Amazon Echo / Dot and Sonos Integration

Alexa will need to communicate with some cloud service that tracks your player names, playlists, and favorites. Maybe that already exists with the new Sonos account scheme (not running current firmware so not familiar with what is going on there). I would expect you would need to add a Sonos skill in the Alexa app Smart Home setup page but there might not be any setup required on the Sonos side other than upgrading to a new firmware version.

Agree, but there may be little to show in the Sonos app other than maybe the ability to Add Amazon Alexa like other services.

It will be interesting to see how this is implemented. I doubt there will be any visible change to the Sonos app. More likely it is an Alexa Skill that needs adding or maybe a Smart Home Integration, but that would also still need the Skill to be implemented too.

is there any news about Sonos - Alexa integration ?
I'm not sure how we will be notified of this if we are not choosen for the Beta program.
Will it be a feature on Amazon's app, (adding Sonos from SmartHome menu) , or a feature on Sonos app ?
Actually, I don't get any notifications about changes on Amazon's app, so I am worried that I might miss the change...

You're not going to miss it.

Sonos will sing it from the rafters

Echo has not external output, Echo Dot only has analog output. You could do it with a ADC and a switch, but quite frankly it's a hack. You are probably better off waiting for the official integration.

You can buy a dot any time. If you have a play:5 now you can hook it to that to play through sonso in the interim. Or any other Sonos with input.

I would expect private betas in January period and public betas by maybe mid to end February if I were to guess.

Thanks jgatie, I had actually seen that release. I was wondering if we had received any further indication on the exact dates. If it's not the case then fair enough, I look forward to it coming round though as we all surely do!

Do we have an indication when this integration will come about?

You can get a sort of integration between Sonos and the Echo now. It's not the full experience, but until that arrives, this works. You need a Logitech Harmony Hub as well as an Echo and a Sonos speaker.Sadly no good for users outside the USA due to no Harmony integration.

You can get a sort of integration between Sonos and the Echo now. It's not the full experience, but until that arrives, this works. You need a Logitech Harmony Hub as well as an Echo and a Sonos speaker.

There's two ways of doing it, both involve having a Sonos speaker play a Favorite via voice command.

1. Create a Favorite in the Sonos app
2. Create an Activity in the Harmony app: 1) set the desired Sonos speaker as a Device and 2) Choose a Favorite to play when the Sonos speaker starts
3. Add the Harmony Skill to the Echo
4. Tell Echo: "Alexa turn on [Activity or nickname].

When you name the Activity, give it a name that the Echo won't confuse with its own music choices. So "Nat King Cole" is likely to confuse the Echo into thinking you want it to play Cole music from its own service, over its own speaker. But if you name the Activity "Tunes", the Echo will cause the Harmony Hub to play your desired Favorite on the Sonos. You'll need a separate Harmony Activity for each Favorite.

The second way to do it uses IFTTT:
1. Follow steps 1 to 3 above
2. At IFTTT.com create an applet where IF your trigger is [nickname] THEN it will play the Activity of your choice.
3. If your trigger is "Nat King Cole", then you tell the Echo "Alexa trigger Nat King Cole", and the Sonos speaker will begin playing your desired Favorite. You'll need to set up triggers for each Favorite.

If you want to get fancy you can create an Activity that pauses the Sonos speaker. You'd initiate the Activity using either one of the above.

The experience "should" be better when Sonos and Amazon finish their integration.

The Harmony Hub costs $100, but it comes as part of a combo with a remote control for about $150, called Harmony Companion. The Companion replaces the previous version, called Harmony Smart Control. Both versions have the same Hub, but slight differences in the remote control. Best Buy online has the Smart Control for $100. But in the physical store BB had it for $70. If you can find that deal you can get pseudo Sonos/Echo integration, plus a good universal remote, for just $70.

The only thing we know for certain is Sonos/Alexa is going to be a full integration and not just an Alexa skill, as stated here by a Sonos rep. Yes, the PR video lends one to think only Echo/Amazon supported music services will be available, but it is a joint PR release. As such, I would imagine prominently featuring those services would be a given, so I would take that with a grain of salt. Until the release, we can only guess at the rest.

That raises the question, exactly what kind of integration will there be? Will all of the Sonos supported services be controlled via voice via the Echo, or will voice control be limited to Amazon's services? If the latter, then the Sonos integration means that Sonos simply provides a networked speaker system for the Echo. If you want to listen to non-Amazon Echo services, you'll still need to use the app. It won't truly be a voice control for Sonos.


I don't know what the integration will include but if I had to guess I would say:

1- Rooms should show up in the Echo so you can say "Alexa play abc in the xyz room. Not sure you will be able to create or change room groups though.

2- Favorites should show up in the Echo so you can say Alexa play favorite IJK in room XYZ and the Echo will do it. This lets Echo play Sonos specific content without needing to know anything about it... just trigger the favorite and let Sonos handle it from there.

3- Overlapping services like Amazon Prime and Spotify could get some additional integration goodies but I would not expect services available only through Sonos and not Echo to get much more than a basic startup via favorites. Likewise local libraries will either need to upload to Amazon or be limited to control via favorites. Not sure if Sonos Playlists will show up directly or if they will also need to be added to favorites to be seen.

If this is all it does then that will be fine with me but if folks are expecting something more elaborate than this there may be some disappointment with the product that actually gets delivered. Again, all just speculation.