Sonos One: Voice control for Sonos is not supported in your country, yet

  • 5 October 2017
  • 40 replies
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Hi there Sonos community,

This is probably a very early question to ask but I have been waiting to buy Sonos just for the Alexa integration. And now they are releasing the Sonos One YAY 😃. BUT... when preordering it says "Voice control for Sonos is not supported in your country, yet". Alexa is actually not supported in Sweden but I have imported it and it works but somewhat limited in regards to location services etc.That doesn't really bother me since I use it to control my Philips Hue, entertainment setup and of course timers when cooking food. I recently purchased the Logitech Harmony Hub Elite which Alexa doesn't fully support in Sweden (location restricted skill). I have managed to get around it using Yonomi but missing out on play/pause/volume up/volume down functions. I know Yonomi works with Sonos but will Alexa actually work in the Sonos One in Sweden.

TL;DR
Will I be able to take my echo dot and replace it with the Sonos One or will it sense my location (Sweden) and restrict it from working.


Best regards,
Simon

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40 replies

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I am not sure but the Alexa skill for Sonos is available to me. The skill seams to be us, uk and germany only according to Sonos but I can see it and actually start the linking but I have no speakers so I cannot try. I honestly think it will work.
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Let's hope so!!! As far as I can see on the sonos app (without a spaker), there is no country setting in there. So this would mean that it's only a matter of linking the amazon account to the sonos app. I would say that if the alexa set up works already, there is no reason for it to then not work on the sonos one. I hope somebody from the company replies
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FergieBergie check my post here as well for answers https://www.reddit.com/r/sonos/comments/74hr0w/sonos_one_in_nonenglish_country/
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FergieBergie check my post here as well for answers https://www.reddit.com/r/sonos/comments/74hr0w/sonos_one_in_nonenglish_country/

I am following your post aswell 🙂. That is good news. If it comes down to it I will buy one and test it myself. I have been waiting along time for this.
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I live in Ireland so I have the same issue. I have an echo dot which works ok. I can see the Sonos skill in the Alexa app but I can't "enable" it. When I click the enable button, instead of getting a page where I enter my Sonos account details, I just get a blank screen.
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I live in Ireland so I have the same issue. I have an echo dot which works ok. I can see the Sonos skill in the Alexa app but I can't "enable" it. When I click the enable button, instead of getting a page where I enter my Sonos account details, I just get a blank screen.

This is what I get when trying to enable it.

Sonos Beta
Add your Sonos Speakers to your account
You must link speakers to (email@gmail.com) before you can add this Skill.

Go to More> Settings> My Sonos account in the Sonos app to link to your speakers. (If you do not see My Sonos account, your Sonos system must be updated.)

Log in with another account
I've fixed the problem
Userlevel 5
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Sonos One is nothing more than a connection to Amazon's Alexa. You should expect to see the same regional restrictions regardless of how you access it. Please keep this in mind for everyone ordering outside the currently supported areas.

The only way Sonos One will be different from current "Echo" devices is that Sonos intends to add other assistants such as Google in the future. That would potentially give you more options.
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Hello there, everyone.

Thanks for reaching out. Amazon Alexa is working with Sonos One in the US, UK, and Germany at the moment, but we don’t support any other countries just yet. We wouldn’t recommend trying voice out in other countries, but if you have a Sonos One elsewhere in the world it’ll work great with Sonos, just not for voice. It’ll also be voice ready when services become available in your country.
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Sonos One is nothing more than a connection to Amazon's Alexa. You should expect to see the same regional restrictions regardless of how you access it. Please keep this in mind for everyone ordering outside the currently supported areas.

The only way Sonos One will be different from current "Echo" devices is that Sonos intends to add other assistants such as Google in the future. That would potentially give you more options.


Well then I will order a Sonos One since I dont care about location based features. Would love to but since it is limited for me in that way I use it for home automation which thankfully doesn't need my location.
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Sonos One is nothing more than a connection to Amazon's Alexa. You should expect to see the same regional restrictions regardless of how you access it. Please keep this in mind for everyone ordering outside the currently supported areas.

The only way Sonos One will be different from current "Echo" devices is that Sonos intends to add other assistants such as Google in the future. That would potentially give you more options.


Well then I will order a Sonos One since I dont care about location based features. Would love to but since it is limited for me in that way I use it for home automation which thankfully doesn't need my location.


