To homepage To homepage
Answered

Changing Alexa wake word

  • 6 February 2019
  • 25 replies
  • 8147 views
U
Userlevel 2
Are there plans to be able to change the Sonos One wake word? My daughters name is Alexa, so it's not practical to have it as the wake word ( I don't need two people telling me that they "don't know that one")
icon

Best answer by Keith N 6 February 2019, 20:37

Hi there, User96576. There are no plans to change the Sonos One wake word at the moment, while I can absolutely understand how that can be a bit impractical. I am happy to forward this as a feature request along to the team for consideration and visibility, however.

Thanks for reaching out!
View original

25 replies

Keith N
Userlevel 7
Badge +19
Hi there, User96576. There are no plans to change the Sonos One wake word at the moment, while I can absolutely understand how that can be a bit impractical. I am happy to forward this as a feature request along to the team for consideration and visibility, however.

Thanks for reaching out!
HomeBass: Boost, Play:1, Play:5 (x3), One (x4), Beam (x2), Sub (x2), Connect (x2) [Line Out: Pioneer DJM-850W -> KRK Rokit 5 (x2)], Connect:AMP [Input: Computer Audio / Speaker Out: Klipsch R-15M (x2)]
J
Perhaps you could change your daughter's wake word?

If you bought from Sonos and are within the returns period, why not swap it for a Play:1 and buy an Echo Dot? You would lose Airplay 2 compared with the Sonos One, but if that doesn't matter to you it is worth considering.
M
Userlevel 1
Badge
My daughter is also called Alexa so we have the voice activation turned off. I believe the echo has various wake words. Why wouldn’t Sonos add the same feauture?
Mackan1
Userlevel 1
Badge +1
This need to be addressed. please bring in different wake words. i can see amazon own devices are able to do this.
K
Userlevel 4
Badge +4
Agree with John. If you can't change the wake word, seems like the obvious solution is to change your daughter's name instead. Maybe you can name her Hey Google 😃
T
Userlevel 2
Badge +1
The Alexa wake words are: Alexa, Amazon, Computer, Echo. And no option to add your own.
K
Userlevel 4
Badge +4
The Alexa wake words are: Alexa, Amazon, Computer, Echo. And no option to add your own.I'm really not sure what the point of your post is. The is the Sonos Community. On Sonos, the Alexa wake words are: Alexa. No options at all
K
We have four Sonos One boxes with Alexa. Our problem is that if you say "Alexa" in one room, it's often overhead by a box in another room. So limiting to one wake word makes it hard to own multiple.
K
Userlevel 4
Badge +4
We have four Sonos One boxes with Alexa. Our problem is that if you say "Alexa" in one room, it's often overhead by a box in another room. So limiting to one wake word makes it hard to own multiple.Hmmm that's strange. I have 12 Ones. When I say Alexa, a whole bunch of them light up, but the one that I'm looking at is almost always the one that actually answers me.
Ken_Griffiths
KevHudThom,

I have numerous Amazon/Sonos devices throughout my home, with voice services and all are called Alexa. Those that hear me, will wake-up (I have switched off their chime sound), but a majority of the time it’s the closest one only that responds to the instructions that follow the wake word. Because the chime is switched off, I never really hear the others listening out for the instruction and because they’re usually in another room I don’t see their LED light either.

So having them all called the same name (Alexa) is not really an issue, for me at least.
U
Please prioritize allowing all the wake words available to other Alexa devices! This was a nasty surprise immediately after setting up my One. Such a let down when I asked "Computer" to turn on the lights and dumb silence. Then the real depression hit when I opened the Alexa settings for the One to see them sparse and substandard. I normally associate perfection with Sonos, you can still fix this!
Ken_Griffiths
Please prioritize allowing all the wake words available to other Alexa devices! This was a nasty surprise immediately after setting up my One. Such a let down when I asked "Computer" to turn on the lights and dumb silence. Then the real depression hit when I opened the Alexa settings for the One to see them sparse and substandard. I normally associate perfection with Sonos, you can still fix this!
I believe that this is an Amazon restriction, rather than anything Sonos are doing. So it maybe best to canvass Amazon to do this piece of work.
O
Just purchased a Beam for the bedroom. This is my issue...

We have a large home and we use Alexa as an intercom system. So when I am in my bedroom and I say, "Alexa drop in on Madison," I can have a convo without yelling, screaming, and/or leaving my room. I initially had a dot in my bedroom and two Sonos Play1s, so this was fine. Even with my new beam, that as I just learned CAN'T MAKE CALLS (the functionality I use most for Alexa in the bedroom), I have to keep the Echo Dot in place. Unfortunately when I say Alexa they BOTH ANSWER! I need to change the Beam's wake word so it doesn't respond and I can still have an intercom.

