The first response about the stupid ducking is that it was amazons fault and the room groups would fix it. Now they added room groups and it’s still a stupid problem.
Come on Sonos! I have been working with your products for 12 years and you have been the greatest company to work with but I feel like on this issue (and the new app being crap) you are hiding in bed.
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1) Amazon added groups in August 2017, far ahead of the Sonos Alexa release.
2) Goups on Alexa were only implemented for Echo devices, not 3rd party speakers. There is talk that the new AVS Multi-Room Music SDK will address this, but that is not expected until 2018, and it is not known if Sonos can or will use this SDK. So yes, it is still a "stupid" problem, but it is Amazon's "stupid" problem, at least for the moment.
See this link for details:
https://developer.amazon.com/blogs/alexa/post/7c9343ce-425b-4baa-ae63-49c36afb5341/giving-device-makers-more-ways-to-bring-voice-forward-music-experiences-to-their-products
2) Goups on Alexa were only implemented for Echo devices, not 3rd party speakers. There is talk that the new AVS Multi-Room Music SDK will address this, but that is not expected until 2018, and it is not known if Sonos can or will use this SDK. So yes, it is still a "stupid" problem, but it is Amazon's "stupid" problem, at least for the moment.
See this link for details:
https://developer.amazon.com/blogs/alexa/post/7c9343ce-425b-4baa-ae63-49c36afb5341/giving-device-makers-more-ways-to-bring-voice-forward-music-experiences-to-their-products
+1
No need for the quotes. Whoever’s fault it is, if anyone, it is most assuredly a stupid feature. Sonos / Alexa integration only works properly if you have only one Sonos zone. Asking Alexa about the weather in one room of the house, shouldn’t kill the music in every other room. For this reason alone, I have cut the link between the two systems and will not even consider restoring it until this is resolved. Edit: to be clear, there’s no snippiness in my opening remark. It’s a (rare) genuine instance of “just sayin’”!
Userlevel 7
+22
No need for facts jgatie what were you thinking ... that's not the proper narrative!
Go into Alexa app and remove any sonos units you don't want to duck. You will lose voice control on those but I chose no ducking over voice control in most of my house (a few voice control ones only needed).
Go into Alexa app and remove any sonos units you don't want to duck. You will lose voice control on those but I chose no ducking over voice control in most of my house (a few voice control ones only needed).
My quotes were for attribution only. Just sayin.
+1
Actually that’s an interesting point from Chris. So it would be feasible to control one Sonos zone and remove the others from Alexa’s sight. I could imagine getting by with that meantime. I just have to pick which zone...
Userlevel 7
+22
Yes because the ducking all can certainly be annoying
I just got a Sonos One. First time Sonos owner. Impressed with sound quality, disappointed by the limited Alexa integration. I’m considering keeping my echos for news flash and drop ins while relying on sonos skill for hearing music. My goal is to have sonos speakers all over the house, but I still would like alexa in a few rooms to voice control music just like we currently do with our multiple echo’s we own. Trying to fully understand this ducking issue before I invest significantly in Sonos speakers. so if have two alexa enabled devices that I want capable of playing music to a single group/room each, it will duck all sonos speakers connected to alexa when I trigger voice command? That would cause me to delay a broader purchase until this issue is improved, if ever.
The Sonos Ones will always duck individually when you speak to them. If you use an Echo as an Alexa input device, all Sonos currently duck. Sonos has stated they are working with Amazon on this. No inside info, but it may have to do with a new Alexa API for third party multi-room speakers being released in 2018.
I guess I also went with a broader assumption being a single speaker owner newb, is it even possible to play separate sources on different groups on the sonos platform?
Thanks for the info! Would you know... Could I group a Sonos One with two Play 3 in each room without them ducking other groups when I call the One in a given room?
Yes.
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