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Sonos Alexa Integration India

  • 2 November 2017
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I am form Mumbai, India. I have been using Sonos with Alexa integration till yesterday, until Amazon launched Alexa services in India. To get the local skills I had my Amazon marketplace for Alexa changed from UK to India and since then my Sonos skill for Alexa vanished.
I am unable to search Sonos skill on Alexa Skills page. On contacting Amazon, they replied that Sonos hasn't released the skill for India 😞.
Any clue how can I enable the Sonos skill for Alexa whilst having the location India.

Regards,
Shanty
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Best answer by Ryan S 11 November 2017, 01:37

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I am in the same boat, the difference being that I did not use Alexa via any workarounds, so I still have to see this on my Echo + Sonos; at this point all I can do is use the Echo as a standalone speaker. Your alternatives are to revert to UK and lose local skills or wait for Sonos and perhaps Amazon to accept that there is a world outside of US/UK/Germany and release Sonos skills for the official Alexa India presence. More Sonos than Amazon; by releasing the official version here, Amazon has done their bit, I suspect.
And your site continues to say this even today, Sonos:
"Can I use Amazon Alexa with any Sonos player?
Yes, Amazon Alexa works on all Sonos players.

Where is Amazon Alexa on Sonos available?
Amazon Alexa is currently available in the United States, Germany, Austria, and the United Kingdom."

Amazon Alexa has been available in India for more than three weeks now, and is also now available in Canada. Sonos needs to keep pace with Amazon in more ways than one, though it would be better if it did so not by changing what it claims for itself on its website, but by delivering on that claim. Marketing collateral is allowed to be flowery but it cannot be found straying from facts in statements as the above.
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I sent you a PM.
Todays update: I think I ruffled some feathers in Sonos because a more senior team lead has taken over the communications to me after apologising for the assurance I was given yesterday which literally read as: "I hope you will get the feature in India soon."
I was stunned at the language, to be honest, and said so.
Now it is: "We are working hard to give this to you, but can't say when."
Progress though.
I remain impressed with how well Amazon India has rolled this out; all is working quite well, and occasional glitches rapidly addressed. I can't speak to skills other than music play, but my wife is using the Echo in the kitchen effortlessly for music from Amazon Prime. She never touches Sonos. So is my daughter in the kitchen in her home, but being of a later generation she does use Sonos as well.

Speaking personally, I think the team would prefer having all the main work behind the skill as done as possible before releasing it in a location, and not splitting up the release into a couple phases.

Makes sense except when the two phases are separated by months and this thinking then holds up the entire release. As I wrote, Amazon took 12 months - so they say in public - to get their hardware to understand the way we speak English. I can't see Sonos doing this a lot faster on their own. And this issue will only affect Sonos One units, and nothing else. So breaking what may otherwise seem a sensible preference may be indicated in this case.

After all, doesn't Sonos work the same way all the time - not wait for any cake to be fully and perfectly baked? Witness the beta aspects of the Sonos One Alexa release, where many things are incomplete. From mic sensitivity calibration to not offering a choice of wake words, among other things.
I had not realised that Amazon is selling the One in India as well, with Amazon Purchase Protection.

That nixes even a possible Sonos claim that the One is not officially released in India - what does that mean anyway, this "officially released" business? Amazon is a Sonos channel from much before it became a partner for Alexa, and it can't get more official than that.
My weekly reminder on the subject to Sonos. Canada, where Amazon hardware is still to be officially released, have at least been given a time line of early 2018. India, where the hardware/Alexa were "officially" launched by Amazon on October 30, does not have even that consolation bone.

Global aspirations, Sonos?
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Yesterday Bose sound touch systems rolled out Alexa skills in India. Not yet tried as my echo dot on the way. One thing I appreciate with Bose is they do not discriminate when rolling out product features
In fairness to Sonos, the Bose thing looks just like a local voice enabled application, with voice capability that does not come close to even a standalone Dot, let alone the server to server integration involved in Sonos Skills.

That said, Sonos still has egg on its face here for breach of promise. I don't see why their marketing should be given the benefit of doubt about the need to be truthful.
I do have a Dot working with a Bose Soundlink Mini in one bedroom via BT, in addition to the play 1 speaker that was always there. There are still many things that the play 1 can do that the Dot+Bose cannot, that I would therefore never exchange for the play 1. And the 1 sounds better.

