New to Sonos or Alexa? How to set up

Google announced some very cool devices today and while they fall short of the home theater experience I have to believe that their own integration with the Google Assistant is spot on.

You're suggesting that Google's integration with Google will be good? Yeah, Amazon's Echo also integrates nicely with Alexa. This isn't an accurate comparison, and I'm doubtful you actually think it is either.

Any "partner" that has you at the bottom of the search list of your own company name clearly shows their level of commitment.

This has nothing to do with search ranking algorithm; it has to do with level of commitment and promotion strategy.

You're being absurd with these statements. It isn't reasonable to expect ecosystem owners to override user preferences, and it'd be objectionable if they did.

It's also such a ridiculous point that you're nitpicking. The search order is your complaint? Well take it up with Amazon.

I'm truly disappointed at how far behind the curve Sonos is

Do tell us who's ahead of them in this space...

I truly appreciate the feedback but the honest truth is that Sonos made this announcement and commitment over a year ago and the "public beta" is truly just an indication of their level of confidence to deliver - not a true public beta.

I seriously have no idea what you're trying to convey here. Maybe if you use honest, truth, true, or truly a few more times I'll get it.

Sonos v8 is a full release. The Alexa skill is a public beta. These are things that are true. What's your point?

Any idea why Spotify isn't working yet? It's the most popular music streaming service. Hopefully, it's added sooner rather than later.

I don't have any insider information, but let me give you the most logical answer.

The Alexa integration launched with the core functionality that Alexa already brings to bear. It makes sense, those would be the easiest things to make work. Everyone who's asked why not Deezer or Napster or whatever... same reason. Maybe in the future Sonos gets it working with them, but frankly maybe not if Alexa never has the control.

In the case of Spotify I have to assume the extra integration that Sonos:Spotify already has is something they don't want to mess up. So rather than hold all of the functionality they will get it next.

Amazon, the owner of the Prime music streaming service, did not enable its primary competitor spotify in this release.....shocker.

Good point, except for Spotify has been available as an option to Amazon Music as the default service on Echo/Alexa devices since early 2016. More likely is the interface requires Spotify's help, and getting three parties to get together to wok on software is like the old adage about monkeys and a football.

@Ryan

I have 5 play1’s and an alexa device for each.

Scenario,

In my bedroom and master bath I have 2 P1’s I ask alexa to play Kings of Leon. That works perfect, so when I leave the room I say alexa pause or stop.

I then walk to my family room, 1 P1 there, I ask alexa, play some reggae it works perfect, but when I head to sonos app, to check things, the speaker menu says bedroom+bathroom (King’s of Leon *no longer playing) I then select the speaker menu on the bottom, and I can see the bars jumping up and down on my family room speaker, but there is no way of actually navigating to that speaker unless I group some speakers to the family room.

Known issue? Or what do you think?
Hopefully you understand.

Great. I am impressed that Alexa/Sonos are trying to integrate. Bugs are expected in Beta. Hopefully in a few weeks/months this will be better. But right now it's pretty useful to use for voice command.

It might be worth removing the Alexa skill and discovered devices and retrying from scratch. Perhaps there's a bug when renaming devices? Something is cached?

I just tried. Dot says "Living Room isn't responding."
It looks like a few people are having similar problems, there's an active thread about it at the moment.

Yes. To clarify, my Dots names are the same as the Sonos, unlike the first person in this thread. Should I add "Dot" to the Dot names? For instance, "Bedroom Dot" for Dot and just "Bedroom" for Sonos?
Yes! They need to have different names :)

EDIT: Also looking at your other replies, you need to make sure you use 'in the Bedroom' or similar for commands like increasing the volume too.

I just tried. Dot says "Living Room isn't responding."

I took your example, but it just plays Heart Radio on my Dot, not in the Sonos speakers.
Have you installed the Alexa skill and linked it to your Sonos account? The same Sonos account used by your speakers?

Yes

I am having issues with music playing over my Echo Dot instead of the SONOS speaker. My SONOS speakers are named as follows: Living Room, Kitchen, Office and my Echo Dots are named as follows: Living Room Dot, Kitchen Dot, Office Dot and Bedroom Dot.

If I look in the Alexa app, the SONOS devices are showing up and names as above, do I need to rename the Echo Dots to solve the problem?

Are you saying the right phrase e.g. ending with 'in the Living Room/Kitchen/Office'?

Yes. To clarify, my Dots names are the same as the Sonos, unlike the first person in this thread. Should I add "Dot" to the Dot names? For instance, "Bedroom Dot" for Dot and just "Bedroom" for Sonos?

I took your example, but it just plays Heart Radio on my Dot, not in the Sonos speakers.
Have you installed the Alexa skill and linked it to your Sonos account? The same Sonos account used by your speakers?

I took your example, but it just plays Heart Radio on my Dot, not in the Sonos speakers.

I am having issues with music playing over my Echo Dot instead of the SONOS speaker. My SONOS speakers are named as follows: Living Room, Kitchen, Office and my Echo Dots are named as follows: Living Room Dot, Kitchen Dot, Office Dot and Bedroom Dot.

If I look in the Alexa app, the SONOS devices are showing up and names as above, do I need to rename the Echo Dots to solve the problem?

I am having this problem as well.

Additionally, when I say "Volume Up/Down in [room]" - my Dot says "[room] isn't responding." Is there a solution?

I am having issues with music playing over my Echo Dot instead of the SONOS speaker. My SONOS speakers are named as follows: Living Room, Kitchen, Office and my Echo Dots are named as follows: Living Room Dot, Kitchen Dot, Office Dot and Bedroom Dot.

If I look in the Alexa app, the SONOS devices are showing up and names as above, do I need to rename the Echo Dots to solve the problem?

Are you saying the right phrase e.g. ending with 'in the Living Room/Kitchen/Office'?

Is there a way to play a radio stations? What command do you use? Thanks