My current count on Sonos/Alexa integration is 2 STRIKES. And we are currently over a year into the release of the Beam and this has yet to be addressed. COME ON FOLKS!!!!
melvimbe
Userlevel 7
Badge +21
Just purchased a Beam for the bedroom. This is my issue...

We have a large home and we use Alexa as an intercom system. So when I am in my bedroom and I say, "Alexa drop in on Madison," I can have a convo without yelling, screaming, and/or leaving my room. I initially had a dot in my bedroom and two Sonos Play1s, so this was fine. Even with my new beam, that as I just learned CAN'T MAKE CALLS (the functionality I use most for Alexa in the bedroom), I have to keep the Echo Dot in place. Unfortunately when I say Alexa they BOTH ANSWER! I need to change the Beam's wake word so it doesn't respond and I can still have an intercom.

My current count on Sonos/Alexa integration is 2 STRIKES. And we are currently over a year into the release of the Beam and this has yet to be addressed. COME ON FOLKS!!!!


For your scenario, you may want to just turn off the mic on the beam. You can setup an alexa group so that requests to play music in that room will always play on the Beam. The only downsides to this is that you don't hear alexa speak through the Beam, and you can't control the tv on/off through the Beam, if those features matter to you.
Danny
K
Userlevel 4
Badge +4
Just purchased a Beam for the bedroom. This is my issue...

We have a large home and we use Alexa as an intercom system. So when I am in my bedroom and I say, "Alexa drop in on Madison," I can have a convo without yelling, screaming, and/or leaving my room. I initially had a dot in my bedroom and two Sonos Play1s, so this was fine. Even with my new beam, that as I just learned CAN'T MAKE CALLS (the functionality I use most for Alexa in the bedroom), I have to keep the Echo Dot in place. Unfortunately when I say Alexa they BOTH ANSWER! I need to change the Beam's wake word so it doesn't respond and I can still have an intercom.

My current count on Sonos/Alexa integration is 2 STRIKES. And we are currently over a year into the release of the Beam and this has yet to be addressed. COME ON FOLKS!!!!
Seems like, if you can't change the wake word for your Beam, the obvious solution would be to change the wake word for your Echo. What happens at strike 3 btw?
O
Let’s get a Sonos- it has great sound and all the features of Alexa too!

We can talk to each other in different rooms! We can change the wake word!
Life will be better and not frustrating!

Should have saved £20 on each and chosen the dumb version...
F
I have a number of Alex devices and multiple devices pickup when I say hey Alexa. It is now limiting my ability to purchase more Sonos devices.

Please allow me to customize this (as is possible for Echo devices already)
G
My wife's first name is Alexia. Please implement this feature!
T

I agree with FlyingPiggy, gregoirer and everyone else above.

Allow us to change Alexa wake word as is possible for Echo devices already,

“hey Alexa, tell Sonos to get with it and fix this”

 

N

Plus 1 to be able to change the Wake Word. Please & Thank you. 

B

Just add this already. I'm debating between Sonos and Sennheiser and will get whichever allows me to say "computer", as I hate branding.

M

I have a number of Alex devices and multiple devices pickup when I say hey Alexa. It is now limiting my ability to purchase more Sonos devices.

Please allow me to customize this (as is possible for Echo devices already)

I am right there with you. I was in love with the Sonos at first and was even mote excited to hear Alexa integrated with it. However, since the limited customizable features (i.e. wake word change, Alexa on Sonos Beam ONLY with surround sound setup, etc), it has halted my purchases with Sonos products.  

S

For me, the wake word has an ethical importance. It should be something machine-specific, like “computer”. Amazon was enlightened when it allowed for this, but as users of a third-party product it makes me think of that meme that says “If something is free, you are the product”. Except that we pay a high price for Sonos hardware, and as such we should not be forced to repeat Amazon’s moniker as if that was the price to pay to use this technology.

Changing the wake word has actually been possible for a third-party for many years. Companies like Kitt.ai offer a way to implement it. If Sonos wanted this, they would already have done it, maybe purchasing Kitt.ai like they recently purchased Snips?

S

+1 for the feature request 

Please enable changing of the wake word.

I’ve just bought a Sonos One to replace the Echo in our kitchen (we’ve got a few other Sonos dotted around the house) and in setting it up I was disappointed to discover that we cannot use the same wake word we use for the other Amazon devices around the house (Echo).

I realise that this may be a branding issue with Amazon looking to promote the prominence of their assistant. We don’t use the Google home we bought because we don’t like saying “Hey Google”. 

R

I have the same issue as I have a dot and a Sonos in the same room. Dot is for cooking timer etc. Wife doesn't want to change wake word.   Solution?  Sonos one is back in the box and on way to UPS...

Reply


View real-time service status