Hopefully, the Bose can soon revert to purely travel use, once Sonos gets its act together...Soon..
That is a global issue on the one hand, and not a daily faced shortcoming on the other. But it does point to Sonos not having adequate resources to support both the marketing claims it makes for itself and for what isn't publicly stated - its global aspirations.

One can only hope that the present CEO, that is ex RIM/Blackberry, has brought over the correct lessons learnt - that will NOT take Sonos down that path.

Ryan: One month since Alexa/Echo were launched in India and no signs of Sonos Skills. Will it be sooner than the early 2018 promised for the later in the queue Canada? Will it be later? Only her hairdresser knows for sure...
.

And I am able to get better results via a Dot + Connect Amp in one zone, that can be triggered to start Amazon Prime via commands either to the Dot or to any other Echo device in the house and that is more than enough voice fun for me at this stage.


Can you elaborate how you did this?
Use the Alexa India app to make a group of the relevant Amazon devices, including the Dot that is wire connected to the line in jacks on the Connect Amp. Name the Dot as Sonos. Voice command any other Amazon device in the group to "play so and so music on Sonos", and only the Dot will play the music and it will be heard via the Connect Amp's wired Speakers. If you do not say Sonos at the end of the command but just say " play so and so music" , the Amazon device spoken to will play and not the Dot named Sonos. You could name the Dot by any name, naming it as Sonos made sense to me.

You can also directly voice command the Dot to play music without the Sonos suffix for the same result. But the performance of mics on Echo/Dots that are located away from the music playing speakers is a lot better and do not need shouted commands, being far enough away from the music playing Dot + Connect Amp.
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I don't think even after my 1-Year prime subscription expire this company is capable of releasing Alexa skill in India. Had I been know this incompetency earlier I wouldn't have wasted money on this useless box. Changing location worked but it wont activate prime music.
If anyone interested I am ready to sell this dumb box for 20% discount than keeping it at home. Also there is a thought of burying it and posting video on Youtube 🙂
Are we there yet? I returned the Alexa device because of you guys.

What is it about integration with other devices that your engineers dont get?? You could not even enable airplay!! If you continue this way the writing is on the wall for all your customers to see. Pity you still dont know how to read.
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As you mentioned they are not able to see the writing on the wall.
They must be looking for an opportunity to be an acquisition target as they were not able to cope up with faster technology changes. In this way this company wont function as an independent company more than a year or two.


Are we there yet? I returned the Alexa device because of you guys.

What is it about integration with other devices that your engineers dont get?? You could not even enable airplay!! If you continue this way the writing is on the wall for all your customers to see. Pity you still dont know how to read.
Alexa in India now supports Saavn through Sonos One. However, there is no option to set the Language as English India in order to make the Indian skills usable.
Now Alexa has been released for Sonos even in Canada. Don't know when will we get the privilege. I keep installing update after update just with the hope that Voice Services would start someday.. 😞
Saavn doesn't work with country as US and Sonos doesn't work when I change the country to India. I use Alexa to control Sonos and I use Saavan as music streaming service. How can I get Amazon Echo Dot to work with Sonos and Saavn both?
I'm now able to use Amazon Music in India - thank God for small mercies.
I brought a Sonos One from the US for use in India. Shall I return it....I understand from this thread that the product doesn't work in India and there is no plans to support it in 2018.
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I brought a Sonos One from the US for use in India. Shall I return it....I understand from this thread that the product doesn't work in India and there is no plans to support it in 2018.

If there is possibility of returning, do it. No point of holding it where there is no communication from Sonos on Alexa support in India.
I bought mine for 200 USD and still consider it a good purchase. It works with Amazon music and controls smart home stuff. The problem lies with Indian skills and support for anything else that is India specific. Sonos is pretty horrific when it comes to supporting India though. The speaker as always sounds fantastic.
When you say it works with Amazon music, do you mean alexa to play songs from Amazon music. I'm able to get alexa work with smart controls etc. can't get it to play music. If you're able to do that, would be great if you could share how
You need to open the Sonos app and go through the Alexa setup again, and this time Amazon Music will show as a default music source when it transfers you to the Alexa app, select Amazon music and then head back to the Sonos app - you should be good to go. You can now ask Alexa to play stuff from Amazon music.