I have a number of Sonos speakers, is there anyway to address a 'group' - like "Play relaxing music everywhere". I have tried setting up a group in the Alexa app, but that doesn't work.
While I am here - do the names of the Sonos speakers have to be different to existing 'smart stuff'. I have lights called 'Living Room' and a Sonos called 'Living Room', and that seems to confuse things...
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It's best to have the names be different so that Alexa knows which one you mean to target. Otherwise, it might try playing music out of your lights.
Grouping Sonos players using Alexa's voice control isn't available right now, but we'd love to add it in. We're working to add more commands and functionality all the time.
Grouping Sonos players using Alexa's voice control isn't available right now, but we'd love to add it in. We're working to add more commands and functionality all the time.
+1 for playing in more than one room. It would just be nice to be able to say "Play on all" for now.
Grouping Sonos devices is one of the things listed as not yet available. This is too bad, as having the same thing playing in multiple rooms is (for me) the biggest benefit of Sonos. Currently you can send music to individual Sonos devices but (for me) there was a lag between rooms.
Group using the Sonos app, then tell Alexa to play to any grouped speaker. The entire group will then play it in sync. You can also group after the fact.
Your reply is part correct I think. I have three grouped speakers in my living room, a sub and two play 5s for stereo, and when I ask Alexa to “ play living room” that will indeed work. But when I try to add in speakers from other rooms, Alexa seems incapable...
I have 10 sonos speakers spread throughout my house. Putting them all into one group is not prefered. I tried telling Alexa to play in 'kitchen' and 'office'. It didn't like that. Is there an eta for either adding grouping within Alexa or for adding verbal commands such as 'and' or 'all'?
Paul_51, any grouping still needs to be done in the controller app, as there are no voice commands (yet) for groupiing. You should have been able to "Play in living room" and then go to the controller app and group in any other room you desired.
jimlytton13, as has been noted several times across multiple threads, there are no grouping commands currently available for voice control. However, I believe I recall in the flurry of posts that someone has said it was on the list of things they want to get done, without giving any timelines. This is the normal mode of operation for most software related companies, since it's not a known quantity on how difficult a task is, much less what other priorities may come up that take away the resources that are addressing the issue.
jimlytton13, as has been noted several times across multiple threads, there are no grouping commands currently available for voice control. However, I believe I recall in the flurry of posts that someone has said it was on the list of things they want to get done, without giving any timelines. This is the normal mode of operation for most software related companies, since it's not a known quantity on how difficult a task is, much less what other priorities may come up that take away the resources that are addressing the issue.
jimlytton13, as has been noted several times across multiple threads, there are no grouping commands currently available for voice control. However, I believe I recall in the flurry of posts that someone has said it was on the list of things they want to get done, without giving any timelines. This is the normal mode of operation for most software related companies, since it's not a known quantity on how difficult a task is, much less what other priorities may come up that take away the resources that are addressing the issue.
Airgetlam
The issue is, my grouped living room speakers are right next to my bar and kitchen, so, ideally, I would create a larger group on the app and play music out of all of them, as I have done for the last several years. But Alexa will not recognize that group. In device discovery, she will still group stereo pairs, but that’s it. When I try to group different rooms as I have done on the app, she won’t do it and will get confused and start malfunctioning, playing music out of the wrong speakers.
Airgetlam
The issue is, my grouped living room speakers are right next to my bar and kitchen, so, ideally, I would create a larger group on the app and play music out of all of them, as I have done for the last several years. But Alexa will not recognize that group. In device discovery, she will still group stereo pairs, but that’s it. When I try to group different rooms as I have done on the app, she won’t do it and will get confused and start malfunctioning, playing music out of the wrong speakers.
Alexa does not recognize groups. However, if you group 3 rooms, say Room 1, 2 and 3 via the Sonos app, and then say "Alexa, play Tom Petty in Room 3", it will play in the entire group.
