Question

Play music on SonosOne and Amazon Echo at the same time

  • 27 November 2017
  • 27 replies
  • 28929 views

Apologises if this topic has been covered elsewhere, but have looked and nothing similar has come up.

I have an Amazon Echo Plus (plus bit is irrelevant I think), and a Sonos One.

I can play music on the Echo or the One, but not both at the same time.
I have a group for both the Echo and the One, however Alexa on the Echo, does not recognise this group.

Can anyone assist me in getting my One and Echo to play the same music at the same time?

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27 replies

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Google Home is going to be available on Sonos microphone enabled speakers too. So does that mean that Google and Amazon will become symbiotic? Apple have tie ins with some Sonos stuff too, so they are symbiotic too? I can't see that all these companies will like to be in bed with each other. I understand that you want everything to work together, but I think it is unrealistic to expect different companies to give each other their technologies to allow sync between brands.


You are wrong and really are a bit disconnected in your thinking, aren’t you.


Belittling someone who disagrees with you doesn't add any weight to your argument.


Some Sonos devices are marketed with Alexa built in. So these brands are symbiotic.


Sonos and Amazon are both partners and competitors. So you are not incorrect, but not really painting an accurate picture of the situation either. The partner/competitor relationship is actually quite common these days, particularly in tech, where companies are involved in multiple lines of business.



They want you to use them together. Do you understand this?



No they don't, not completely anyway. If they did they, would be 100% as you're suggesting they should be. What is actually happening is that Amazon wants to control the voice assistant market. They want every home to be loaded with multiple Alexas. They surely would prefer if it was all Amazon products, but they understand that the goal of owning the market is more likely to happen if they license out Alexa for other companies use. With Sonos in particular, they recognize that Sonos has a customer base that is unlikely to replace their speakers with the lesser quality echos. There is a benefit to Amazon in allowing Alexa in Sonos devices, even though it cuts into echo sales, because it puts more Alexas in people's homes and helps build customer loyal to Amazon.


If Sonos wanted to be distinct it wouldn’t integrate on that level.


Sonos Is using Alexa because building their own voice assistant would incredibly expensive and ultimately unprofitable. It also helps sell products to people who are big fans of Alexa. It's the same reason Sonos is integrating with Google home. It's the reason they probably would like to integrate with Siri in the future.


Both Amazon and Sonos want you to use these brands together.


Amazon and Sonos want to make money. It so happens that the current integration helps both companies make money. That doesn't mean whatever you think should happen is in the best interest of either company to happen.


That’s a symbiotic branding. Do you understand this word “symbiotic”? Google will help. In short, you’re completely wrong.


Actually, if you google articles regarding the Sonos recent IPO, the nature of the relationship between Sonos and Amazon, and Sonos and Google, is laid out pretty clearly.

Besides all of this, it's important to point out that echos can only play music in sync with other echos, not alexa enabled devices. There isn't a non-Amazon alexa enabled device that can play in sync with Echos. There isn't even an Amazon alexa enabled device that can play in sync with echos. Fire tablets, fire tvs, your phone...can't be done. That suggests there are even technical reasons why things don't play in sync.

All that said, I would not be surprised if Amazon does implement something that allows Echos and Sonos devices to play in sync. Not for any of the reasons you mention, but because Airplay 2 allows you to play Homepods, Sonos, and other things in sync. In order to stay competitive with Apple, they may implement their own version of airplay 2. They have sort of started down that path already with Alexacast.