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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What you are talking about is completely different than what was being discussed in this thread.
You are playing music in multiple rooms on multiple Echo devices the way Amazon designed them to work. Additionally you have connected one Sonos device to the one who finds your Echo devices via a hardwire. That Sonos device is repeating the input it receives from the wired connection or has to one Echo device and repeating it to the rest of your Sonos devices.
This is not using an Echo device along with the Alexa Skill for Sonos to relay commands from Alexa to your Sonos, without any use of Echo or Sonos wired audio jacks, which is what we were discussing here.
What you are doing has always worked, even prior to the introduction of the Sonos Skill.
You are playing music in multiple rooms on multiple Echo devices the way Amazon designed them to work. Additionally you have connected one Sonos device to the one who finds your Echo devices via a hardwire. That Sonos device is repeating the input it receives from the wired connection or has to one Echo device and repeating it to the rest of your Sonos devices.
This is not using an Echo device along with the Alexa Skill for Sonos to relay commands from Alexa to your Sonos, without any use of Echo or Sonos wired audio jacks, which is what we were discussing here.
What you are doing has always worked, even prior to the introduction of the Sonos Skill.
It works. https://en.community.sonos.com/search/activity/topics?userid=7926722
I don't think there is any technical reason the Sonos One could not operate this way. Only challenge would be some logic to arbitrate situations where it was commanded to do something in Sonos mode and Alexa mode at the same time. Commercially though this does not fit the Sonos vision and I don't see them wanting to do it.
Just to play devils advocate for a moment... - but is the PlayOne a Sonos speaker with an echo dot bolted on top, or is it an echo dot with a Sonos speaker bolted underneath.
Whilst it seems ceratin this is a sonos device with Amazon functionality bolted on (and later functionality with other voice platforms), in theory it would be technically possible for this unit to be built in a way which would allow it to operate in either environment as its native habitat?
That is however very unlikely to ever be the case as it would limit the ability for the device to be used across multiple voice platforms. Customers would have to buy a hardware device specifically for their preferred voice platform, in which case people would just buy the Alexa/Home Assistant instead of Sonos.
Trying to get sonos speakers to sync with alexa speakers is simply not going to happen, certainly not with current hardware imho.
Whilst it seems ceratin this is a sonos device with Amazon functionality bolted on (and later functionality with other voice platforms), in theory it would be technically possible for this unit to be built in a way which would allow it to operate in either environment as its native habitat?
That is however very unlikely to ever be the case as it would limit the ability for the device to be used across multiple voice platforms. Customers would have to buy a hardware device specifically for their preferred voice platform, in which case people would just buy the Alexa/Home Assistant instead of Sonos.
Trying to get sonos speakers to sync with alexa speakers is simply not going to happen, certainly not with current hardware imho.
No, Sonos and Amazon have very different syncing schemes. I would not expect them to be able to be grouped to play in sync.
I disagree, this should be something you or anyone would intuitively think / expect. If i want to buy speakers that have a particular AI integrated i expect them all to talk to each other. If sonos wants to be agnostic truly then supporting a different AI is not the only thing they need to support, but they need to allow the ability to work with every product that has alexa built in which includes all speakers (third parties or by Amazon or Google itself). I will put this on a separate ticket as i think this falls on a different umbrella from this discussion which is simple grouping of sonos with sonos speakers
You disagree that Sonos and Amazon have different syncing schemes?
Uhhhh, ok. :8
I'm currently not having any problems with Alexa confusing my Hue Light Rooms with Sonos Rooms even though they use the same names. i.e I have Living Room Lights and Living Room Sonos Speakers.
No, Sonos and Amazon have very different syncing schemes. I would not expect them to be able to be grouped to play in sync.
I disagree, this should be something you or anyone would intuitively think / expect. If i want to buy speakers that have a particular AI integrated i expect them all to talk to each other. If sonos wants to be agnostic truly then supporting a different AI is not the only thing they need to support, but they need to allow the ability to work with every product that has alexa built in which includes all speakers (third parties or by Amazon or Google itself). I will put this on a separate ticket as i think this falls on a different umbrella from this discussion which is simple grouping of sonos with sonos speakers
Being able to turn on multiple rooms at the same time with Alexa is one of my top 2 hopes for the Alexa/Sonos partnership (along with being able to play my imported playlists).
You know, I take everything negative about grouping back. It is in fact easily done in the Sonos app, I was clearly doing something wrong, so who cares if you can’t do it through Alexa? Once grouped, I don’t tend to change grouping configurations anyway. Everything seems to be working great.
Sonos has said they are working on grouping, but no more information than that (as is the standard response for the close-to-the-vest Sonos reps). Unfortunately, the mics on the Play:5 Gen 2 are not a far field array, and thus are not suitable for voice control.
Been testing this out today and it's pretty cool - but SUCH a shame multi-room's not combining right now with the Alexa devices. This has to be a top priority for me - that and the ability to control my surround sound (playbar + 2 play:1's and a sub) group. I was also hoping hugely that we'd be able to utilise the mic feature on the play:5 to control Alexa too?
No, Sonos and Amazon have very different syncing schemes. I would not expect them to be able to be grouped to play in sync.
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?
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!
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!'
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.
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.
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
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).
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.
Of course it should have. Matter of fact, it should be making my breakfast.
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.
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.
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.
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...
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