OK, I'll admit I'm confused, and don't quite understand. What I've done is taken the stereo pair in my bedroom, and in the controller app, grouped it with the bathroom speaker. Then, when I want it to play, I say "Alexa, resume in the bathroom", and both the bathroom and bedroom speakers, which were grouped, start to play.
I don't define groups in the Alexa app. I only group them in the Sonos app. So perhaps I'm not the best one to be answering you.
I don't define groups in the Alexa app. I only group them in the Sonos app. So perhaps I'm not the best one to be answering you.
Defining groups in the Alexa app is not supported, and as you've found, is spotty at best. Grouping should take place in the Sonos app, until such time as grouping is supported via Alexa.
Airgetlam
The issue is, my grouped living room speakers are right next to my bar and kitchen, so, ideally, I would create a larger group on the app and play music out of all of them, as I have done for the last several years. But Alexa will not recognize that group. In device discovery, she will still group stereo pairs, but that’s it. When I try to group different rooms as I have done on the app, she won’t do it and will get confused and start malfunctioning, playing music out of the wrong speakers.
Alexa does not recognize groups. However, if you group 3 rooms, say Room 1, 2 and 3 via the Sonos app, and then say "Alexa, play Tom Petty in Room 3", it will play in the entire group.
Not true! When I did exactly that...Alexa did not recognize any device...
Not true! When I did exactly that...Alexa did not recognize any device...
True for me! Doing it right now. What you are doing wrong, I don't know.
In the Alexa app under smart home, you can create groups for multiple speakers. However, I don't believe this is supported yet since the Sonos skill is in Beta. Hopefully, we will see this work in the near future. Just an added note, if you have 2nd generation Fire Stick or Fire TV, you can use the voice control on the remote to control your Sonos speakers even when the TV is off and you do not have up "wake" Alexa up.
I think that is only assuming that there is just one speaker in each room. To tell you the truth, considering the months and months that this integration has been in the works, grouping of speakers should have been ready, considering how significant it is to Sonos owners.
Of course it should have. Matter of fact, it should be making my breakfast.
Of course it should have. Matter of fact, it should be making my breakfast.
Not sure if you're joking or not...but after waiting well over a year, and spending a couple hours trying to make it work, I don't think releasing this skill without grouping is a good strategy. I know, I know, its still in beta...but thats not an excuse.
SOLVED?...
I have just grouped my speakers in the SONOS app. I clicked rooms > everywhere.
Then I asked "Alexa, play music everywhere"
Music plays in all three rooms.
*Can no longer play to specific speakers by voice. Would have to ungroup in app. So it depends which you are more likely to use, all or specific (for now).
I have just grouped my speakers in the SONOS app. I clicked rooms > everywhere.
Then I asked "Alexa, play music everywhere"
Music plays in all three rooms.
*Can no longer play to specific speakers by voice. Would have to ungroup in app. So it depends which you are more likely to use, all or specific (for now).
jimlytton13, as has been noted several times across multiple threads, there are no grouping commands currently available for voice control. However, I believe I recall in the flurry of posts that someone has said it was on the list of things they want to get done, without giving any timelines. This is the normal mode of operation for most software related companies, since it's not a known quantity on how difficult a task is, much less what other priorities may come up that take away the resources that are addressing the issue.
It very much is a known quantity on how difficulat the task is. If people have been so inclined to have an amazon developer account and set up their own app (for free), then the grouping, ungrouping and being able to use spotify has been available for over a year.
Grouping and ungrouping is one of the main purposes of sonos, it is the single most mentioned issue/complaint since the release of this voice control less than 24 hours ago. How did they not see this coming? I would be shocked if it wasn't mentioned in the beta feedback.
There are people right now able to issue grouping and ungrouping commands to their sonos, through an alexa using the amazon platform on their own amazon developer accounts. It is quite astonishing how Amazon and Sonos didn't bother to either look what was currently being done in the community, or chose not to offer functionality that was already being made available by amateur programmers.
