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Disable Sonos One Alexa from playing a sound when I say "Alexa"


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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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Best answer by Ryan S 29 January 2019, 18:01

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Yessssssss!! Why hasn't this been done? I am returning both of my Sonos ones to Amazon this week because of this. I'll wait until they get this right (or someone else does - I notice a lot more choices are coming by this holiday season).
Come on Sonos, why aren't you listing to your customers feedback?
This has been an ongoing issue for 12 months at least and you've done nothing.
At least Amazon listened and removed the "OK" from the Echos.
Any business that doesn't react to feedback, especially from the very people that keep you in business, is never going to create lasting relationships and lose any potential repeat business.
Can’t believe they haven’t made this an option to turn off and replace with the power light flashing or something. Would be MUCH better. I dont say Alexa, then wait for the tone, then say something... i say it all in one go and I’m talking over the tone which is completely counterintuitive. The tone is also way louder than everything else. You have a problem here, that a lot of people are complaining about, that is connected to other issues (like alexas volume when speaking being too loud). Any chance of sorting it out Sonos? Update would be appreciated....
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+ 1, My shiny new Beam arrived on Saturday, I absolutely love the sound for music and movies, but the loud acknowledgement noise, and Alexa shouting 'PLAYING whatever' at me, currently make the voice control unusable.
Still deciding whether or not this is a deal breaker for me. Reading this thread and seeing how many months people have been begging for a fix is making me lean towards returning it rather than waiting for a fix that may or may not materialise...
+ 1, My shiny new Beam arrived on Saturday, I absolutely love the sound for music and movies, but the loud acknowledgement noise, and Alexa shouting 'PLAYING whatever' at me, currently make the voice control unusable.
Still deciding whether or not this is a deal breaker for me. Reading this thread and seeing how many months people have been begging for a fix is making me lean towards returning it rather than waiting for a fix that may or may not materialise...
I believe it’s called the 'notification tone' by Amazon .. I hate it too. Whilst ideally I would like it gone completely, I wouldn’t mind if I could change it to something like Alexa now uses for 'OK' when the Echo devices are set to 'brief mode'.

Give me 'anything' except the current (aggravating) tone that we have now. ???
I am astonished that this has still not yet been solved.
The notification sound aka "Bong" after the word Alexa makes the integration with Amazon's Alexa system of very low use.

And beware if you havent already bought it - this unit will bong so loudly that it interferes with other Alexa devices from hearing. Also the loud noise makes it's use anywhere near bedrooms pointless.
All SONOS-Alexa products are affected.

I would like to suggest the following:
1. Everyone affected please reply.
2. Everyone who used Amazon to buy their SONOS goes and gives purchaser-confirmed 1-star rated feedback today on the Amazon website - and make it clear we are not sure whether it is SONOS just being ignorant with its community or whether Amazon is behind it.
3. If you bought it elsewhere still give feedback.
4. Also spread the feedback onto the new Bar product.

Fix this SONOS please - I have loads of your products - they are great - but this one was expensive and your reputation with me is in ruins.
This really should be fixed as a priority. Amazon has added brief AND whisper mode to all of their devices.
I'm staggered that this is still unfixed. We've had Beam and a One for a day and already both of us have started to go crazy at what feels like an error tone. Horrible to the point where we're sending the One back.
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I read through this thread and thought it can’t be they bad can it?

Well yes. Yes it is. Especially when follow on is enabled and/or the volume was previously set high or is high.

I gave it a week and decided it’s not for me. Seeing this thread is over a year old with no action, it’s obvious Sonos ain’t going to change anything, so back they go.

Shame as if the alert could be disabled and maybe have an independent volume for Alexa these would have been great.

Echo dot + *insert other speakers here* here we come I guess.
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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.

Anything new to share nearly half a year later, Ryan?
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+1 on this, just got the beam and this is the first thing I want to change. 10 month old topic, not looking hopeful.
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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.

Anything new to share nearly half a year later, Ryan?


Heh. Smooth. Get an email saying my question has been answered linking to the year old post stacked at the top of this thread.

Guess that answers the question tho. Will return, and revisit down the road. Maybe Google will be integrated then as well.

Guess that answers the question tho. Will return, and revisit down the road. Maybe Google will be integrated then as well.

I plan to keep returning to this thread too, as the tone surely must drive everyone 'nuts'. It’s not the most endearing sound to listen to, day in, day out.
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Guess that answers the question tho. Will return, and revisit down the road. Maybe Google will be integrated then as well.


