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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Userlevel 1
BONG!!!!! Grrrrrrrrr!!!!!!!
How has this not been fixed yet? It's aesthetically and functionally awful. So incongruous with the rest of Sonos.
Userlevel 1
This problem and and the inability to change wake word are very large annoyances. Sonos please fix!
Adding my vote to this. It’s obnoxious, and should be incredibly easy to create an option to disable.
Yes, it drives me nuts too, but this needs the 'Notification' tone (that's it’s official name) turned off in the Alexa App 'Device Settings' with a toggle switch. The switch is present on all the Amazon echo devices, but it’s not yet in place on the Sonos devices. It’s probably Amazon that need to do this in their Alexa App. Wish they would hurry up and sort it.
Please Sonos. Just fix this. I can’t believe this is a biggy. Got two Sonos Ones this week and it’s driving me nuts. One is permanently mic-muted which is a real shame as the blend of Sonos and Alexa was a huge factor for me...
Honestly, I hate using Alexa with Sonos because of it but I deal because the sonos sound/platform is so superior for streaming music. The chime sound is very loud and grating. When alexa wakes accidentally when we have the volume up from playing music previously it makes the whole room jump. So we mute the mic to prevent this. It might be good for dev testing purposes, but it’s horrible for home use. What’s the point of marketing this feature if customers come to loathe it? I really hope this feature request to simply be able to turn this obnoxious chime off is in the pipeline. If you really want crossovers from voice assistants buying into sonos, this kind of thing is really glaring. I’ve had several guests comment negatively on it almost in the same breath that they compliment the remarkable sound quality and subtle speaker profile. It’s probably cost you 4 new customers just visiting my house.
Add my vote. At least disable, if possible, would also be able to change tone.
I agree with the sentiments expressed by so many; the tone is annoying, it is too loud, it sounds like a Windows error message, it is unnecessary, and it is most unlike Sonos to behave this way. I bought a single Sonos One with the aim of getting more, but I am discouraged by this tone. Although it would be easiest to simply remove the tone why not let users adjust the tone or volume in settings if there is a requirement from Amazon?
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.
No one executes multiroom streaming as well as Sonos. I mean try a HomePod, this just go wrong, Sonos is very realiable. The ecosystem for blending multiroom and home audio is IMO the best as well. That’s why I stay with a device in every room. But this Alexa implementations man, this is such a bonehead move I would jump ship FAST if anyone else stepped up to the plate with a worthy solution. Not a good place to be in as a company if some of your most loyal customers are just waiting to leave.
How is this STILL not addressed? This by far the most annoying and intrusive feature ever. I’m not a moron, if I say Alexa I know the next thing I do is give a command. On top of that if it’s the middle of the night and I ask Alexa something this LOUD sound disturbs my environment. And why does it need to match the speaker volume? Does anyone at Sonos actually use this at home? It’s so poorly thought out. I mean come on guys, this is not cool.
Just got the beam. Would love to be able to turn the sound off.
+1 would be great to turn off the chime
This is extremely disappointing. I’ve had the device for 2 hours, and I hate this feature. How can this many people have the same issue for 6 months and it not be resolved?
Agree with all the others Please provide an option to turn off the tone and also adjust Alexa voice level. WAF has plummeted due to these issues.
Userlevel 4
Please also voice your concerns to Amazon. They have a deserved reputation for acting on customer feedback and I can speak from experience (I used to work there, although not in the Alexa/Echo teams) that Amazon's product managers & engineers care more about customer feedback than any other input.
Use the feedback form in the Alexa app/web interface, let them know that you dislike the sound, and what you'd prefer instead (e.g. option to disable, or to choose a less "error condition" sound). For maximum impact be clear and constructive. You don't have to be brief, but it helps not to obscure your point with waffle.
Bear in mind they may already have a change planned, or at least in their roadmap, but not everything gets to the front of the queue. Volume of feedback is a major way to get a change prioritised.
Use the feedback form in the Alexa app/web interface, let them know that you dislike the sound, and what you'd prefer instead (e.g. option to disable, or to choose a less "error condition" sound). For maximum impact be clear and constructive. You don't have to be brief, but it helps not to obscure your point with waffle.
Bear in mind they may already have a change planned, or at least in their roadmap, but not everything gets to the front of the queue. Volume of feedback is a major way to get a change prioritised.
