Also, i find that after i have Alexa play a sirius station in a particular room, if i try to play that same station in another room using the Sonos App, the station is blocked. Any way around this? Thanks!
Best answer by Chris
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Controling Sonos w/ Echo Dot
Just bought an echo dot and added my sonos system which consists of in-wall speakers around the house and individual sonos connects. The dot is in the kitchen and when i tell alexa to play something in the kitchen it often times plays thru the dot and not the sonos speakers. How do i correct? I never want music playing thru the dot. Is this issue becuase the Dot and Sonos are both called "kitchen"? Should i relabel one? If so, which one?
Also, i find that after i have Alexa play a sirius station in a particular room, if i try to play that same station in another room using the Sonos App, the station is blocked. Any way around this? Thanks!
Also, i find that after i have Alexa play a sirius station in a particular room, if i try to play that same station in another room using the Sonos App, the station is blocked. Any way around this? Thanks!
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Userlevel 7
+22
Amazon updated the ability on this recently - so its not documented from Sonos yet. But here is how I got it to work
Go into your Alexa app …. click on the devices icon (the little house looking icon bottom right)
Hit the + button on the top right to create a group
Click Add group
Give the Group a name like "Kitchen Group"
Hit next and pick the echo dot your using in the kitchen
Hit next and the group is created
Now click on the group and you will see at top your Alexa device in the group. Click edit at top right and add the Sonos unit to the group as well.
Next in the category that says Preferred Speaker - click setup. You will choose your Sonos speaker here as well.
So now your grup shows the Alexa and the Sonos speaker as devices in the group and under preferred speaker it says the Sonos speaker.
You should be good to go now!
Go into your Alexa app …. click on the devices icon (the little house looking icon bottom right)
Hit the + button on the top right to create a group
Click Add group
Give the Group a name like "Kitchen Group"
Hit next and pick the echo dot your using in the kitchen
Hit next and the group is created
Now click on the group and you will see at top your Alexa device in the group. Click edit at top right and add the Sonos unit to the group as well.
Next in the category that says Preferred Speaker - click setup. You will choose your Sonos speaker here as well.
So now your grup shows the Alexa and the Sonos speaker as devices in the group and under preferred speaker it says the Sonos speaker.
You should be good to go now!
You need to give them unique names. You can also set a default speaker for the Dot, so that all music commands will default to the Sonos. This is done by:
1) In the Alexa app, if you haven't already, make a group for the room you are setting up.
2) Select that group, then choose the Alexa device associated with that room by tapping "Alexa".
3) Again from the group menu, scroll down to "Preferred Speaker", tap and choose the Sonos device(s) you wish to assign to the room.
After that, saying "Alexa, play smooth jazz" will play smooth jazz on the assigned Sonos, not on the Dot.
Chris beat me to it. 😠
1) In the Alexa app, if you haven't already, make a group for the room you are setting up.
2) Select that group, then choose the Alexa device associated with that room by tapping "Alexa".
3) Again from the group menu, scroll down to "Preferred Speaker", tap and choose the Sonos device(s) you wish to assign to the room.
After that, saying "Alexa, play smooth jazz" will play smooth jazz on the assigned Sonos, not on the Dot.
Chris beat me to it. 😠
Userlevel 7
+22
I have my Sonos units called the real name and my alexas called "Room" in front of name
ie. My kitchen has my Sonos unit "Kitchen" and my Alexa device "Room Kitchen"
I found this best way especially when using intercom between Alexa devices. So to call my kitchen via Alexa intercom I can say "Alexa drop in on room kitchen"
It flow well that way. And I don't have to have a long name in the Sonos app or if sending music to a specific Sonos speaker.
…. then of course with Hue lights it gets more complicated.
ie. My kitchen has my Sonos unit "Kitchen" and my Alexa device "Room Kitchen"
I found this best way especially when using intercom between Alexa devices. So to call my kitchen via Alexa intercom I can say "Alexa drop in on room kitchen"
It flow well that way. And I don't have to have a long name in the Sonos app or if sending music to a specific Sonos speaker.
…. then of course with Hue lights it gets more complicated.
Thanks everyone! So, when looking at my device list, i see my sonos rooms listed twice, once with an "echo dot" looking icon and another with a speaker looking icon. Why are there both and which am i grouping?
