Skip to main content
So, I know these threads tend to generate some heated debate, but this is my view and my feedback to Sonos. I also know very well what a Beta programme is, and have worked for a major OS vendor and know exactly what good or harm such public betas can do for a product.



I don't think you can call this a beta product. It's more an open Alpha test which IMO is very risky. I get that this whole market is evolving rapidly, and is getting very competitive, so missing out on being there is in itself a risk, but sometimes being open and honest about the problems that are not yours can do wonders for public perception.



I've had Sonos since 2009 and now have a mix of Connects, and Play speakers for different rooms. Most of my listening is via local library, but I do find myself using streaming more and more, with Qobuz being my favourite service. So straight away, I'm at a bit of a disadvantage. I do have limited Amazon music access as any CD's I've bought are mostly available through that, so there's some music available to Alexa.



I now have two Echo Dot devices, thanks to the Sonos discount, and these are in different rooms. I also have other smart devices, including a Logitech Harmony hub and smart lights, and use both Alexa and Siri with Apple homekit, so have a point a reference against which you can compare Alexa function to another voice assistant and smart home eco-system.



My issues are:



1) Multi-room ducking - virtually a deal breaker

2) No room support in Alexa

3) No local library support

4) Limited streaming service support

5) Lack of integration between Sonos One and Play:1



So, that ducking multi-room ducking... It's just awful. Sonos, you have to get Amazon to add proper room support to Alexa. It's quite frankly the most annoying feature you could ever have on a multi-room system, period. One of the things we were looking to do this year was put one of the new Echo's into children's rooms, or maybe even a Sonos One. However, as it stands using a Sonos One would be impossible. Household Armageddon would ensue once the children had a) figured out if they just say "Alexa" that all audio on Sonos in *ALL* rooms goes quiet, and b) got past a) and found that having their music paused every time someone else uses Alexa anywhere in the house is so annoying there is no point using it.



At present the only way around this would be to use one of the new Echo devices with a better speaker than an Echo Dot in the children's rooms, as different echo devices only mute the audio on the device that responds. I don't know if there is an interim way to use Alexa device groups to somehow limit this, but it's a huge problem. Even asking an Echo dot for the weather mutes all Sonos devices. It really does make the Sonos integration a no go in a multi-room system.



Which is where I think the most important thing Sonos can do for both itself and it's users, as well as Alexa users is put as much pressure as you can on Amazon to sort this out. Apple have it sussed with rooms. If Amazon don't do this, it won't just be Sonos that loses out. The current Device Groups are no good if we can't get Sonos and Alexa groups to work together. What you want to do, is in a room where you have Alexa, Sonos and possibly even lights for example, is walk in and go Alexa turn lights on, and Alexa play music and for Alexa to know that it is in a room, and therefore by default should only control the devices in that room. You should be able to then link a Sonos group to an Alexa room. You could then get ducking to work properly by only ducking the Sonos in that room if it is playing.



This should be called out in the release information that at present the Alexa integration is not ready for multi-room systems and place the blame firmly on Amazon's doorstep on lack of proper room support. This is also made worse by some of the limitations on number of streams which again limit the use of this integration in multi-room systems. It really is only usable at present in simple single room setups IMO.



I'm not going to go into too much detail on 3 and 4, we all know that 4 is probably a consequence of the initial deal with Amazon, and that Spotify is likely to follow at some point, but it would be very useful to have local library support, and perhaps some kind of user poll thereafter to determine which streaming services can be support next.



I don't personally buy the excuse that local library support can't happen because the Sonos Cloud has no knowledge of my local library as simple tests show that it clearly can get that information if it wants to. I usually give remastered versions of the same album specific names that I make up. If I start one of these playing in a room with no Alexa device in it, and then from a different room where you cannot hear the music, ask Alexa what is playing in the Sonos room, it tells me exactly what is playing. Even including my naming of the CD, which is completely unique to my local library. So there can be no Shazam type tech in play here, and nothing on Amazon music uses the naming I do. So clearly Alexa has queried my local Sonos system to get the playing track, and if it can do that, I don't really see much difference between that and querying a Sonos device for it's library index, which each device holds in memory. :)



Also, as we get more services enabled, *please* can we have some way to specify a search order preference between those services?



Finally, the lack of Play:1 and Sonos One integration. I don't get this, why would I need or even want two different (maybe more for surround sound) devices in the same room competing with each other to respond to my voice? Surely one device per room is enough, and if, or should I say when, Amazon sort out room integration, I bet one of the scenarios they will struggle with is having multiple 'Echo' devices in one room... Unless it's some kind of huge room, then most people will want just one device that responds. With that in mind, it would make perfect sense to allow a Play:1 And Sonos One to pair. Likewise Play:3 and 5's, although I'd accept that this would only work if the new Sonos Three and Five with voice enablement were very similar to the current Play speakers. (Old Play:5's for example would be out of luck and I have one of those...)



I have some Play:1's in some rooms and there's no way I'm replacing them with a single Sonos One... If I want to voice enable those, then it will be an Echo Dot or other equivalent. However, *if* you could pair a 1 and a One, then I would be tempted to upgrade to voice control by creating stereo pairs. This would add both better sound and voice which would seem like a decent deal. Replacing like for like just for voice control right now is not a compelling upgrade.



Maybe the above would change if and when a Sonos One supports more than just Alexa, but I'm not sure we will ever see Siri on Sonos...



I would however be interested to see Apple Homekit support next now that Apple have dropped the need for the hardware based encryption keys. Better room integration with Sonos groups should be possible, and I find that Siri is far better at interpreting vague requests than Alexa. Many times Alexa gets it very wrong. Siri 9 times out of ten doesn't.



