Sonos One - Adjust Volume for a group via Alexa

  • 24 October 2017
  • 14 replies
  • 3259 views

Userlevel 1
Hi Guys,

I have a group of Sonos One speakers. They are in my lounge and kitchen.

Can get Alexa to adjust the volume for the group? It would be good if we could name the group and refer to the group rather than an individual speaker when talking to Alexa.

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14 replies

Userlevel 7
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We'll pass on the suggestion for you. Right now, volume is controlled per room, so you need to target each room you want to adjust the volume of individually.
tagging along. Have the same question. Have a one and play 1 grouped.
This is a big thing about this product. My house is more open concept and I was hoping to use Sonos 1 in the kitchen. I have a play 5 in the living room and it is frustrating to have to use the phone app or try and understand Alexa with music playing even though the point of this product was to use your voice to control it. Now I am trying my voice first and correcting what Alexa doesn't do in the Iphone app. I agree with the other users that asked for a "Alexa, turn down the group volume" feature. It is annoying otherwise. :?
Userlevel 2
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My house is more open concept and I was hoping to use Sonos 1 in the kitchen. I have a play 5 in the living room and it is frustrating to have to use the phone app or try and understand Alexa with music playing even though the point of this product was to use your voice to control it.

Ours is a similar setup, we have a Sonos in the Kitchen which is open to the Dining Room and Living Room and we have another Sonos in the Living Room. It'd be nice to be able to turn the volume down for the group as well as for a room.
Please note that the Alexa interface is not that fully baked for multi-room type speakers. Amazon released their API for connected speakers only last August 29. Their Multi-Room Music SDK that addresses multi-room more directly is not out until the new year.
I have two "Rooms" with Sonos One in only one of the rooms. I also have multiple Echoes. When I want to turn down the volume using Alexa on the Sonos One, I must specify the Room, which in my case is senseless since I have only one Sonos One. The other Room will never have a Sonos One, it has a Sonos Connect. Is there a way to skip the need to specify the Room when adjusting volume with Alexa? It is superfluous in this use case, and is a downgrade in the user experience when compared with the Echo. Thanks
To my knowledge, there is no "guaranteed" way to do any adjustments without using the room name. I believe that if you haven't given the Amazon any intervening commands, it might work, but I'm not sure about that.
Alexa... turn the dining room volume down... Alexa... turn the kitchen volume down... Alexa... turn the living room volume down... Alexa... turn the living room 2 volume down. This oversight is not acceptable for $1,200 worth of technology.
Userlevel 7
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I am sure Alexa cost more than $1200 for total development. Or cost a lot less unless you have 40 Echo Dots. Or are you blaming Sonos for poor implementation of the not yet released Multi-Room Music SDK?
Presumably under your development you would have fully implemented these unsupported features.:D
Good point 'F00tS0re' 🙂 Mannran we are still in the early stage of adoption of voice interface. We need to be happy that we may create it with Amazon and Sonos and be active beta testers. On the other hand Multi-room support would be really helpful. I am also struggling with setting up volume in two rooms consistently.
Userlevel 1
New to Sonos but was wondering about this same issue. Still no way to change volume of entire group using Alexa?
Userlevel 2
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I am brand new to Sonos, just got a Sonos One and 2 Sonos Play:1's. This is my first post to the community. Looks like the voice activated group volume control has been an issue for over 9 months now. Looks like everyone who has brought it up (in many different threads) has gotten a standard response, but nothing has actually been done about it. Disappointing that this issue exists, but even more disappointing that nothing is being done about it.
It's an Amazon thing. Right now Alexa does not recognize grouping of 3rd party speakers, only individual rooms. They are supposed to be working on it.
Userlevel 2
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I understand that we can't use "Amazon Multi Room Music" through the Alexa app due to Amazon limitations, but this isn't exactly the same thing. When a Sonos One is given a voice command to lower the volume and that Sonos One has a "Sonos Group" (defined in the Sonos App), then I'm not sure it is an Amazon limitation. Sonos should take responsibility for how their product behaves.