Best answer by Ryan S
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Disable Sonos One Alexa from playing a sound when I say "Alexa"
Userlevel 4
I just set up a Sonos One with Alexa and the sound is noticeably better than the Amazon Echo. On the Sonos One though, each and every time I call "Alexa" it plays some kind of acknowledgement tone. When I call my Echo or Dot, thankfully there is no such tone. Is there anyway to disable it?
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Add me as another voice wanting this stupid wake sound removing.
Have just deployed two play ones into the house and the wake tone is awful. It interrupt commands when you don't pause after saying the wake word and spoils the whole alexa experience.
Looking at how easily this could be fixed, and how long it's been going on for, I would agree with others that Sonos has no intention of changing this behaviour.
I was intent on using my existing 1's to form stereo pairs and more zones and replacing them with the new "ones" to expand Alexa control zones, but I certainly won't be doing that if this stupid wake sound persists. I'll buy more echo dots instead and second hand 1's off eBay.
Have just deployed two play ones into the house and the wake tone is awful. It interrupt commands when you don't pause after saying the wake word and spoils the whole alexa experience.
Looking at how easily this could be fixed, and how long it's been going on for, I would agree with others that Sonos has no intention of changing this behaviour.
I was intent on using my existing 1's to form stereo pairs and more zones and replacing them with the new "ones" to expand Alexa control zones, but I certainly won't be doing that if this stupid wake sound persists. I'll buy more echo dots instead and second hand 1's off eBay.
Userlevel 6
+9
The Sonos One wake sound is the same one employed by Amazon's Echo devices, the only difference being that on those devices it is turned off by default. Of course, the fact that Sonos didn't choose the wake sound doesn't make it any less clunky or annoying, and like a great many others I am eager to have the option to disable this feature.
As to "how easily this could be fixed," that may well depend on Amazon, not Sonos. Amazon has very strict licensing agreements in effect for any device and/or application that uses Alexa technology. It has already been noted (see link below) that those agreements limit such things as only having "Alexa" as the wake word. Thus it wouldn't surprise me to learn that Amazon also mandates use of a wake sound if and/or when other notifications (such as a light) are deemed insufficiently prominent to notify users that Alexa is listening.
With that said, Sonos seems well aware that having the ability to disable the wake sound is perhaps the single most common request by Sonos One users, and it seems unlikely to me that Sonos "have no intention" of finding a solution that will satisfy both users and the Amazon Gods. For now, we can only keep asking .... :D
https://en.community.sonos.com/amazon-alexa-and-sonos-229102/sonos-one-alternate-alexa-wake-word-change-6797113/index1.html#post16187737
As to "how easily this could be fixed," that may well depend on Amazon, not Sonos. Amazon has very strict licensing agreements in effect for any device and/or application that uses Alexa technology. It has already been noted (see link below) that those agreements limit such things as only having "Alexa" as the wake word. Thus it wouldn't surprise me to learn that Amazon also mandates use of a wake sound if and/or when other notifications (such as a light) are deemed insufficiently prominent to notify users that Alexa is listening.
With that said, Sonos seems well aware that having the ability to disable the wake sound is perhaps the single most common request by Sonos One users, and it seems unlikely to me that Sonos "have no intention" of finding a solution that will satisfy both users and the Amazon Gods. For now, we can only keep asking .... :D
https://en.community.sonos.com/amazon-alexa-and-sonos-229102/sonos-one-alternate-alexa-wake-word-change-6797113/index1.html#post16187737
I just simply cannot believe you all did this! How absolutely terrible and antiquated feature! I am actually going to return this device to Best Buy and go back to a PLAY:1 and echo dot combo which I wanted to clean up with this new and great device. FAIL!
Userlevel 1
My first post here. Please enable option to disable wake chime. Also, please be more responsive to customers. There’s few things that savvy consumers hate more than fake customer service that exists to temporarily placate rather than actually solve issues.
Absolutely gutted. Just being staying at a friend's house and loved the play 1 / echo for user experience. Thought I was really smug setting up my house with 7 of the new integrated Alexa sonos ones. Not only is the response sound annoying (particularly unecessary and irritating when jus skipping tracks) but you can't speak fluidly to it anymore. These are going straight back to John Lewis tomorrow. Ridiculous.
Userlevel 1
Please disable this annoying beep. Not only does it fluctuate with the last set volume, it interferes with my ability to say the command because the Sonos hears the beep instead of me.
This should be a quick fix and I can't believe it hasn't been corrected yet.
Come on!!!Hi Ryan S have you already heard back from the team? Very curious to understand expected timeline to implement. Does not seem to be a very big change but more/less a small software update isn't it?
