This Sonos Support page shows the countries where Sonos supports the Alexa Assistant on their products… this page gets updated from time to time, whenever there is anything to report:
https://support.sonos.com/s/article/3505
Not all countries that have ‘Alexa’ available, are supported on Sonos products and they do show that these assistants are subject to availability at POS, presumably the Amazon infrastructure/public demand has to be in place for that to happen and I suspect Amazon invite Sonos to participate in that Country before they can include the service on Sonos in that region.
You might help things along by letting Amazon know you’re looking for this feature on Sonos products in Belgium.
Just to add too - Sonos very rarely mention their development roadmap in many cases, until such plans/features are in place, tested and ready to be introduced, as things can sometimes change.
Hope that helps.
Hi Ken,
Thank you very much for your quick answer.
Here are some remarks, let me know if I misundestood:
Firstly, from the below thread (3 years ago), I understood that you were working on this already and also that the restriction is on Amazon side since Belgium was not included in the countries that Alexa is supported.
At this point, Alexa is supported from Amazon in Belgium and it seems to me that the Alexa skill is been made (and hence restricted) from Sonos Inc. I might be wrong on this, please do let me know.
In any case, my incentive in opening this thread is to reach out to Sonos and make a request for this feature. I really like this product and it would be amazing if this restriction was lifted now that it seems unnecessary. As it was already mentioned in the previous thread, English would be enough and it is already available in countries less than 100km away.
If possible, please share this feature request with the relevant team and I will follow up closely for any updates on the matter.
Kind regards,
Charis
Ken isn't a Sonos employee. Sonos employees are marked as employees.
Thanks @jgatie.
- I hope I haven’t misled you @ckeramid into thinking I work for Sonos? (… I don’t). I’m another Sonos customer/community member here, like yourself.
I don’t think anyone here is saying Alexa on Sonos in Belgium won’t happen, it’s more the case that if it does happen, then Sonos will usually announce it on that Support link page I posted earlier. Usually Sonos do not announce their development roadmap however, until their own development testing is complete/nearing completion and the feature is about to be launched, so it’s usually a case of wait to see if it does happen.
It will probably only happen however, if the demand/infrastructure is there in Belgium… and that’s why I also mentioned that it might help if your request to have ‘Alexa on Sonos in Belgium’ is also directed towards Amazon Staff aswell… so that ‘both’ concerned parties are aware of the demand for the feature in your country.
Aa sorry @Ken_Griffiths, I indeed though you are an employee.
In this case, it would be good to hear from Sonos’ representative too.
It will probably only happen however, if the demand/infrastructure is there in Belgium….
Regarding this, I am not sure what do you mean. The infrastructure is here. Alexa is available in Belgium since April. You can actually create your own Skill and use it. I also checked the developer guide from Sonos and if they would give access to TTS/STT API, at this point I would built it myself. However, their APIs are limited.
Usually Sonos do not announce their development roadmap however, until their own development testing is complete/nearing completion and the feature is about to be launched, so it’s usually a case of wait to see if it does happen.
In the same way, if they have the skill working for UK, Germany, France (in English) i guess their deployment is pretty much done. Maybe they spend some time for Dutch (French is done too)? In any case, it seems logical to me that if you can lift the restriction in Belgium and operate in English until Dutch is available, it should be done. Localization could take ages to get right and given the initial feedback from Sonos Skill it doesn’t seem that they take their time to really nail functionality (sorry Sonos).
As I mentioned before, I might be wrong in understanding the problem, so I would appreciate feedback from a representative, to really understand the reason for the delay.
Let’s also not forget that Sonos is a quality brand and any purchase is really an investment. If i spend 1K, 2K on a brand I expect a higher level of support and care.
@ckeramid,
It maybe a case of seeing if Sonos Staff respond here, or if you wish, you could chat online, or call, a local Sonos representative via this link below to ask your questions too:
https://support.sonos.com/s/contact
