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Alexa in canada
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When will Alexa be available in Canada?
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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.
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.
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.
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.
My understanding is that alexa’s Spotify skills are a bit limited at the moment. Mine always plays Christian rock music...
Yes! I bought Amazon instead of Goolge home for this feature. If this already works in the US then what is the hold up?
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.
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.
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.
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.
As always, your Sonos apologetics are hilarious and sad. There are an insignificant number of Sonos One users in Canada in comparison with the purchasers of the Amazon Echo and Echo Dot.
As always, your Sonos apologetics are hilarious and sad. There are an insignificant number of Sonos One users in Canada in comparison with the purchasers of the Amazon Echo and Echo Dot.
"As always" from someone with a single post? Very interesting .. .
It won't be millions of new users. I would be surprised if the total number of Sonos One systems in Canada even gets into six figures. (It wasn't being widely sold by Amazon or Best Buy before Christmas, I went into Best Buy and they had only Play:1 available) And they wouldn't all be using Alexa at same time.
Currently on Amazon.ca, the Sonos Play:1 is still outselling the Sonos One, but the Echo is outselling them both, so I don't buy that it's a capacity issue. This is 100% on Sonos and it's very disappointing.
The skill works for all Sonos devices if you own an Echo or other Alexa controller. It is not limited to just the Sonos One.
It won't be millions of new users. I would be surprised if the total number of Sonos One systems in Canada even gets into six figures. (It wasn't being widely sold by Amazon or Best Buy before Christmas, I went into Best Buy and they had only Play:1 available) And they wouldn't all be using Alexa at same time.
Currently on Amazon.ca, the Sonos Play:1 is still outselling the Sonos One, but the Echo is outselling them both, so I don't buy that it's a capacity issue. This is 100% on Sonos and it's very disappointing.
The skill works for all Sonos devices if you own an Echo or other Alexa controller. It is not limited to just the Sonos One.
And that still won't add up to millions of users.
I'm sure Amazon have done their research on Alexa usage in Canada (including any potential load generated by 3rd party integrations) and have scaled their infrastructure appropriately.
It's not just Amazon's infrastructure. The Sonos/Alexa partnership requires both an Alexa and a Sonos cloud infrastructure. As has been explained by Sonos reps it is not just a matter of flipping a switch, there is some additional engineering that needs to take place. So have some patience. There is obviously a legitimate explanation, unless you are claiming they would willingly withhold the feature just because they hate Canadians or something?
+1
I’m in Canada and my Sonos One is currently playing my Spotify discover weekly playlist via voice command.
It’s not that hard to get working.
It’s not that hard to get working.
Sonos rarely gives out firm dates. Asking for them is a lesson in futility. Call it what you will, it has never changed the policy in the past, and it likely will not in the future.
Not asking for a firm date and I haven't called it anything.
:8
Touché..
Sadly, this "early 2018" date is in the same heap as Sonos saying for the last several years that they're working on a wireless model (i.e. battery speaker) to take outside. They boast a wireless system but it's not wireless at all when it has to be tethered to the nearest wall plug. And I and many others have asked about the battery model and just get a "we're working on it". Well guys, it's several years later and it's pretty clear you're not working on it at all and don't care about your users. Very sad. I agree with everyone else: "early 2018" is unacceptable. It's already past early 2018! Very disappointing.
Sonos has never once stated they are working on a "wireless model (i.e. battery speaker) to take outside". There was a rumor by a supposed ex-employee that they had worked on one then shelved it, but there has never been anything official from Sonos that they were or are working on such a unit. So I don't know who you were talking to, but they certainly not a Sonos representative.
And your definition of "early" needs work too.
And your definition of "early" needs work too.
Guess the CEO of Sonos who told me that was jest kiddin'.
Yeah, ok. :8
Ok. Am done waiting. Can't wait forever...Should have never bought the Sonos One I knew the skill wasn't working. Actually, Sonos shouldn't sell it until the Skill is enabled. Returning my unit to Amazon.
Spence kinda sorta hints at the possibility in this podcast, don’t remember where, maybe 40 minutes in.
https://www.recode.net/2018/2/2/16961978/sonos-patrick-spence-apple-homepod-alexa-virtual-assistants-too-embarrassed-swisher-goode-podcast
Still waiting.....
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