Question

SONOS ONE : Alexa integration timeline

  • 26 October 2017
  • 17 replies
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Hi having got my Sonos ONE yesterday I have to say that I am very disappointed with lack of integration with Alexa and Sonos.

I would simply like to know what the time frame is for pretty basic features that I would of expect to be included from day one.

1) Spotify, I know see the website had been updated to make it clear voice commands cant start Spotify and is being worked on, I would have expected this day one but what time frame are we looking at for this feature?

2) being able to group Sonos speakers with the group feature in Alexa app. Again a feature I would expect day one and yes I know I can group and ungroup manually in the Sonos apps, but whats the point when you pat for an integrated voice system?

3) News roundups

These are my top three issues I have found. I love my Sonos in terms of sound quality and playing music in multi-rooms through the app,( the grouping has always been an issue by not allowing you to set pre-planned groups but that's another issue for another topic) I have been very underwhelmed by the ONE so far and just hope that SONOS get updates out very quickly to make the Alexa integration more useful than a chocolate kettle!

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17 replies

Exactly. I am hoping it will get up to speed soon. I bought this speaker for the hands free and Alexa component . The echo and dots are cheap but sound quality sucks.So come on Sonos you can get this done multi room grouping and commands like Flash Briefings to name a few.
Sonos never gives exact timelines or dates. You aren't going to get them, no matter how many times you ask. Frustrating, I know, but they err on the side of caution.

Now to your specifics:

1) I've seen an estimate for Spotify as "by the holidays" and "by Christmas", which is as specific as I've ever seen them give (and these were a product of their social media pages, so take it with a grain of salt).

2) Grouping via Alexa is 100% Amazon. It is currently not supported in the Alexa Connected Speaker API. They do have an AVS Multi-Room Music SDK coming "early next year" that will address grouping and other multi-room aspects, but whether Sonos can or will utilize the SDK remains to be seen. But you can be sure it won't be addressed until Amazon addresses it. See here 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

3) Sonos has stated that Flash Briefings, Sports Updates and the like are high on the priorities list and will coming soon.
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as far as grouping we don't know that we will ever be able to group Sonos speakers with Alexa speakers. But Sonos has said they are working on being able to group sonos speakers via voice. Also there is the linking of Sonos speaker to Alexa which they are supposedly working on as well (where you don't have to say the sonos speaker you want to play to so it operates more like the Sonos one when using an Alexa device and seperate sonos speaker).
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hi Chris, Its not the Alexa speaks I want to group it is two Sonos playbars and one Sonos One, they are all Sonos speaks I would just like to be able to use voice commands with the integrated Alexa to chose a group to play music on.

I expected a much more polished product from SONOS as they have released this speaker, but in fact what we have is a product that is just two separate items that don't work together at all.
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yes currently you can't group the sonos speakers via voice you have to use the app for grouping. However, Sonos has said they are working on grouping. They had to release it at some point and couldn't wait for every feature. I think we will see grouping via voice sooner than later.
I love the sound quality of Sonos One, but hope other features will come along soon. I'm looking especially for the Drop In function. I use this a lot on Echo Dot and assumed it would work on Sonos One, but I get a reply from Sonos One "This feature is not available, but can be used on the Alexa app."
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Lack of drop in kept me from pre-ordering one as I currently use drop in a lot where I have Dot and Sonos in same room.
Some features are available on Echo only, such as Calling and Drop In. Amazon doesn't even have those on the Fire TV or tablets.
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Some really good answers in here. I can't add any more specific details. But I'll confirm that our current timeline on Spotify via voice is set for Christmas currently and that the Flash Briefing is also slated for as soon as possible.

As jgaite said, there are some things that are Echo only features right now, and they may stay that way. We'd love to bring as much as possible to the Sonos One, and everything that we can add is likely to be all software related, so the Sonos One you buy today will keep on getting better as Alexa and voice control gets better.
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Thanks for all the replies as you say very helpful. I just feel that maybe this product should have waited for a xmas release so that the features were ready, it had to be released sometime you say, not really the one already had the small speaker market and releasing this now dampens the fan fair a little with the lack of integration. I mean come on who would not want to be able to say Sonos play downstairs my Spotify playlist from day one.

Be more honest with what it will and won't do, the adverts are very cute to deceive a little, the Spotify strapline on the website wasn't there from day one as I read over the site before preordering.
Sonos One is One Big Disappointment.

Alexa will give me the time, weather and timer. It will not pause / play or stop music. Seems like being able to pause and play music would be a critical item to have at release. I have submitted a support ticket and sit waiting for help - meanwhile I have (3) Sonos One Paperweights
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Can you let us know what the source of music have you been trying is? Is this from Amazon Music or another service?

A great step to start with is just telling the Sonos One to discover devices. If that doesn't do the trick, try disabling the Sonos skill for Alexa and add it back in.
Hi Ryan, I have a support ticket in since Monday asking for help - only response I had was reboot the router.

I am only playing Amazon music as I understand Spotify is not yet completed. I have had Alexa before, so I understand how it should work, but on Sonos its not working. Here are some examples:

If I try to ask Alexa to Stop a playing song I get: "I'm not sure what went wrong"
If I ask Alexa, play classic rock, I receive "Sorry something went wrong"
If I say Alexa Pause, I receive "I'm not sure what went wrong"

The odd thing is if I ask for the time, weather, and other Alexa commands, they all work. Just the music commands are not working. I can start & stop from the Windows desktop app or the iOS App.

Thanks 🙂
Ryan you are brilliant - "disabling the Sonos skill for Alexa and add it back in" was all that was needed. Sonos support never suggested this. Many thanks for your time and great help.
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Ryan - how can we request features? Or maybe you can tell me if my request is in the line? I want to know whether I need to send my new Sonos One back.
I want to be able to use Alexa to control sonos systems in 2 locations. At our vacation house and at our home.
We had a sonos system set up at the beach and love it and the integration with Alexa. Brought an Sonos One to replace our Alexa at home and found the integration will only support one system. I have to choose between the beach and home. The hue integration allows us to control both our hue systems and works brilliantly. Is this on the list of things for the sonos / Alexa system or do we need to give up on a sonos system here and go with a different speaker system?
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I'll pass along the suggestion for you. The best thing to do would probably be to take one of your players from one house and move it to the other, then use that player to set up the second system from scratch. What will happen is the two will then have the same household ID, which means you should see both in your Alexa app at the same time.
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I'll pass along the suggestion for you. The best thing to do would probably be to take one of your players from one house and move it to the other, then use that player to set up the second system from scratch. What will happen is the two will then have the same household ID, which means you should see both in your Alexa app at the same time.
Thanks Ryan. I did try taking the new Sonos One down to our original system and setting up as part of that system. But when I brought it back alexa saw it as a new system. I’ll try it the other way around next time I go down there.