Grouping Alexa Echo Speakers with Sonos speakers

Sonos is a business that makes money by selling Sonos speakers. A hugely valuable asset is their patented syncing technology. You are asking Sonos to commit commercial suicide. Forget it

Sonos is a business that makes money by selling Sonos speakers. A hugely valuable asset is their patented syncing technology. You are asking Sonos to commit commercial suicide. Forget it

I disagree but thank you for your opinion, you are entitled to that as am I.

If you take a look at what other companies are doing like sony (LF-S50G) it is a google home enabled speaker (same thing Sonos is trying to do). However, this device can sync up with other google home products using the google home app on your phone. Therefore it is showing how third party speakers can work with other speakers if the have the same AI it just makes sense.

I know that sonos primarily made its purpose to be the best wireless hifi multi room audio speaker company, but with when it comes to adding AI to every speaker and appliances it just makes sense for them to work together. That is all i am pointing out. To ME it makes sense that it should work with others. I am looking to see if others agree.

If i am a new person starting out and i buy all sonos one's that is great, but what if i later want to get into automating lights then i buy an Echo Plus (the new one with zigbee), it is also a speaker. How is it that i won't be able to use that speaker that i just got in conjuction with my other Sonos One speakers.... even though they all speak Alexa??? Riddle me that...

https://www.engadget.com/2016/12/19/google-home-sony-speakers-android-tvs/

here is another article that clearly indicates other companies (again Sony) that are allowing their products that have google home to work with google home products in unison....

The more integration the better. This discussion reminds me of the software industry in the 1980s and 90s. Two emerging database companies took different paths. Oracle integrated w IBM database software. Informix chose to go it alone. Oracle is now worth more than IBM. Ironically, IBM eventually purchased Informix for 1/200th of what Oracle is worth today. Both companies were successful, but Oracle much more so. This is just one data point that shows integration w a large potential competitor is not necessarily suicide and can be the opposite.

My Alexa is in the kitchen. Don't see putting a Sonos speaker in there next to the Alexa. Techno-clutter. Instead I'd like to hear morning news podcasts in both the kitchen and the other rooms at the same time.

I agree that this feature should be in Sonos' development path. No one wants to have multiple devices next to each other (eg: a sonos speaker and a alexa speaker). I would prefer the convenience of being able to treat any speaker in my house as part of my network and be able to control them all by voice commands (Alexa/Google/Siri etc) via Sonos.

In my opinion, if the desire is to be truely agnostic of AI (Alexa, Google Home, Siri, etc.) then supporting other speakers (third parties or by Amazon, Google, or Apple) in unison is a must.

AI is about command/control, at least in terms of these voice assistance. It is not about sharing your patented multiroom audio technology with all your competitors.

Besides that, I am sure that the methodology Sonos uses and Alexa uses are not compatible. More accurately, I would bet the echo devices, particularly the dot, aren't built to handly multiroom the way Sonos does it. I would bet the Sonos devices can do multiroom the way echo's do it, but I don't know that either Sonos or Amazon want to do that;


If i am sonos owner it is obvious i want to use more sonos products together because they are truly sound (no pun intended) and quality speakers, however if I want an AI in my house (alexa for instance) i want it to be supported everywhere even if i invested in an Alexa Echo Plus (for instance).

Sonos has the better speakers right now, but what is stopping Amazon, or Google, or Apple from using it's vast resources to build a better multiroom speaker and push Sonos out of the market?


If you only allow to have Alexa control sonos and all Echo Speakers or other third party speakers are blocked away then you are seriously limiting the user as they will not be able to benefit from let's say buying an Echo Plus (to have a smart home at home) or buying an Echo speaker for a bathroom for instance.


Sure. It would also be great if you could get a google home and an apple homepod and have them all synced together. Are you expecting that to happen as well? Really, Sonos looked out for their customers needs by making all of their existing speakers compatible with Alexa. Asking them to give up their trade secrets so their customers can go out and buy competition speakers...is a bit much.


Apart from supporting grouping among all sonos (which is definitely the first thing that needs to be addressed) you should also address grouping of Alexa speakers.

I see two ways that this ever happens. One, Sonos or Amazon decides to license out their multi-room functionality. I don't really see this happening as it is likely to be less profitable then just selling you're own devices. Two, Sonos gets bought out by Amazon (or one of the others), thus it's in Amazon's best interest to make everything sync together. If that were to happen, you're also unlikely to see Sonos speakers continue to support local files and the vast array of music services, or work with other voice assistants in the future.

Glad to see this is post and discussion in the community. It is exactly the topic that I was coming to pose to the community here. The full breadth of value in this engagement is to leverage as many platforms and devices as possible for Sonos. This will not kill Sonos, and in fact I believe it would actually drive more people to the speaker products. Many of the home AI systems are not built for audio quality, yes they have speakers but they will never compare. Additionally this will bring Sonos app and usage to a broader range of locations (office, patios, neighbors, etc.) where people will be introduced to service more readily.