There isn't any official word yet, but I'll let you know if there's anything to share. We'll make sure the team knows the level of interest that we're hearing from you all too.
Still waiting...
This should be a quick fix and I can't believe it hasn't been corrected yet.
Come on!!!
There isn't any official word yet, but I'll let you know if there's anything to share. We'll make sure the team knows the level of interest that we're hearing from you all too.
Still waiting...
+1 for this from me too. I’ve just bought a pair of these and having being a year long user of the Alexa services before - it’s making it very hard to like the experience. Ive always felt one of the great advantages I feel of the voice UI on the Echo vs other voice assistants is there is no tone that interrupts your naturally spoken request. With the tone at whatever volume the speaker is set at, sadly it’s like being rudely cut off each time you try and make a request.
I agree with this, that tone is very annoying and i feel like I’m being interrupted every time i try to give an Alexa command
Mine even beeps randomly during the day as if I’ve said ‘Alexa’ but I haven’t. It’s hearing Alexa when similar words are spoken on the television and it’s bloody annoying!
The excuse given 4 months ago was:
"Since the Sonos One doesn't have the light ring that you might find on the Echo Dot, the tone was enabled so that you know when the Sonos One heard you and when it's communicating with the cloud."
I mean if only there was something like an LED built into the top of the unit that was able to light up green, orange or white.
If only it wasn't such a huge and ambitious technical ask for an LED to cycle through those colours to give a visual indication like on the echo devices.... :8
"Since the Sonos One doesn't have the light ring that you might find on the Echo Dot, the tone was enabled so that you know when the Sonos One heard you and when it's communicating with the cloud."
I mean if only there was something like an LED built into the top of the unit that was able to light up green, orange or white.
If only it wasn't such a huge and ambitious technical ask for an LED to cycle through those colours to give a visual indication like on the echo devices.... :8
Any further updates on this from Sonos or are the developers busy working on something else that they choose to prioritise over the single biggest complaint about the Sonos one?
Userlevel 1
Seriously.... WTF SONOS
Userlevel 1
we do not know if Amazon limits Sonos here.
All we now is there is a stupid sound that needs to be removed ASAP
Like others said..... i still have 25 days to return the ONE to Bestbuy Will do so...and keep my 49$ DOT
Userlevel 6
+9
Follow-Up mode can be disabled for any individual device in the Alexa app under Settings. As there are two entries for each Sonos One, be sure to choose the Alexa device, not the speaker.
Userlevel 6
+9
Interesting. The option is definitely there in my app (on Android). Either way, I'm sure it's a relief have that turned off.
Userlevel 1
Not entirely true. We do know that Amazon requires Alexa-enabled devices to provide notification when Alexa is listening. What we do not know, is what Amazon considers an adequate level or form of notification. It is also clear that the partnership between Sonos (and other manufacturers of Alexa-enabled devices) is not an equal one, with Amazon dictating what Sonos can and cannot do with Alexa. For example, up until recently, Amazon required that all Alexa-enabled devices only use "Alexa" as a wake word, just an example of how determined Amazon is to control its brand.
The wake-up sound on the Sonos One is the same one that Amazon uses on it's own Echo Devices, except that the sound on those devices is disabled by default. All any of us are asking is to have the same option on the Sonos One, because we all agree that the current sound is annoying, clunky and overkill for its intended purpose. (BTW, my previous comment notwithstanding, I doubt Sonos could use a different sound if it wanted to do so.)
Along the lines of what Chris has said, the way the partnership is with Amazon, Sonos can't make quick, unilateral changes. I'm optimistic enough to think a change to the wake sound is coming, but I don't know that it will happen as quickly as any of us would like.
thanks for those informations !
So what it miss from The Alexa echos:
1. Room awareness ( ''Alexa light on'') .
2. Not beeping every time a say Alexa in whatever room.
3. Ability to completely disable that sound.
4. Boost Sonos mic sensitivity to make it equal to the dot.
5. Enable ducking on the one when i say Alexa and music is playing on ( do not know if it is just me but when i listen to music, the sonos one sound do not lower itseft like other Sonos speaker i have.) ( some people may want to disable ducking too.)
6. Ability to call the Alexa in Sonos one.
So ... just make it act as an original echo..
Just bought the play one and that tone is immediately annoying enough for me to search on how to disable it. Please can we have an update Sonos?
Adding my name also to either change or mute/disable the incredibly annoying response chime. Hard to believe that the finished product went out like this!
Thanks for reaching out!