Same goes for me
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I mean, the only location restricted feature on alexa is what is the weather, and you can just say "alexa what is the weather in Rotterdam, Netherlands" and it works. Amazon restrictions are simply retarded, there is no better way to put it.
They will support the Netherlands and Sweden maybe in 5 years. I mean they don't even support all english speaking countries!!!
Who cares about dutch and swedish, together it's less than 30 million people. Just let us use the damn thing in english AMAZON!!!!!!
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There are more features like traffic, uber. I do not live in a big city in Sweden but honestly I don't need to ask the weather I just look outside the window hehe 🙂. But I agree that Amazon should let us use it in English. You and me might not be their most common user. I guess that The Netherlands just like Sweden is very slow on the home automation concept. I might be wrong but in Sweden people that I show Alexa+Philips hue thinks they are in the future. I'm like: - "why live in the 90's when you can live in 2017". My grandma almost got herself a heartattack when I turned the lights on by voice and shutting of the tv the second after haha. Amazon are pioneers but will soon be passed by Google and Apple if they do not step ut. I like Amazon but the Echo have already been out in the U.S for several years and Sweden doesn't even know what it is.

To finish of this thread I will buy the Sonos One and keep build my Sonos network of speakers and keep amaze my friends.
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There are more features like traffic, uber. I do not live in a big city in Sweden but honestly I don't need to ask the weather I just look outside the window hehe 🙂. But I agree that Amazon should let us use it in English. You and me might not be their most common user. I guess that The Netherlands just like Sweden is very slow on the home automation concept. I might be wrong but in Sweden people that I show Alexa+Philips hue thinks they are in the future. I'm like: - "why live in the 90's when you can live in 2017". My grandma almost got herself a heartattack when I turned the lights on by voice and shutting of the tv the second after haha. Amazon are pioneers but will soon be passed by Google and Apple if they do not step ut. I like Amazon but the Echo have already been out in the U.S for several years and Sweden doesn't even know what it is.

To finish of this thread I will buy the Sonos One and keep build my Sonos network of speakers and keep amaze my friends.


Ahaha dude. I dont need to ask the weather in NL because 1) it's always raining 2) weathercast over 3 hours is completely unpredictable

Well that is the weird part then, The Netherlands is very advanced in this regards.
Philips is a dutch company and lots of houses have their smart light bulbs!
Same goes for adoption of Nests and Electric cars.

There are two main reasons why amazon is not investing in the netherlands:
1) When amazon was still expanding the dutch were smart and came up with their own online stores like coolblue or bol.com
I'm originally from Italy and was shocked when asking around I realised that nobody here uses amazon. Then I checked amazon.nl and there is literally nothing there! Amazon lost the war in this country by not showing up in time. You can use amazon.de, but no prime or any of those things
2) Dutch is a language spoken by a ridicule minority of people in the world. Makes no sense for them to invest in it. English and german were solid first, next will likely be spanish and french, maybe Italian next? I don't see them trying to enter the chinese market. I guess Japan also is in the plans.

In any case you are right in saying that they will be eaten alive by the other big guys.
I would not worry about Google since they are the slowest on earth in selling their stuff world wide. But apple, oh boi.
Apple will sell their homepod in half the world in less than a year. The only defense google and amazon have is apple pricing.

In any case, glad to have found some sort of an answer to the original question. Enjoy guys! Looking forward to October 24
Anyone can shine a light on the Sonos One being sold in China?

I am an expat living in Shanghai with my family and see the Sonos One being announced in the official Sonos e-shop on Tmall. But no mention of the Alexa skill, if I guess the description correctly.

Would I be able to buy this device locally (vs. importing from e.g. USA) and use it with Alexa in English? My home network is routed over a VPN to access certain pages otherwise not available in China, if that matters (unlike google, amazon is not blocked in China).

I'm fine with not being able to get an Uber (Chinese DiDi pretty good anyway), but controlling my music and the lights would surely be nice...
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Anyone can shine a light on the Sonos One being sold in China?

I am an expat living in Shanghai with my family and see the Sonos One being announced in the official Sonos e-shop on Tmall. But no mention of the Alexa skill, if I guess the description correctly.

Would I be able to buy this device locally (vs. importing from e.g. USA) and use it with Alexa in English? My home network is routed over a VPN to access certain pages otherwise not available in China, if that matters (unlike google, amazon is not blocked in China).

I'm fine with not being able to get an Uber (Chinese DiDi pretty good anyway), but controlling my music and the lights would surely be nice...


