Seriously disappointed with play 1

  • 30 November 2017
  • 13 replies
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Just wanted to say how disappointed i am with the play 1 and so called alexa integration. After all the hype about this new "smart" speaker and how its going to change the game, i bought one on release day even though i have a number of speakers already.

Now, i consider the play 1 as poor, no, the play 1 is good, alexa is poor.

No napster integration.
No playing of local media files.
No facility to call other alexa users.
No alarms.
No reminders.
News flashes dont work.
Alexa chirps when watching tv too many times.

Alexa can tell me what the weather is like though, just in case i cant turn my head and look out of the window.

Really poor show from sonos here and what makes it worse is the lack of support giving hard dates when integration for more services is going to occur.

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13 replies

If you are expecting the Play 1 to have Alexa built in, that's the problem. The Sonos One has Alexa, not the Play 1.
Userlevel 6
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If you are exoecting the Play 1 to have Alexa built in, that's the problem. The Sonos One has Alexa, not the Play 1.

Maybe he was expecting Sonos not to give its new product a name guaranteed to confuses new users, The Sonos One vs. the Sonos Play 1.
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Hi there, ianm. Thanks for your feedback. If you'd like, we can take a closer look at these issues. But first, allow me to address a few of your concerns.

No Napster Integration / Local Media
Based on the Alexa support forums, these services are not supported even on an Alexa Echo or Dot. If it can't work on their native hardware first, it's likely to not be available on ours until then. We can forward this feature request along to the team, in the meantime.

Calling / Drop-In features
These are great Echo features that are not available to all Alexa-enabled devices (such as the Sonos One). Just as the previous feature request, I will be happy to forward this along to the team.

Alarms & Reminders
These should work without issue. It is important to note that these alarms created are not Sonos alarms. Alarms created via Alexa on the Sonos One will only exist on the Amazon Alexa platform, not Sonos. Any Alexa command goes to Amazon before it gets to your Sonos to then be acted upon.

Moderation Edit: Reminders are currently not supported on the Sonos One, as clarified by Master T and verified through testing here in the lab. Added to aforementioned feature request

Flash Briefings
Flash Briefings should work as well, however, we are currently tracking an issue where the first item in a briefing would play but then will simply stop. Our senior technicians are digging into it as we speak and will update as information becomes available.

Alexa Wake Word Sensitivity
We’ve received the feedback on voice recognition sensitivity with Sonos One, and are already making cloud software updates to improve the experience. We appreciate the input and will continue to make additional updates as needed. As you can imagine this is a continuous fine-tuning process as we move forward with future updates.

Although we do not have hard dates for integration of these features, rest assured that the team is working diligently to ensure the Sonos One will get even better over time. In the meantime, I want to make sure you get the best experience with your Sonos One, right now. If there is anything I can do, please reach out.
Second on the disappointment I can't get flash briefings.
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Alarms & Reminders
These should work without issue.


Just to be clear: Alarms work, but Reminders do not and never have. The Sonos One will tell you "Reminders are not currently supported on this device."


Flash Briefings
Flash Briefings should work as well, however, we are currently tracking an issue where the first item in a briefing would play but then will simply stop.


I am not experiencing the issue with the Flash Briefing only playing one item (thankfully), but the related "Sports Update" does not work. The Sonos One will say, "Here is your Sports Update" and then go silent (or resume the music). Looking at the Amazon App, I can see the request is recognized as the update appears there, but it doesn't work on my Sonos One (actually, all four of them) but only on my Echo and Echo Dots.
Just wanted to say how disappointed i am with the play 1 and so called alexa integration. After all the hype about this new "smart" speaker and how its going to change the game, i bought one on release
Can you quote one example of something that has changed the game on release? I can't except perhaps the iPod. But even that took the launch of iTunes that followed later to do so.
Marketing hype is rampant everywhere these days and it is the same here. What is expected is that this will change the game once reasonably evolved in the coming years - it is early days yet. What you can reasonably hope for is that your One has the grunt built into it to keep up with the evolution.
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Alarms & Reminders
These should work without issue.


Just to be clear: Alarms work, but Reminders do not and never have. The Sonos One will tell you "Reminders are not currently supported on this device."

Edited post for clarity. Thanks, Master T!

Regarding the problem with Sports Update, I would recommend giving our technicians a call to take a closer look at what's happening. Our contact information can be found here.
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Regarding the problem with Sports Update, I would recommend giving our technicians a call to take a closer look at what's happening. Our contact information can be found here.