“Sure. It would also be great if you could get a google home and an apple homepod and have them all synced together. Are you expecting that to happen as well? Really, Sonos looked out for their customers needs by making all of their existing speakers compatible with Alexa. Asking them to give up their trade secrets so their customers can go out and buy competition speakers...is a bit much.”

You can actually now group Echo Speakers together (just like Sonos)...so the above doesn’t really hold true.

I have a Playbar+Sub+2X Play1in the living room, a Play 3 in a small kitchen, an Echo in both the bathroom and bedroom. I can currently group the living room and kitchen together (SONOS), and the Bedroom and bathroom together (2 Echos). It would be nice to be able to pair all four rooms together. Would give clients like myself room to rearrange the speakers (move Play 3 from Kitchen to Bedroom and Bedroom Echo to Kitchen) and truly enjoy SONOS, with the lower quality echo speakers filling in the smaller spaces (Kitchen and Bathroom).

Lastly, I think that SONOS knows that it’s customers will not settle for inferior sound quality (Echo), that’s why SONOS clients pay a premium for premium sound. The notion that by cross integrating Echo will take clients away from SONOS just doesn’t make sense.

Picture attached is a screenshot from the Alexa App where you have the option to group Echos.

“You can actually now group Echo Speakers together (just like Sonos)...so the above doesn’t really hold true.

I have a Playbar+Sub+2X Play1in the living room, a Play 3 in a small kitchen, an Echo in both the bathroom and bedroom. I can currently group the living room and kitchen together (SONOS), and the Bedroom and bathroom together (2 Echos). It would be nice to be able to pair all four rooms together. Would give clients like myself room to rearrange the speakers (move Play 3 from Kitchen to Bedroom and Bedroom Echo to Kitchen) and truly enjoy SONOS, with the lower quality echo speakers filling in the smaller spaces (Kitchen and Bathroom).

Lastly, I think that SONOS knows that it’s customers will not settle for inferior sound quality (Echo), that’s why SONOS clients pay a premium for premium sound. The notion that by cross integrating Echo will take clients away from SONOS just doesn’t make sense.

Picture attached is a screenshot from the Alexa App where you have the option to group Echos.

To add to the above....if anything cross integrating/grouping would open up the market for SONOS...Think of the recent college grad who has 2-3 echos across their home (which they can group)...Cross integration/grouping would allow them to splurge for nicer quality speakers (SONOS) for their living rooms etc. Thus exposing them to the world of SONOS premium sound. Somewhat similar to what happened with me (not a recent college grad)...I owned one ECHO, which I originally thought played great music. I bought one play 1 because it was on sale during Black Friday last year and the rest is history...

2 years ago I splashed out on 3 x sonos ones. I loved them. Last year I splashed out on 3 echo dots for their functionality. Now that echos can multiroom makes me regret a little bit the decision to go sonos. I want a new speaker in my lounge, but I'm tempted to go echo 2 instead of sonos as they seem more future prooc. As I said I love sonos, but I just wish they would multiroom with the more functional echos.

Just got my first Sonos... a ONE. I have several Echos (big and small). The ONE can set a timer and play music, but is otherwise pretty neutered compared to full Alexa functionality. I think this inability for an "Alexa poduct" to play music with other Alexa devices is going to doom my first Sonos to a return. 😞

Agree. Sonos/ Amazon have to try and sort this inter - grouping issue. Christmas day left us additional Amazon echos and I immediately grouped them into an ‘everywhere’ group linked to Amazon Music unlimited.
It is easy to use and works perfectly, all voice activated, no dual apps or skills etc. Also love the ‘drop in’ feature to allow us to speak to teenager 2 flights of stairs up – all is good.

But what about 2 boxes under the Christmas tree of a Play 1 and a Play 3? I have left them untouched, not opened due to concerns of frustrating me by not grouping into the Amazon eco-system (EchoSystem.. :D

Reading various posts here, I understand the only way of doing this is to plug an Echo dot via 3.5mm jack into a Sonos.(inferior quality option? – shouldn’t it be optical /digital/wifi)?

I thought the Echo Dot could connect via Wifi to a nominated Sonos and then be grouped into the Amazon groups but doesn’t seem this is possible and questionable if it will be. If I am wrong about how to link these up – please tell me. I may have misunderstood the ‘Plug an echo dot into a Play5’ comment elsewhere on this community.

Ideally, I would want speakers ‘Amazon certified’ and group-able into the Amazon ‘EchoSystem’. You would think the new Sonos 1 (Alexa enabled natively) would be this product, but it does not group with Echos either. There is talk of a new API to allow Sonos to resolve this but can someone state confidently it will happen?

Sorry to say that the Sonos speakers will be returned unopened 😞 Meanwhile I suppose the £380 can be used to purchase a few more Echos, enjoy the voice activation everywhere and quality is OK for general living in your house activities. Wait until the technology stabilises and try again later.
As someone else stated, if Amazon upgrades the quality of it audio speakers to Sonos levels then I doubt I would look further.