I've just bought a Sonos ONE and have two other old sonos speaker (ie not smart). I thought I would be able to control all three through Alexa, either playing one, two or all three at a time but I can't. Apparently I have either to just control the Sonos ONE with Alexa, and then the others the old manual way on the Sonos app. OR I have to group all three on the Sonos app and then I can play all three via Alexa. This is not what I understood from the advertising.
Is there a way I can make my smart Sonos ONE with Alexa control which speakers to play via voice control?
Answered
Sonos One and Alexa controlling other speakers
Best answer by jgatie
Non-Alexa enabled speakers can be controlled by specifying the room name after the command.
So given these three:
Sonos One, Living Room
Sonos Play:5, Bedroom
Sonos Play:1, Bathroom
All commands spoken to the One:
"Alexa Play Aretha Franklin" plays Aretha on the One
"Alexa, Play 98.5 The Sports Hub in the Bedroom" plays 98.5 from TuneIn on the Play:5.
"Alexa, play The Bridge from SiriusXM in the Bathroom" plays (you guess it!) The Bridge from SiriusXM on the Play:1.
Grouping is still done via the Sonos app, you cannot group using Alexa commands or Alexa groups at this time.
Note: Some music services will only allow a single stream through Alexa. You may have to start another stream via the app if you wish to play more than one stream via a single music service.
So given these three:
Sonos One, Living Room
Sonos Play:5, Bedroom
Sonos Play:1, Bathroom
All commands spoken to the One:
"Alexa Play Aretha Franklin" plays Aretha on the One
"Alexa, Play 98.5 The Sports Hub in the Bedroom" plays 98.5 from TuneIn on the Play:5.
"Alexa, play The Bridge from SiriusXM in the Bathroom" plays (you guess it!) The Bridge from SiriusXM on the Play:1.
Grouping is still done via the Sonos app, you cannot group using Alexa commands or Alexa groups at this time.
Note: Some music services will only allow a single stream through Alexa. You may have to start another stream via the app if you wish to play more than one stream via a single music service.
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Non-Alexa enabled speakers can be controlled by specifying the room name after the command.
So given these three:
Sonos One, Living Room
Sonos Play:5, Bedroom
Sonos Play:1, Bathroom
All commands spoken to the One:
"Alexa Play Aretha Franklin" plays Aretha on the One
"Alexa, Play 98.5 The Sports Hub in the Bedroom" plays 98.5 from TuneIn on the Play:5.
"Alexa, play The Bridge from SiriusXM in the Bathroom" plays (you guess it!) The Bridge from SiriusXM on the Play:1.
Grouping is still done via the Sonos app, you cannot group using Alexa commands or Alexa groups at this time.
Note: Some music services will only allow a single stream through Alexa. You may have to start another stream via the app if you wish to play more than one stream via a single music service.
So given these three:
Sonos One, Living Room
Sonos Play:5, Bedroom
Sonos Play:1, Bathroom
All commands spoken to the One:
"Alexa Play Aretha Franklin" plays Aretha on the One
"Alexa, Play 98.5 The Sports Hub in the Bedroom" plays 98.5 from TuneIn on the Play:5.
"Alexa, play The Bridge from SiriusXM in the Bathroom" plays (you guess it!) The Bridge from SiriusXM on the Play:1.
Grouping is still done via the Sonos app, you cannot group using Alexa commands or Alexa groups at this time.
Note: Some music services will only allow a single stream through Alexa. You may have to start another stream via the app if you wish to play more than one stream via a single music service.
Thanks. I've managed to get it to play on the Smart One, by just saying play Aretha Franklin. And I can make it play on the old One by saying Lounge. However when I tell it to play on one it switches off on the other. Ie I can't make them play different music at the same time.
Then, separate issue: I've grouped the new Smart One with another old one (called Piece a Vivre) and they play together. But again, when I play them the old One called lounge which I can command via Alexa switches off. And if I tell Alexa to turn down the music etc it only alters the sound on the Smart One and not the other one it is grouped with (Piece a Vivre).
Any solutions? It shouldn't be this hard.
Then, separate issue: I've grouped the new Smart One with another old one (called Piece a Vivre) and they play together. But again, when I play them the old One called lounge which I can command via Alexa switches off. And if I tell Alexa to turn down the music etc it only alters the sound on the Smart One and not the other one it is grouped with (Piece a Vivre).
Any solutions? It shouldn't be this hard.
Yeah, that is probably the service provider not allowing two Alexa streams at once. Nothing Sonos can do about that. You can initiate another stream via the app and control it (Skip, Rewind, Pause, volume control) via Alexa. Or you can choose another service (iHeart Radio, TuneIn, etc.)
Volume control at this time is only done on a single room. Like grouping, we are waiting for Amazon's promised Multi-Room Speaker SDK to allow for Alexa Groups type controls for 3rd party speakers.
Volume control at this time is only done on a single room. Like grouping, we are waiting for Amazon's promised Multi-Room Speaker SDK to allow for Alexa Groups type controls for 3rd party speakers.
Cool thanks... - seems you're right. I can play two streams simultaneously, but not the same stream on two devices with different content. Same with the volume controls... It is frustrating as this seems it should be an easy fix for SONOS and rivals will provide this quickly if not already. Any word on when the SDK multi-room thing will be delivered...
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