I'm going to end on a small positive for the Sonos/Alexa integration... As I mentioned briefly, I also have a Harmony Hub, and the way you use Alexa to control it is "Alexa - tell harmony to ..." and one of the things you learn with voice control very quickly is that the simpler you can make commands the more likely you are to use it... So a big thumbs up for trying to integrate Sonos with Alexa in a way that is more natural, having to say "Alexa - tell Sonos to..." would get too lengthy. It's just a real shame Alexa isn't up to the same level as Sonos in it's room integration, so at the moment doing this seems to have more severely restricted the experience in the short term. In the longer term I guess we'll see.



I know this is quite long, but it's my impressions of using the new Sonos/Alexa integration in something more complex than a single room environment, and unfortunately, there's a lot of things that need fixing to make it even slightly usable in that scenario... Am waiting expectantly... 😃


I'm going to end on a small positive for the Sonos/Alexa integration... As I mentioned briefly, I also have a Harmony Hub, and the way you use Alexa to control it is "Alexa - tell harmony to ..." and one of the things you learn with voice control very quickly is that the simpler you can make commands the more likely you are to use it... So a big thumbs up for trying to integrate Sonos with Alexa in a way that is more natural, having to say "Alexa - tell Sonos to..." would get too lengthy.




There's a new 'smart home' skill for Harmony that removes the 'tell harmony' bit. The default Harmony skill has a red icon, the better one has a blue icon. It's out in the US as far as I know but in the UK it's currently beta by invite. The blue skill allows you to say "Alexa, turn on the TV" and so on.
Thanks for sharing such a detailed post, Ian! I'll pass on your feedback.



There's a lot of work being done with Alexa and Sonos right now, so you can expect to see some things improving over time. Some features are definitely further out, or not possible, but we'll definitely be adding as much as we can.



I wanted to mention that ducking on the Sonos One doesn't behave the way it does on other Alexa devices. The Sonos One knows when you're talking to it, so that's the only player that'll duck when you're talking to it. As opposed to when you speak to a Dot or Echo in the home, then we don't know which room it's in, so all players duck for a bit.



That's at least the current ducking behavior, they're working on that one right now to try and improve things.



The Sonos One and the PLAY:1 are really different internally, in fact, really only 2 components are the same, the power cord and the base. They have slightly different sound profiles and very different looks, so they weren't really designed to pair together for surround or stereo. We've gotten this request a lot, so it's getting passed up, but we don't have any plans to let you in on if this might happen someday.
Really disappointed with Sonos selling me an integrated Sonos/Alex Sonos: One and not telling me it was an Open Beta ...



I parted with my £199 in good faith and then five days later I get an e-mail telling me that in fact this product is in Open Beta ... that's flaky. As we all no by now, Spotify support is not there, so if you request music it defaults to Amazon Music and 24 hours into using the App I was removing voice services and re-installing as Alexa had "left the building" only to return with a re-install.



They could now regain my trust by being specific and telling me when they intent to release a GA version. And oh, we don't all celebrate Thanks Giving outside of the US ( referred to in the e-mail as "before the holidays" ) so have a think about who your customers are and where they are located ... Marlow 4
Was the fact the Sonos skill says "Beta" when you enable it not enough?
Was the fact the Sonos skill says "Beta" when you enable it not enough?



It doesn't though. The UK Harmony blue skill shows beta clearly next to the icon, Sonos mentions it in the 'about this skill' section.
Excellent 'review', Ian! Your point number 3 is my main gripe. I was led to believe that Alexa was integrated with my SONOS system - which is why I purchased the on offer Dot. Turns out, it isn't really integrated as it cannot access my local SONOS library... My personal music tastes and songs are all on my NAS drive, but I can't play them through Alexa. If I ask for a particular song that isn't available with my Amazon 'prime' subscription, Alexa tells me I can listen to it by purchasing 'Amazon Unlimited'... Why on earth should I pay to be able to listen to music that I already own and have already paid for...???
If I ask for a particular song that isn't available with my Amazon 'prime' subscription, Alexa tells me I can listen to it by purchasing 'Amazon Unlimited'... Why on earth should I pay to be able to listen to music that I already own and have already paid for...???

With Echo/Alexa launched in India just last week, Prime Music is still in the wings although it is available as some sort of beta to Echo devices sold after their official launch here, because the devices come with a free first year subscription - so my question:

1. Isn't there a 250 song library of free uploads available in your Prime subscription?

2. If yes, to some extent isn't your problem addressed by uploading such songs that aren't there in the Prime library? At least to the extent of 250 songs?

3. If yes, can you make playlists in Amazon that have a mix of uploaded songs and those from the Prime library?

4. Finally, can these playlists be voice commanded to start on Sonos?
Can I please ask this community to put pressure for Alexa library access? I’ve spent a lot of money buying and downloading music over 30 years and want to listen to it and not some expensive streaming service!



Please keep the pressure on Sonos to fix this and full integration between all their devices.

Thanks

Nigel 😠
Can I please ask this community to put pressure for Alexa library access? I’ve spent a lot of money buying and downloading music over 30 years and want to listen to it and not some expensive streaming service!



Please keep the pressure on Sonos to fix this and full integration between all their devices.

Thanks

Nigel :@




This is an Amazon restriction and it will get worse as Amazon have just announced that they will be removing the option to upload your music to the Amazon cloud:



http://www.aftvnews.com/amazon-music-no-longer-allows-customers-to-upload-their-own-songs/