New Skill Enables Managing Groups of Sonos Speakers with Alexa

  • 19 September 2018
  • 31 replies
  • 9401 views
R
Userlevel 2
I've created the Speaker Groups Alexa skill (https://skills-store.amazon.com/deeplink/dp/B07HGQGT6P?deviceType=app&share&refSuffix=ss_copy) that allows you to group your Sonos speakers together through Alexa! Let me know if you run into any issues with it.


Some example interactions
Change Groups

"Alexa, ask speaker groups to play the living room in the master"
"Alexa, ask speaker groups to stop the master bedroom"

Create Scenes of Speakers
"Alexa, ask speaker groups to create a master group"
"Alexa, ask speaker groups to add the Master Bedroom to the master group"
"Alexa, ask speaker groups to add the Master Bathroom to the master group"
"Alexa, ask speaker groups to group the master speakers" or "Alexa, ask speaker groups to play in the master"
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31 replies

B
Userlevel 1
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Thanks for the skill. I just replaced our older Samsung soundbar with a Beam, and this skill is a decent (if wordy) workaround for the Beam's lack of automatic regrouping after turning off the TV. I just wish that Sonos would step up their game and remove the need for extra skills on top of the official Sonos/Alexa integration.
UKMedia
Userlevel 7
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Thanks for the skill. I just replaced our older Samsung soundbar with a Beam, and this skill is a decent (if wordy) workaround for the Beam's lack of automatic regrouping after turning off the TV. I just wish that Sonos would step up their game and remove the need for extra skills on top of the official Sonos/Alexa integration.
Have you set the preferred speaker within your Alexa Group for the Beam?
Remember: Sometimes Red Wine helps :)
B
Userlevel 1
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Thanks for the skill. I just replaced our older Samsung soundbar with a Beam, and this skill is a decent (if wordy) workaround for the Beam's lack of automatic regrouping after turning off the TV. I just wish that Sonos would step up their game and remove the need for extra skills on top of the official Sonos/Alexa integration.Have you set the preferred speaker within your Alexa Group for the Beam?

I have, but Alexa's grouping ability via "preferred speakers" doesn't do the job for us. I can't get the grouping to occur unless all the speakers in the "preferred" list are currently stopped. If anything is playing on any of them, no grouping occurs. Moreover, making a request on the silent, ungrouped Beam causes music to change in the other rooms while leaving the Beam still silent. And it's not unique to the Beam -- the same thing happens if you manually ungroup a different speaker and then make an Alexa "play" request on it. This behavior might well be intentional, so that one person's request doesn't inadvertently "steal" speakers from another family member's active group. But it's not useful for what we want.
UKMedia
Userlevel 7
Badge +20


Thanks for the skill. I just replaced our older Samsung soundbar with a Beam, and this skill is a decent (if wordy) workaround for the Beam's lack of automatic regrouping after turning off the TV. I just wish that Sonos would step up their game and remove the need for extra skills on top of the official Sonos/Alexa integration.Have you set the preferred speaker within your Alexa Group for the Beam?I have, but Alexa's grouping ability via "preferred speakers" doesn't do the job for us. I can't get the grouping to occur unless all the speakers in the "preferred" list are currently stopped. If anything is playing on any of them, no grouping occurs. Moreover, making a request on the silent, ungrouped Beam causes music to change in the other rooms while leaving the Beam still silent. And it's not unique to the Beam -- the same thing happens if you manually ungroup a different speaker and then make an Alexa "play" request on it. This behavior might well be intentional, so that one person's request doesn't inadvertently "steal" speakers from another family member's active group. But it's not useful for what we want.
I must admit that I've got in to the habit of stopping music in a sub group before making a request that will enlarge the Group - not ideal I accept. I don't have my Beam connected at present as packing for a house move 😞 but if music is not playing, my preferred speaker settings will add missing players to a reduced Group to create the required Superset.

Do you have TV outputting on the Beam at the time of the request?
Remember: Sometimes Red Wine helps :)
B
Userlevel 1
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The TV (Samsung Series 😎 is turned off and the Beam speaker on the "Rooms" page of the Sonos app shows no activity.
UKMedia
Userlevel 7
Badge +20
The TV (Samsung Series 😎 is turned off and the Beam speaker on the "Rooms" page of the Sonos app shows no activity.
I have an ongoing issue at the moment whereby my Sonos One's, Echo Dot and Echo Show 5 use the preferred speaker setting but my Echo Show doesn't. I wonder if this is related? I'm awaiting some feedback, I'll post the result on this thread when I receive it.
Remember: Sometimes Red Wine helps :)
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