It’s not the most endearing sound to listen to, day in, day out.


That's the thing for me, it's not only untoggleable (new word?), but it's basically an error message sound from Windows 98.
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I'd like to add my voice to the chorus of annoyance at the bong....it actually stops alexa from hearing the command. Just bought the beam as well and am seriously disappointed to learn that this goes back to the Play Ones. It would take virtually no code to allow for this to be disabled. You don't even need to change your apps, how about a command we can speak like "alexa turn that damned noise off!" then push out a firmware update and you are done.
Another person adding to the request that this be sorted please Sonos. I just bought two new Ones. One for the kitchen and bedroom. I had an echo dot in the bedroom previously as my alarm, morning briefing etc. and a play 1 for music. I'm now reverting to the dot and switching off all voice in the One. The chime is the most annoying part but the dsmall led light is a pain too.
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Bing-bong, bing-bong! Who's the sound we hate to hear? Bing-bong, bing-bong! My Sonos One was cool until... BING-BONG, BING-BONG!

Poor little One - you will never be free of this, will you? I know, I know, big Amazon makes you do it. It's OK. I feel sorry for you, but I will likely return you. Your audible burps are destroying the peaceful soundscape you were bought to provide.
Fix this. Just fix it. Hundreds of messages asking for it, 5 minutes of a programmers time to fix.

STOP THE ALEXA BONG

#sonos #sonosone #stopthebong
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Fix this. Just fix it. Hundreds of messages asking for it, 5 minutes of a programmers time to fix.

As has been discussed here many, many times, the decision is probably not up to Sonos. Amazon chose that sound (it's off by default their devices) and most likely decides who has to use it and when. I suspect that the little light on Sonos One isn't sufficient to satisfy Amazon that users will know when the Sonos One is listening.

But yeah, I hate it too. 😃
Personally I’m holding out for the long awaited Google Assistant integration then I can lose the bongs and Alexa altogether..... yeah I know......
It might be an Alexa noise, but Sonos can implement a visual indication instead of it. On the Alexa supporting UE Blast devices the power light indicates whether Alexa is listening. Sonos One's have a light on the top that can vary in brightness and colour and this could be used as a visual indicator instead of the annoying bong.

Fix this. Just fix it. Hundreds of messages asking for it, 5 minutes of a programmers time to fix.

As has been discussed here many, many times, the decision is probably not up to Sonos. Amazon chose that sound (it's off by default their devices) and most likely decides who has to use it and when. I suspect that the little light on Sonos One isn't sufficient to satisfy Amazon that users will know when the Sonos One is listening.

But yeah, I hate it too. :D
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Sonos One's have a light on the top that can vary in brightness and colour and this could be used as a visual indicator instead of the annoying bong.

The Sonos One's already have a light that flashes to indicate when Alexa is listening, so I'm not sure of your point here. The question remains, does Amazon view that light as an adequate indication that the unit is listening? Unlike the UE Blast, many users choose to mount Sonos speakers on the wall or on shelves at or above eye level, which means in many instances the light isn't clearly visible to the user. Amazon is well aware that the press is keen to jump on the slightest suggestion that Alexa is listening to all our terrible secrets without our knowledge, and may be cautious for that reason.

It's also possible that Sonos has just pushed this issue far down the list of concerns. Development does seem to have slowed to a snails pace in the last six months, something I think has disappointed a lot of owners.
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Let me also ask for a solution to this issue. Correct me if wrong, but there is already an indicator other than the 'bong' after initiating the Alexa command. For my unit, I see the center light also change state. Also when processing the command, the light is blinking. Should be able to turn off the sound as an option. Also, when using a command to control a home smart device, there is a secondary, closing sound that also bongs. Can that possibly also have an option of sounding?

Thank you guys. Have to admit that the product is good but that little 'feature' really detracts greatly.
Yes - please get rid of it. It even interferes with Alexa hearing commands in a different room. I got the ONE specifically because I could not put a DOT or echo in the bathroom.
I just bought my first Sonos products (Beam + Sub). I have a lot of echo/smarthome devices, and went with the beam specifically for it's Alexa support. So far I'm very disappointed... This inability to disable the chime is just one of many issues I've discovered with the Beam compared to Amazon's echo devices. This should be a trivial fix, it's pretty sad when I google the issue the first hit is a 10 page long, year old forum thread of requests to enable this option.