Userlevel 7
+22
You should only have 2 when you have a Sonos unit with Alexa built in (like Sonos One). If you Alexa unit has the same name as the Sonos they will both show but of course the Alexa unit won't have the speaker icon beside it.
To keep things clean I like to go into Alexa settings..device settings....and all my Alexa receiving units I like to call "Room" and name. Like "Room Kitchen" for the alexa device and "Kitchen" remains the name of my Sonos device. Keep the two names seperate. Also allows me to still use the intercom feature on my dots around house as I then just say "Alexa drop in on room kitchen". Flows well and gives my Alexa devices a name different from the Sonos speaker to make less confusing.
To keep things clean I like to go into Alexa settings..device settings....and all my Alexa receiving units I like to call "Room" and name. Like "Room Kitchen" for the alexa device and "Kitchen" remains the name of my Sonos device. Keep the two names seperate. Also allows me to still use the intercom feature on my dots around house as I then just say "Alexa drop in on room kitchen". Flows well and gives my Alexa devices a name different from the Sonos speaker to make less confusing.
Userlevel 7
+22
You want to at a minimum in your room group have 1 Alexa device and 1 Sonos device. You can put in multiple alexa devices if you want multiple ones to interact with the same Sonos speaker(s). You want to put all Sonos speakers you want associated with that Alexa. Right now it appears you can check multiple Sonos speakers then as defaults but from others testing it appears only the last checked defaults to. This may be why we haven't heard any peep about this from Sonos as the functionality still seems to not be completely finished.
My assumption here purely based off of what Sonos has said they are working on and what we see in the Alexa app is:
***note this is my assumption nothing from Sonos has been said on this**
It looks like when function is done specific Alexa devices can be linked to then to play music by default to a specific Sonos speaker or group of Sonos speakers. I would also assume the long awaited ducking fix would entail only the Sonos speakers that have been added as devices in the group to be the ones that duck when a command is spoken.
If they implement this you pretty much nail about 95% of customer requests regarding Alexa functionality when it comes to playing Amazon supported music services. It also allows a primitive way of grouping (there is actually already a more robust way to actually group zones by voice by third party website app). Access to local music / sonos app music would be the missing piece still.
My assumption here purely based off of what Sonos has said they are working on and what we see in the Alexa app is:
***note this is my assumption nothing from Sonos has been said on this**
It looks like when function is done specific Alexa devices can be linked to then to play music by default to a specific Sonos speaker or group of Sonos speakers. I would also assume the long awaited ducking fix would entail only the Sonos speakers that have been added as devices in the group to be the ones that duck when a command is spoken.
If they implement this you pretty much nail about 95% of customer requests regarding Alexa functionality when it comes to playing Amazon supported music services. It also allows a primitive way of grouping (there is actually already a more robust way to actually group zones by voice by third party website app). Access to local music / sonos app music would be the missing piece still.
This is great. Now that i understand this better, what i'm seeing my device list looks like 1 alexa device (sonos connect) and 1 speaker. I only have 1 Alexa Dot but i guess that enables the alexa on the sonos connects??? pics below (had to scroll so there are 2 pics but this is my full device list.
I don't think so. I think just enabling the Sonos skill will do that. Amazon recently changed the Alexa user interface. Before that time, you wouldn't see your connects without cookie-looking icons. We can speculate on why the change, but I've not seen anything official from Amazon on this. It does seem like new functionality has been coming out lately, so it's possible we will know the full reason later in the future.
ok. So, the second part of my original questions was as follows:
Also, i find that after i have Alexa play a sirius station in a particular room, if i try to play that same station in another room using the Sonos App, the station is blocked. Any way around this?
Thoughts?
Also, i find that after i have Alexa play a sirius station in a particular room, if i try to play that same station in another room using the Sonos App, the station is blocked. Any way around this?
Thoughts?
Also, i find that after i have Alexa play a sirius station in a particular room, if i try to play that same station in another room using the Sonos App, the station is blocked. Any way around this?
Thoughts?
If you're playing the same station in two different rooms, using the grouping feature in the Sonos app to group the two rooms together.
Music services, whether XM, Amazon, or other...usually have a terms of service limiting the number of concurrent streams you can have going at one time.
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