A
Politely +1, would love to disable this sound/tone
Vumad,
I think you are being a bit unfair in your accusation here against Ryan. It’s clear from his reply, that the Sonos team are aware of this issue, but clearly Ryan cannot say any more about it. It’s quite common knowledge that on June 6th the company announced the new Sonos Beam and in the course of that announcement it was said that AirPlay 2 would be released on Sonos sometime in July (though not necessarily at the same time as the Beam launch date) so I reckon the developers and testers are working on the AirPlay-2 issue at the present time.
It’s clear Sonos can’t provide anything further on the 'voice audio feedback' sound, or 'Boing' as you call it in your post... it probably is a collaborative thing with Amazon, as you say, and these things may need agreement and testing on both sides, but I think it is clear from the announcements made on the 6th, that AirPlay-2 is likely to be the priority at the moment.
I think this calls for a tiny bit of patience, rather than trying to 'shoot down the messenger'. I’m sure Ryan is being as truthful as he can be right now. It’s rather a shame that you don’t believe any of it, particularly when we all know that other 'already announced' things are coming down the track.
I think you are being a bit unfair in your accusation here against Ryan. It’s clear from his reply, that the Sonos team are aware of this issue, but clearly Ryan cannot say any more about it. It’s quite common knowledge that on June 6th the company announced the new Sonos Beam and in the course of that announcement it was said that AirPlay 2 would be released on Sonos sometime in July (though not necessarily at the same time as the Beam launch date) so I reckon the developers and testers are working on the AirPlay-2 issue at the present time.
It’s clear Sonos can’t provide anything further on the 'voice audio feedback' sound, or 'Boing' as you call it in your post... it probably is a collaborative thing with Amazon, as you say, and these things may need agreement and testing on both sides, but I think it is clear from the announcements made on the 6th, that AirPlay-2 is likely to be the priority at the moment.
I think this calls for a tiny bit of patience, rather than trying to 'shoot down the messenger'. I’m sure Ryan is being as truthful as he can be right now. It’s rather a shame that you don’t believe any of it, particularly when we all know that other 'already announced' things are coming down the track.
Just got the Sonos One and the beep drives my dog crazy the same way a thunderstorm does. If this continues it has to be returned.
I read your words Ryan S but frankly I don't believe any of it. If I were a betting man then I'd put my money on this being down to the relationship between Sonos and Amazon, and it's Amazon that want the 'Boing' retained such that a Sonos One is less friendly than an Amazon Echo. As has previously been mentioned, you already flash the top LED when "Alexa" is detected so why does there need to be a 'Boing' at all? An Echo Dot flashes the light but there is no accompanying sound - why can't the Sonos One behave in a similar way? I think we deserve a clear and honest answer on this matter and not "The team is definitely aware of this request and has been looking into it"
Userlevel 7
+26
The team is definitely aware of this request and has been looking into it, but it's not quite at the "we're definitely doing this" stage. I don't have any specifics I can let you in on, but it hasn't been forgotten or disregarded. The development team is working on a lot of things at the moment. I'll let you know if there are any details I can share.
Userlevel 2
+2
I'm sure if Sonos commented something about it (whether it's Amazon's requirement or something that can not be removed because of privacy), but give us an answer. All I want is to be able to change the sound in some way, or disable it, as well as if there is any way to change the wake up word. But an answer like "we are working on it and the team is now informed" it is not the best response.
Userlevel 4
I hate that tone. Not just the fact of it, but also that it sounds very much like an old-school Microsoft Windows error dialog. Please give us the option to disable or change it.
My wife is using Alexa less on the One than on our old Echo because this is so off-putting.
My wife is using Alexa less on the One than on our old Echo because this is so off-putting.
Userlevel 2
Wow - 164 replies so far and that represents the tip of the iceberg of misfeature haters. Hopefully Amazon catches wind of this as it is as much of a black eye on Alexa as it is on Sonos. #stopthebloop
I have a feeling this issue will only be resolved by switching over to the Google voice assistant. Maybe they don't have the same requirements. But at a minimum I won't heard that annoying loud BONG every time I say my daughter's name in the same room, once the wake word is "OK Google." In the meantime my Sonos One is just a dumb speaker linked to my Echo Dot.
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