Please Please Please - give us a way to bring an end to the request sound ... there is absolutely no need for this - AND tell me how to disable Alexa altogether (I'll go back to using a dot for Alexa functions - Sonos One can be a speaker-only until you offer a fix). Honestly - - I've gone all-in with Alexa - but I CANNOT recommend the Sonos One until the user has control over this nuisance
Unbelievable. 5 months.... unbelievable
* 30 years later *
Hey guys any updates on this suggestion that a huge amount of people wanted to happen to sonos one?
* 30 years later *
Hey guys any updates on this suggestion that a huge amount of people wanted to happen to sonos one?
I believe it is time to start a petition to disable the chime or create a toggle. I want to love my Sonos one, BUT I don't. My guess is that the rewrite of the code is so difficult for them thus costly, so they just don't want to do it.
As has been repeatedly pointed out here, Sonos must conform to Amazon's requirements in it's implementation of Alexa on the Sonos One. One of those requirements is that any Alexa-enabled devices must provide the user with an adequate notification whenever is Alexa is listening for security purposes. The Sonos One currently uses the same tone as Amazon's own Echo devices, although that sound is disabled by default on those devices as they instead rely upon the notification provided by the light ring. Whether the tiny light on top of the of the Sonos One provides an equally acceptable notification in Amazon's view is an open question.
My point is that while I fully agree with you on the need for a toggle, I seriously doubt that the delay in implementing one has anything to do with it being difficult or costly for Sonos to do. Feel free to start a petition if you wish, but I think Sonos is very aware of the widespread popularity of this request and will hopefully find a solution.
If this is an Amazon requirement not much Sonos can do. It is unlikely to be that expensive to provide a toggle option. But Sonos have a long standing stance of not telling their Customers anything in advance, so we will not know what if anything they are doing about this issue until it is fixed (or not).
By all means start a petition but the is no evidence that Sonos take any more (or less) notice of a petition than they do of topics raised here. However, get a few hundred thousand to sign it and things could be different 😉 .
The inability to implement this feature is surprising and frustrating but the lack of clear communication from Sonos re this matter is appalling. It shouldn't be difficult, for a company of this caliber, to follow up and clarify an issue like this in this forum. I'm assuming then that they don't care much about our views. Let's see if we care about Sonos next time we have the need to buy a speaker.
Please sort this out Sonos. It is SO annoying. I also note that on the Sonos One, Alexa is much slower to respond in comparison to my echo or dot. I think this is in part because of the annoying chime. It needs to make that sound and THEN it will start listening. Rather then being able to say "Alexa, what is the time", as i do with the Dot and Echo, I need to say on the Sonos One "Alexa" (wait...) "what is the time". Otherwise she doesn't hear what I say.
Sonos is a premium product, I am not sure why Sonos is putting up with this in the first place (especially when seeing the appetite for this to be amended by their customers) or why they are not breathing down the neck of Amazon getting this fixed. The fact is, Sonos One speaker does not work as well as the Amazon speakers with regards to Alexa.
Also, the chime is just a flat out annoying sound. Please fix this!
Sonos is a premium product, I am not sure why Sonos is putting up with this in the first place (especially when seeing the appetite for this to be amended by their customers) or why they are not breathing down the neck of Amazon getting this fixed. The fact is, Sonos One speaker does not work as well as the Amazon speakers with regards to Alexa.
Also, the chime is just a flat out annoying sound. Please fix this!
Youve got to wonder how this wake sound got past any qa or beta testing. Given there is a perfectly capable multi colour capable LED on the device, then im not buying the whole "its an amazon requirement" thing, as they could have just had the led cycle colours just like on the echos and dots.
With the advent of siri and further products from google on the horizon, and amazon likely to be refreshing and updating the echo line to cater for tbose who want better audio quality, sonos are staring down the barrel here.
People can laugh and scoff at that if theh want, but the main complaints here relate to how poor and half baked the alexa implementation. So it very much is a race between sonos sorting the alexa implementation and amazon sorting the audio quality. Or some blindside from apple or google. The first one to sort this will be the VHS. The others will be the betamax.
Sonos have a headstart as they already have penetration into the home and a firmware update could fix several of the major issues. For them to ignore this for months on end, giving the competition time to fix their failings seems daft to me.
With the advent of siri and further products from google on the horizon, and amazon likely to be refreshing and updating the echo line to cater for tbose who want better audio quality, sonos are staring down the barrel here.
People can laugh and scoff at that if theh want, but the main complaints here relate to how poor and half baked the alexa implementation. So it very much is a race between sonos sorting the alexa implementation and amazon sorting the audio quality. Or some blindside from apple or google. The first one to sort this will be the VHS. The others will be the betamax.
Sonos have a headstart as they already have penetration into the home and a firmware update could fix several of the major issues. For them to ignore this for months on end, giving the competition time to fix their failings seems daft to me.
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