Sonos One / Philips Hue

aclou5,

You can obviously control Philips Hue bulbs/sensors with Amazon Alexa devices using the Philips Hue skill. The new Sonos One has a built-in (improved) Amazon echo device, so I assume you will use the Amazon App in the same way with that part of the speaker and simply add the Hue Skill (or any other available skills) to it ... otherwise I don’t see the point. If you couldn’t do that, then people would just continue to purchase the original Play-1 and add an echo dot alongside it.

I have a number of Play-1 speakers and several echo dots and use both the Sonos Skil and Philips Hue Skill without any issues... I’m pretty sure the new Sonos One speaker will allow the Hue skill to work... and every other Alexa skill available.

Yes, the majority of functions you can do with Alexa will be supported on the One, including lights. The only missing functions will be specifically about communication, like Listen In.

The Alexa -> Hue integration also doesn't understand Scenes yet.

I have a sonos one that has alexa(play one does not) and off can not control Hue lights. Iwas told be tech support it my in the future. I don't see how because there is no z- wave in sonos. Therefore it would have to use ipaddress visa WiFi

My echo dots don't have Z-wave. Alexa controls via wifi to bridge.

? you can't setup in the Alexa app

Works without problems, just set it up in your Alexa app. Search for the "Hue Lights" skill and enable it (see screenshot). Be careful to give your lights different names than you give to your speakers. I had a speaker called "Kitchen" and a Hue light called "Kitchen", so obviously Alexa did not know which to address. Now the light in the Kitchen is called "Window" and it works flawlessly. Hope this helps.

Ican't get my sonos one to even fond my hue lights. I have set up the alexa app it to first find hue. I do have the 2nd gen hue hub too. Any tips

You setup hue in the alexa app only. You don’t setup in Sonos app. Sonos One communicates via alexa to control.

If you have properly setup in alexa app Sonos one can control.

Sonos One can control hue lights. I already tested it out and can confirm this. It can't seem to enable lighting Scenes, though.

Sonos One can control hue lights. I already tested it out and can confirm this. It can't seem to enable lighting Scenes, though.

The verbiage to use scenes is different then it is for other controls of Hue lights.

Try this: "Alexa, turn on [scene name] in [room name]" Example that works in my house: "Alexa turn on red candle(scene) in living room(room).

Sonos One can control hue lights. I already tested it out and can confirm this. It can't seem to enable lighting Scenes, though.

The verbiage to use scenes is different then it is for other controls of Hue lights.

Try this: "Alexa, turn on [scene name] in [room name]" Example that works in my house: "Alexa turn on red candle(scene) in living room(room).

I will try it tonight and update this reply with my results. Thanks!

I've found that setting scenes only works if the light is off when you give the command. If the light is already on, Alexa will affirm the command, but nothing will change. You can direct a color change once the light is on ("Alexa, set [light/room name] to red", but a scene change doesn't seem to work.

Mike,

Just to add my understanding about Philips hue bulbs and the Alexa integration.

A colour like 'Red', 'Green' or 'Blue' etc is not a scene, but more of a 'state' for a room or individual bulb. Their Brightness is also a 'state' These can normally be set from either an 'on or off' starting position.

So if the lights are either on or off, the following should work:

“Alexa, Set Bob's Light to Red” ... individual bulb
“Alexa, Set the Lounge Lights to Red”... entire room

“Alexa, Set Bob's Light to 50%” ... individual bulb
“Alexa, Set the Lounge Lights to 50%”... entire room

These states are 'set' rather than 'turned on'.

Scenes however like “Tropical Twighlight” only apply to rooms and not the individual bulbs and you can’t ever 'set' a scene for a bulb, nor 'set' a scene for a room in either an on/off state... but you can “turn on” a scene for a room from both an on or off state.

So if the lounge lights are on/off to begin with you cannot say this:
“Alexa, set the lounge to Savanna Sunset” (scene)
Nor can you say this ever for an individual bulb ...
“Alexa, set Bob's Light to Savanna Sunset”

But you can always say this for a room from an on or off starting position:
“Alexa, turn on Savanna Sunset in the Lounge”

So my understanding is that the 'state' (colour and brightness) of the bulbs or rooms are 'set' in place ...but room scenes are only ever 'turned on' ...and (importantly) a colour is not a scene.

A bit confusing, but that’s my understanding at this moment in time, but I am relatively new to this Smart Home stuff.

Mike,

Just to add my understanding about Philips hue bulbs and the Alexa integration.

A colour like 'Red', 'Green' or 'Blue' etc is not a scene, but more of a 'state' for a room or individual bulb. Their Brightness is also a 'state' These can normally be set from either an 'on or off' starting position.

So if the lights are either on or off, the following should work:

“Alexa, Set Bob's Light to Red” ... individual bulb
“Alexa, Set the Lounge Lights to Red”... entire room

“Alexa, Set Bob's Light to 50%” ... individual bulb
“Alexa, Set the Lounge Lights to 50%”... entire room

These states are 'set' rather than 'turned on'.

Scenes however like “Tropical Twighlight” only apply to rooms and not the individual bulbs and you can’t ever 'set' a scene for a bulb, nor 'set' a scene for a room in either an on/off state... but you can “turn on” a scene for a room from both an on or off state.

So if the lounge lights are on/off to begin with you cannot say this:
“Alexa, set the lounge to Savanna Sunset” (scene)
Nor can you say this ever for an individual bulb ...
“Alexa, set Bob's Light to Savanna Sunset”

But you can always say this for a room from an on or off starting position:
“Alexa, turn on Savanna Sunset in the Lounge”

So my understanding is that the 'state' (colour and brightness) of the bulbs or rooms are 'set' in place ...but room scenes are only ever 'turned on' ...and (importantly) a colour is not a scene.

A bit confusing, but that’s my understanding at this moment in time, but I am relatively new to this Smart Home stuff.


I can confirm this works! Just finished testing it out. So, it looks like it requires you to say it a certain way in order to get Scenes to work. Thanks for posting this, Ken!

ZurkeyDurkey,

You are welcome.

I quickly learned that you cannot 'set' a scene, you can only 'turn on' on a scene .. I assume this is a restriction imposed by Alexa at the moment, but perhaps things will eventually change to address these issues.

I was also initially confused by my thinking that the colour of bulbs and rooms were a scene... but once I realised that colour was not a scene but a 'state' similar to brightness, it all made a bit more sense.

So in Summary...

Scenes are available in rooms only and have to be 'turned on'.
Whereas....
Colour and Brightness 'states' are available to individual bulbs or to rooms and have to be 'set'

You are right that the wording of things is still very important at the moment, but I suspect that Alexa will continue to develop and become a lot smarter over time and these current 'rules & conventions' will eventually become far more flexible as the Amazon voice-control technology improves/develops.