So, Alexa smart groups seem to be working.
I have some smart lights and an Echo in the lounge along with a Sonos connect. In the kitchen I have more lights, another Echo and a Sonos Play:3 speaker.
I can now create Alexa enabled smart groups, which means that when I'm in a room with an Alexa device, and I've defined the other devices in that room, I can now say "Alexa, turn lights on" and only the lights in that room come on, and I don't have to say the room name, or the light's names at all.
This is a deliberate (and very good) move by Amazon to simplify the language you have to use with Alexa.
My request would be, please, please, please, can Sonos make their Alexa skill work with this? This to me would seem to be the most logical way of fixing multi-room audio ducking as there should be a way for Alexa to work out that it only needs to duck Sonos speakers in the same room, which it can now work out.
It would also be great if a Sonos device (or room group in Sonos) could be used in an Alexa enabled room by just saying "Alexa play music."
This does however lead to another issue when using Sonos with an Echo device, which is by default, if you say just "Alexa, play music", music does indeed start, but on the echo device and not the Sonos... So there needs to be some kind of device priority setting for music that allows you to choose which is the default music playing device in a room.
I know the latter is not exclusively a Sonos problem, but it would be great if Sonos could raise this with Amazon to get something like that to work. It would IMO make the whole integration far more intuitive and usable.
Question
Sonos and Alexa Smart Groups Integration
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The API's and SDK mentioned are not the answer... they are about controlling audio speaker grouping and provide two methods, one for companies like Sonos who have their own proprietary grouping and audio syncing and then the second method for companies that want to use Amazon methods and sync with Echo based speakers.
None of which is what I'm asking about which is for the Amazon/Sonos logic (where-ever it is) to use the new Alexa-enabled smart group information to allow commands to be given more naturally, and for it to also use this information for more intelligent ducking.
Once that works, then it would obviously be very good if you could control Sonos groups through Alexa commands (this would require the API/SDK) and if you're in a room that also has a speaker that's in an active group, your commands would default to any active group in that room controlled by Alexa. That however is very much an extension, and not the underlying issue.
None of which is what I'm asking about which is for the Amazon/Sonos logic (where-ever it is) to use the new Alexa-enabled smart group information to allow commands to be given more naturally, and for it to also use this information for more intelligent ducking.
Once that works, then it would obviously be very good if you could control Sonos groups through Alexa commands (this would require the API/SDK) and if you're in a room that also has a speaker that's in an active group, your commands would default to any active group in that room controlled by Alexa. That however is very much an extension, and not the underlying issue.
The advantage Sonos have is they could, if it's not too resource hungry, build that server query function into the speakers instead. If they either wanted to or can. They could definitely create a Boost type device to do that, if they wanted to.
If their primary market has changed to streaming services, well, they don't work if the internet is broken, so any Sonos user with no local library is out of music if they're out of internet, so not being able to control it in that scenario doesn't really matter. Likewise any smart device that relies on out of home processing. No internet no control...
But getting way off topic now... Between them, Sonos and Amazon have enough information to use Alexa enabled smart groups where-ever it is, to make the experience more intelligent and less wordy, or more natural. It would be good to see the skill improve in that way and also for the Sonos One to gain full Alexa enabled device status in those groups. Else Alexa enabled Sonos speakers will be second class devices for smart home control.
Well, given that I have Hue setup with Homekit, and you don't enter your Hue ID anywhere in the process, and that Apple's iCloud is mostly about storing rather than processing, we'll have to respectfully disagree :)
Nah. I'll take your word for it. I don't recall why it's relevant anyway.
But that is by Sonos' own choice though... The homebrew Sonos skill that's been mentioned several times doesn't run in the cloud, but does need a local server device that creates the Sonos requests to pump to the Sonos devices. It can then control the local library without it needing to be in some cloud.
Again, I can't assume Sonos made all the choices here. Amazon certainly had some say in how the integration was going to work. Even then, from a support perspective, I'm sure Sonos would rather support a cloud than thousands of servers. It's find for homebrew freeware because they don't have an obligation to provide support. And the homebrew Sonos skills are not smart skills. You can't setup one of these homebrew skills and see your devices listed in Alexa, much less put them into a smart group.
The advantage Sonos have is they could, if it's not too resource hungry, build that server query function into the speakers instead. If they either wanted to or can. They could definitely create a Boost type device to do that, if they wanted to.
That functionality is already there. You can run search queries with the Sonos app without being using any cloud resources.
But getting way off topic now... Between them, Sonos and Amazon have enough information to use Alexa enabled smart groups where-ever it is, to make the experience more intelligent and less wordy, or more natural. It would be good to see the skill improve in that way and also for the Sonos One to gain full Alexa enabled device status in those groups. Else Alexa enabled Sonos speakers will be second class devices for smart home control.
I don't think there is any disagreement here. We just disagree on how it gets done I suppose.
BTW (off-topic), I am generally disappointed in Amazon's implementation of the smart groups. It's really rather useless to me, given my setup which I think would be rather common. Each of my bedrooms has both a light and an overhead fan, both controlled by switches. Amazon assumes that every switch I put in a smart group is a light. So when I ask to turn off the light, it turns off both the light and the fan. There is no way for me to tell Alexa that that is a light, and that is a fan. If I had plugs in the room, same issue, I couldn't further define what it is. I am better off just just using the full name of the device.
When setting it up, I thought I would be allowed to create the group 'Jill', and then add the device's 'light' and 'fan', and the related echo to the group. Therefore, when I asked the related echo to turn off the fan, it would do just that. From the other echo's, I could ask to 'turn off Jill's fan' and it would know I meant the device called fan in the Jill group. But no, the smart group doesn't work that way. Perhaps it will allow smarter functionality in the future.
Back on topic though...I don't see that being an issue when a Sonos speaker is added to a smart group and Alexa is programmed to know what it is and what to do with it. It's more of an issue for generic devices like switches and plugs.
Has there been any update on this? Would love to see the Sonos One support smart groups so I can tell my Sonos, "Alexa turn off the lights" without specifying the name of the room I'm in...
For sure. This is a huge missing feature. I have to buy a dot for every room I have a Sonos just for this. Starting to become a Sonos hater..:.
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