Question

Extremely disappointed! Alexa will not read Kindle books on Sonos One!

  • 19 December 2018
  • 7 replies
  • 719 views

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I did not realize when i purchased my four Sonos Ones, a Sub, and a Beam that Alexa would not be able to read Kindle books!

Then, lo and behold, I searched this community and found multiple topics created on this subject, but with very little input from Sonos support staff or from devs. It seems this was promised more than a year ago, and yet with the lack of enthusiasm for this among the Sonos team, I don't see how this will ever happen! The community itself is enthusiastic enough about it, as a quick search brings up numerous threads such as this one:

https://en.community.sonos.com/amazon-alexa-and-sonos-229102/sonos-one-reading-kindle-books-6795260

The Sonos team gave an initial response, but when numerous other members chimed in with their requests for this service, the team fell silent.

It seems I am not the only one who is unpleasantly surprised that their brand new expensive Sonos system cannot read Kindle books. I appreciate that it can now (finally ...) read Audible books, but at the moment I don't want to shell out for an Audible subscription. I have Amazon Prime, and Kindle books support would suit me just fine.

Devs, please stop promising this and make this a true high priority. Thank you.

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7 replies

I did not realize when i purchased my four Sonos Ones, a Sub, and a Beam that Alexa would not be able to read Kindle books!

Then, lo and behold, I searched this community and found multiple topics created on this subject, but with very little input from Sonos support staff or from devs. It seems this was promised more than a year ago, and yet with the lack of enthusiasm for this among the Sonos team, I don't see how this will ever happen! The community itself is enthusiastic enough about it, as a quick search brings up numerous threads such as this one:

https://en.community.sonos.com/amazon-alexa-and-sonos-229102/sonos-one-reading-kindle-books-6795260

The Sonos team gave an initial response, but when numerous other members chimed in with their requests for this service, the team fell silent.


Keith's response was.. Although we do not have an estimated time when this feature could be released, I have forwarded this feature request along.

I'm not seeing how that's a promise or any kind of commitment that the feature would be implimented, as 'could' is not a definitive word. It's also worth noting that Sonos is not in complete control of implimenting any and all features with the Sonos/Alexa integration. Many features have to be agreed upon by Amazon, and at least partially developed by their team.


It seems I am not the only one who is unpleasantly surprised that their brand new expensive Sonos system cannot read Kindle books. I appreciate that it can now (finally ...) read Audible books, but at the moment I don't want to shell out for an Audible subscription. I have Amazon Prime, and Kindle books support would suit me just fine.


Audible on Sonos through voice control was implimented around 6 months ago. I'm not sure that qualifies as 'finally'.


Devs, please stop promising this and make this a true high priority. Thank you.


Again, not a promise. As far as priority, Sonos has to prioritize what is requested through this forum as well as other social media and other customer surveys, not to mention what data shows will generate sales. I have no idea where this feature is on the priority list, but I don't think you can conclude that it should be a high priority based on a limited set of data.

I get the frustration, and it's natural to expect that a Sonos One can do everything an Echo can do, while also doing everything you can do in the Sonos app, but by voice. The reality is that's just not the case. Communication might be better, but people are still going to make the natural assumptions. Maybe there will be a time when all the natural assumptions are true, but this is still very much a new area of development with lots of room to grow.
100% support the post! Sonos is not just another audio device brand, it is an elite name in this industry. When we pay huge amount to purchase it products we expect that it is at par with the latest in the technology. Sonos should work towards getting kindle audible supported. 😠
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melvimbe, whose side are you on?
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melvimbe, whose side are you on?
Just because Danny has a different view to yours, doesn't mean he's on a 'side' or that his opinion is any way less valid.
100% support the post! Sonos is not just another audio device brand, it is an elite name in this industry. When we pay huge amount to purchase it products we expect that it is at par with the latest in the technology. Sonos should work towards getting kindle audible supported. :@
I am afraid you have no idea what 'a huge amount of money' and 'elite' mean in the context of audio equipment. Not that paying any amount of money entitles anyone to a particular feature.

https://www.choicehifi.com/product-category/hifi-new/
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Rather than get off topic here, if anyone supports this feature, you should state this in this thread. Kindle books should be able to be read aloud by Alexa. It would be helpful to the disabled, to the elderly, to children, busy adults, and to many other people. It should be a priority. If you support this feature, please state your views in this thread.  If not in this thread, take the time to call Sonos or write Sonos and let them know that you support this feature. 

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Sorry, missyagogo, but you’ve asked for people to state their view, so I’ll risk doing so and stating my preference:

I would put better home theatre products and features as a much higher priority than Kindle book-reading. 

I’ll even start a new thread on that topic, just to see what views are on that!