Amazn/Sonos - feel free to look at the functionality being offered over a year ago using your own platforms by these people.
https://github.com/rgraciano/echo-sonos
https://github.com/jishi/node-sonos-http-api
jimlytton13, as has been noted several times across multiple threads, there are no grouping commands currently available for voice control. However, I believe I recall in the flurry of posts that someone has said it was on the list of things they want to get done, without giving any timelines. This is the normal mode of operation for most software related companies, since it's not a known quantity on how difficult a task is, much less what other priorities may come up that take away the resources that are addressing the issue.
It very much is a known quantity on how difficulat the task is. If people have been so inclined to have an amazon developer account and set up their own app (for free), then the grouping, ungrouping and being able to use spotify has been available for over a year.
Grouping and ungrouping is one of the main purposes of sonos, it is the single most mentioned issue/complaint since the release of this voice control less than 24 hours ago. How did they not see this coming? I would be shocked if it wasn't mentioned in the beta feedback.
There are people right now able to issue grouping and ungrouping commands to their sonos, through an alexa using the amazon platform on their own amazon developer accounts. It is quite astonishing how Amazon and Sonos didn't bother to either look what was currently being done in the community, or chose not to offer functionality that was already being made available by amateur programmers.
Amazn/Sonos - feel free to look at the functionality being offered over a year ago using your own platforms by these people.
https://github.com/rgraciano/echo-sonos
https://github.com/jishi/node-sonos-http-api
I don't think that your feedback will come as a surprise to Sonos. The participants in the beta are constrained by NDA so any comment on your views would be inappropriate.
I left the beta to disassociate myself from the release.
It could well end up as a classic business school case study of how a successful tech company was trashed by selecting the wrong partner who is plainly their competitor.
I must assume that the people selected for the private beta of this will have fed back, I would certainly have done so had I been part of the beta.
Lack of Spotify and grouping functionality are such glaring omissions I must also assume that either the developers took absolutely no notice at all, or both were purposefully left out in order to satisfy some commercial agreement with Amazon.
The half herated attempt at voice integration may well be the kiss of death for me and both amazon and sonos. Having spent an awful lot of money on six amps, several play ones and a house full of echos and dots if google actually pulls off voice integration and grouping/multi room properly, then I can see me putting an awful lot of kit on ebay and swapping out everything for google hardware.
Either Amazon and Sonos need to actually work together to give the functionality people want, or people will simply just switch to google hardware where there is no cloack and dagger protection of their own music service.
Lack of Spotify and grouping functionality are such glaring omissions I must also assume that either the developers took absolutely no notice at all, or both were purposefully left out in order to satisfy some commercial agreement with Amazon.
The half herated attempt at voice integration may well be the kiss of death for me and both amazon and sonos. Having spent an awful lot of money on six amps, several play ones and a house full of echos and dots if google actually pulls off voice integration and grouping/multi room properly, then I can see me putting an awful lot of kit on ebay and swapping out everything for google hardware.
Either Amazon and Sonos need to actually work together to give the functionality people want, or people will simply just switch to google hardware where there is no cloack and dagger protection of their own music service.
As Chopdog said in another thread....
I'm assuming there are some urgent meetings going on in Sonos right now - along the lines of 'well, we thought it would be better but really screwed up!'
I'm assuming there are some urgent meetings going on in Sonos right now - along the lines of 'well, we thought it would be better but really screwed up!'
It seems to me some folks who have been pimping other solutions for months are extremely disappointed in the official release. Why, I am shocked, I say! Shocked!
Does anyone know if sonos and Alexa echo speakers (the new one) and perhaps other speakers will work together? Let’s say I have both an echo speaker and a sonos speaker in one room will I be able to say “alexa, play in living room” and it will play in all alexa speakers including sonos? Is this something planned?
No, Sonos and Amazon have very different syncing schemes. I would not expect them to be able to be grouped to play in sync.
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