Amazon Echo / Dot and Sonos Integration

Realize that this is also heavily reliant on amazons team and I think they are very busy with a lot of the plans for Alexa. Amazon is supposed to releasing a lot of things for Alexa including notifications which I'm looking forward too. But none of this is overnight work ... although it's a hot competition right now with Amazon and Google trying to become the interface of the connected home. We the consumers will benefit but only if they do it right. Half way done work will sour the public and voice control would lose its current momentum.

I don't know HEOS. I just learnt it now from your post. it seems Heos is a brand of Denon which I would trust.
if I knew Heos would support Alexa before I invested on 4 Sonos speakers, I would prefer Heos.
voice controlling is a very important feature for me...
and I really don't care if Heos misses the promissed date. at least they have a target (and commitment ?)
having no target means Sonos may drop the feature at all in any time...

I'm afraid history proves to be quite the opposite. So far, everything Sonos has ever pre-announced (Apple Music, Google Play Music, Spotify Connect, etc) has come to fruition, even though no specific dates were ever announced. On the other hand, numerous timelines/"commitments" have been given for HEOS upgrades, and those dates have come and gone with no sign of the new functions ever making it to release. Early last year HEOS made a "commitment" to bringing a Windows app and Google Chromecast compatibility to HEOS. Nothing but crickets since, and they only have a month to produce Alxea support, or they blow that "commitment" too.

So if you want those types of "commitments" or "timelines" feel free to switch to HEOS. If you want something actually delivered, stick with Sonos.

actually it is still 2017 but the beta would take on 2016...
Sonos doesn't give specific dates but that does not prevent me from saying "where is it ?" because although not specific, they had sort of a statement/promise.

and I would rather prefer them release a beta buggy or incomplete. (that's my own preference, not everybody would prefer) some things may be developed while in beta.

Look at the announcement:

The companies will begin rolling out the experience through an invite-only beta test later this year, with general availability in 2017.

The beta scheduled for 2016 was "invite-only", aka a private beta. General availability will be in 2017. Pedantically, your complaints aren't valid until 2018. Realistically, you should at least wait until July.

haha that's good. 2018 or july 2017 :)
well then I can use some sort of middleware like smartthings & an amazon skill on raspberry pi.
that's already available. but I had trusted sonos to bring it early this year if not december 2016

haha that's good. 2018 or july 2017 :)
well then I can use some sort of middleware like smartthings & an amazon skill on raspberry pi.
that's already available. but I had trusted sonos to bring it early this year if not december 2016

Why in the world would you "trust" any company to bring something to market before they say they would? That's crazy. And doing it in the same thread in which you state "I really don't care if Heos misses the promissed (sic) date. at least they have a target" is even crazier!

So which is it? Are you upset because Sonos hasn't delivered by a date they never promised they would deliver by, or do you not care that another company misses dates they did promised they would deliver by? It's quite confusing. :8

"They'll release it when it's done" is a banal and sarcastic answer and doesn't add anything to the discussion. I think people are asking if anyone has heard anything about when that will be, and unfortunately it seems like no, Sonos has left us hanging since saying 'early 2017' last year.

I wish they'd come out and give us some more info. Even an updated guess would be appreciated.

Sonos never said "early 2017". They said "general release in 2017".
https://www.cnet.com/news/amazon-alexa-coming-to-sonos-music-systems/

This article says "expanded to public release in early 2017". Maybe the article was wrong, but I'm pretty confident I heard this from multiple sources last year.

Unfortunately there is no agreed definition of the word "early". In the parlance of Sonos development "early" could simply be a label they put on anything that happens before Christmas.

The only official Sonos document stated what I quoted.

Wow, only one official document exists on this? I'd love to see a link!

Either way, it's coming. Kvetching over the intended release dates isn't going to add or subtract a single minute on the engineering development time. It will be here when it is ready, no sooner.

Right, see my original post. I'm a software engineer, I'm very aware of how dates work in engineering ha. Novembuarytoberish.

They don't have the processing power to run Sonos software locally on the DOT. There would have to be a way for Amazon to process in the cloud and stream the audio only to the DOT.

I don't buy the idea that stand alone Echo devices would cut into Sonos sales. Yes you may have someone who just uses a regular echo and doesn't buy a Play:1 or who uses a Dot and avoids having to buy a Connect. So yes you would lose sales there. But when those people purchased those entry level Echo devices..... you just put Sonos capability into probably 10 million homes. When those people decide to go buy a more critical listening speaker where do they then go (Bose....Samsung....Denon) .... they go out and start buying Sonos units. So you may lose several hundered thousand units sold where people didn't buy a Play:1 or Connect. You potentially added millions of units in sales to people who would never have joined the Sonos echosystem.

With Amazon's announcement of the new Echo having multi-room capabilities, you still think Sonos isn't losing sales?

There are probably 2 different markets for these speakers. There is the home theater/stereo market. Then there's the multi-room market. Amazon (Google and Apple too) are taking a large chunk of the multi-room market. If people go to Amazon for the multi-room aspect, then they might be less likely to go to Sonos for the "high end" speaker.

Sonos has quality speakers. But their real selling point, what set them apart form their competitors, was the multi-room aspect. Now I fear they've missed the boat by not getting into voice control sooner and on a larger scale.

With Amazon's announcement of the new Echo having multi-room capabilities, you still think Sonos isn't losing sales?


Actually, the updated the firmware on existing echos, it's not just new echos that can do this.


There are probably 2 different markets for these speakers. There is the home theater/stereo market. Then there's the multi-room market. Amazon (Google and Apple too) are taking a large chunk of the multi-room market. If people go to Amazon for the multi-room aspect, then they might be less likely to go to Sonos for the "high end" speaker.


I don't think it's quite that simple. First off, people have varying levels of quality requirements. That means many won't us echo speakers until they vastly improve the quality. Second, people are going to look for different features in the same speaker system. Meaning, some may be fine with amazon for multi-room, but what it incorporated in home theatre, so opt for sonos. Then there is cost as a factor.

That said, I think you are generally right. There are people who may have gone for sonos that will be satisfied with Amazon echo system now. No doubt. However, I'd argue that Amazon expanded the market and will bring more customers to Sonos that may never have been in the market if it were not for voice control. I'd guess Sonos will gain as many customers as it theoretically loses...if not more.


Sonos has quality speakers. But their real selling point, what set them apart form their competitors, was the multi-room aspect. Now I fear they've missed the boat by not getting into voice control sooner and on a larger scale.

I'd say it is part of it. There is also ease of control and music selection, as well as good quality. Really, sonos was losing some customers to echo before echo went multiroom, just because echo was even easier to control.

If I were to guess who the 'big losers' are in the changes in the audio market, I'd say it's the amp/receiver makers and to a lesser extent, the passive bookshelf speaker makers. That really has been happening for a while as people start using Bluetooth speakers and such.

We might even get the firmware update itself!

On a more general point, why do companies play this cat & mouse game regarding product launches? We are grown ups, so why not just announce what new products you are intending to launch with approximate launch dates so customers know what is coming, what they might buy and when?
Instead we have to make do with gossip, rumour, leaked photos etc. We are treated like children awaiting Christmas and the anticipation of what to expect in terms of presents we may or may not receive.
Do Sonos and other tech companies reap any advantages from this attitude? Even if they do, what about the customer?