Seriously? Are we talking about the same thing here? To my knowledge, Sports Updates have never worked. I hoped and expected they would start working when the Flash Briefing started working, but despite having gone through the tedious process of resetting devices, disabling and enabling skills, adding and subtracting teams, restarting, etc. etc. etc., neither me nor any of my neighbors with Sonos Ones can get a Sports Update. There have been posts about this on this forum as well.

I'm curious. Among members of the community, does anyone have Sports Update working? (Command: "Alexa, Sports Update.") If so, what teams do have set as your favorites in the Alexa App?
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Master T: Our technicians have been looking into Sports Updates, since you brought this to our attention yesterday. Originally, this was thought to be similar to the issue with flash briefings. Some users have said the flash briefings are "hit or miss" depending on the source and ultimately how the audio content is brought to the Sonos One. While we are starting to better understand the problem with flash briefings, we still have not received any new information about Sports Updates.

In the meantime, with a quick test in the lab, I was unable to get Sports Update to work regardless of the team or league. I have since reached out to our senior technicians and others on the team to determine if this expected behavior or if Sports Updates are indeed supported. I will update the appropriate thread when more information becomes available.
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Hi Keith. Not that it matters, but it was actually whsbuss who raised the issues of the Sport Update yesterday, although there have been numerous posts since the release of the Sonos One where others stated that this was not yet working. What caught my attention was in the 'Best Answer' that appeared directly below his query you stated "I tested this out in our lab here and it seems to be working on our side." At that point I chimed in merely to confirm that whsbuss was not alone in his experience with Sports Update. There was no reply to that post (not that I expected one) and nothing in your first response to me above that suggested that technicians were looking into the issue. Instead you suggested I call in as if the issue was mine alone, when I had ample evidence it was not.

In any event, I apologize first if I sounded frustrated. I was, but only a little. I also apologize for raising the issue of the Sports Update in this thread. I did so only in an attempt to ensure clarity because many Echo users conflate the Flash Briefing & the Sports Update, but clearly I only complicated matters. Ah well ... 😃
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This is a big ole theory on Sports Update and it's me beating a somewhat dead horse like I have in other posts.

Does the sports briefing use third party audio? Meaning, anything but Alexas voice? If so, they seem to not be working with the exception of the Sonos skill and the Flash Briefing.

https://twitter.com/lesliefisher/status/935735288256761856

I would like to point out since posting this tweet I have heard back from both Sonos and Amazon and last I heard this bug is expected to be fixed early to mid January and it's more a Amazon thing and their API set than a Sonos thing.

Just a theory why sports updates might not be working.
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Just wanted to say how disappointed i am with the play 1 and so called alexa integration. After all the hype about this new "smart" speaker and how its going to change the game, i bought one on release
Can you quote one example of something that has changed the game on release? I can't except perhaps the iPod. But even that took the launch of iTunes that followed later to do so.
Marketing hype is rampant everywhere these days and it is the same here. What is expected is that this will change the game once reasonably evolved in the coming years - it is early days yet. What you can reasonably hope for is that your One has the grunt built into it to keep up with the evolution.


Speak for yourself about what is expected. What i expect when i buy something is it does what it says. Voice controlled music, nowhere did i see that it had to be from a limited number of streaming sites.
Support have said that most of the things i mentioned are not supported, yet these were the things in the hype. Who wants to buy my car, it has a super turbo charged engine built from gold. Well it may be built from gold, thats if we can get the gold manufacturers to make it in a few years but dont let that stop you from buying it.
Userlevel 7
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Just wanted to say how disappointed i am with the play 1 and so called alexa integration. After all the hype about this new "smart" speaker and how its going to change the game, i bought one on release
Can you quote one example of something that has changed the game on release? I can't except perhaps the iPod. But even that took the launch of iTunes that followed later to do so.
Marketing hype is rampant everywhere these days and it is the same here. What is expected is that this will change the game once reasonably evolved in the coming years - it is early days yet. What you can reasonably hope for is that your One has the grunt built into it to keep up with the evolution.


Speak for yourself about what is expected. What i expect when i buy something is it does what it says. Voice controlled music, nowhere did i see that it had to be from a limited number of streaming sites.
Support have said that most of the things i mentioned are not supported, yet these were the things in the hype. Who wants to buy my car, it has a super turbo charged engine built from gold. Well it may be built from gold, thats if we can get the gold manufacturers to make it in a few years but dont let that stop you from buying it.


Your analogy to a car is interesting with regard to the Sonos One. You are comparing a product launch of the first AI agnostic speaker against technology that has been established and developed over 100 years. I agree that there are elements of Voice Control that I would like enhanced but I can also see a steady improvement and launch of new features that are being rollout free of charge to existing users, without the need to trade in for a newer model!