazon account since when I set it up, Alexa wasn't available in Canada yet. However, my Sonos account is registered in Canada. So when I've tried to use Alexa, the Sonos app says I can't because it isn't available in my region. Any way around this?
I can confirm Alexa control of Sonos is already working in Canada. I have 4 Echo devices which I imported from the US. When the Sonos Beta went public in October I installed the skill and paired my Sonos system with my Echo devices. The skill is still buggy but is steadily improving. I initially set up my Alexa account on my US Prime Account earlier this year. But since the announcement earlier this week I have pointed my Echos to my Canadian address and am also using the Alexa calling feature to make outgoing phone calls. I've been controllying my Logitech Harmony Hub since January and controlling my lights since then too. I don't know if and when the new Alexa enabled Sonos speaker will work, but I have been playing Amazon Prime Music playlists through my Sonos Play:1 speakers all weekend. Now, if Amazon would just enable a Sirius XM Canada skill, like they have for the US, I'll be able to listen to just about everything I want to stream. If only I could get Alexa to control streaming from my 60gb of music on my NAS. The only real difference between the US and Canadian versions is the streaming services available because they are geo-locked due to licensing.
Userlevel 1
Oh no, the classic "early" timeline... better keep my US amazon account then 🙂
Userlevel 7
+26
Hi everyone, I've mentioned this in a few other threads, but wanted to share here too.
We're excited to see Alexa support in Canada and are going through the engineering work and testing to bring support to Sonos. We are committed to bringing Alexa voice control to Sonos in Canada in early 2018.
We're excited to see Alexa support in Canada and are going through the engineering work and testing to bring support to Sonos. We are committed to bringing Alexa voice control to Sonos in Canada in early 2018.
Userlevel 1
I guess the idea is that sometime in dec we can use canadian accounts? It's interesting that Sonos is selling directly the one in canada but make no mention of this alexa shortcoming while you order. Not that I care honestly but a reassuring note would be nice. They have one for spotify... 🙂
Amazon announced this week a December delivery date. Staples and others are starting pre-sales.
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