Hi captain_alex. You are in the same boat as the rest of us.
Sonos does not want to clearly say if it will be possible or not, but we can be optimistic it will work.
Their position is understandable, since they are collaborating with amazon on this project and they can't publicly endorse workarounds that would make amazon unhappy.
Amazon stance is pretty incomprehensible, anyways.
If you route your entire home network to a supported country, have an amazon account supported in an alexa supported country (germany, usa, uk) and speak english/german YOU SHOULD BE GOOD.

SONOS has not confirmed or denied so far, and I expect it to stay this way. Maybe it's wise to wait for release so that other user can test it, if alexa is the main reason you want to purchase one.
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I would imagine that a number of things factor into whether it will work or not.

1. Country the device is registered to - If you register your Sonos device as being in China, you won't have access to US services, music and likely voice as well.

2. IP address - If Sonos and/or Amazon see your IP address as being in China, they may prevent access to their services from those IP addresses. Shouldn't be a problem with a VPN, unless (like Netflix) they block VPN services as well.

3. Country your Amazon account is based in - If your Amazon account isn't based in the US, UK, or Germany, Amazon may not permit you to access Alexa services. I believe those are the only countries at the moment that support Alexa.

I would imagine that Sonos will only sell the Sonos One where services are available. If Google Assistant is available in more countries than Alexa, then maybe they'll open up sales of the speaker to those countries as well once Google Assistant becomes available through it.
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That is such a shame. I am feeling that Sonos wasn’t just frank with users. This is a letdown that will be remembered. 😠
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That is such a shame. I am feeling that Sonos wasn’t just frank with users. This is a letdown that will be remembered. :@
It's a little unfair to blame Sonos. I wouldn't blame Samsung if HBO wasn't available in my region. Sonos is enabling you the ability to access Amazon's Alexa through their device. It isn't really logical to think that would somehow change what restrictions Alexa has.

Sonos is calling the 'Sonos One' "future-ready" or other similar terms for the markets where Alexa isn't currently supported. It's difficult because the coverage of these "digital assistants" is so much more limited than we're used to seeing. Hopefully, with their rapid growth we'll also see rapid expansion to more places.
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I just care about what’s promised. What we get is just one eu country (not counting brexiters).
Remember, the limitation is Amazon supporting Alexa in your country, not Sonos supporting their speakers in your country.
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I live in Ireland so I have the same issue. I have an echo dot which works ok. I can see the Sonos skill in the Alexa app but I can't "enable" it. When I click the enable button, instead of getting a page where I enter my Sonos account details, I just get a blank screen.

This is what I get when trying to enable it.

Sonos Beta
Add your Sonos Speakers to your account
You must link speakers to (email@gmail.com) before you can add this Skill.

Go to More> Settings> My Sonos account in the Sonos app to link to your speakers. (If you do not see My Sonos account, your Sonos system must be updated.)

Log in with another account
I've fixed the problem


FergieBergie, I have solved my problem. Since I sent the question above I have been able to enable the Sonos skill by using the desktop version of Alexa instead of the iPhone app. Desktop version is at http://Amazon.co.uk. This was after a suggestion from Amazon Customer Service.

Now I have to find a new position for my Echo Dot. It's too close to the Sonos speakers so Alexa doesn't hear me when music is playing.
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I would imagine that a number of things factor into whether it will work or not.

1. Country the device is registered to - If you register your Sonos device as being in China, you won't have access to US services, music and likely voice as well.

2. IP address - If Sonos and/or Amazon see your IP address as being in China, they may prevent access to their services from those IP addresses. Shouldn't be a problem with a VPN, unless (like Netflix) they block VPN services as well.

3. Country your Amazon account is based in - If your Amazon account isn't based in the US, UK, or Germany, Amazon may not permit you to access Alexa services. I believe those are the only countries at the moment that support Alexa.

I would imagine that Sonos will only sell the Sonos One where services are available. If Google Assistant is available in more countries than Alexa, then maybe they'll open up sales of the speaker to those countries as well once Google Assistant becomes available through it.


For the sake of information:
- Sonos is selling the one in countries that are not supported
- Amazon does not check your IP on the echo devices (I use one perfectly well from the netherlands)
- Making an amazon account located in an alexa supported country is very easy
- It's the first time I hear about "Country the device is registered to - If you register your Sonos device as being in China, you won't have access to US services, music and likely voice as well." Can you please elucidate as this is the first time I hear that Sonos asks you to register a device in a specific country. I have never had a sonos speaker so I don't know.

this
I would imagine that Sonos will only sell the Sonos One where services are available. If Google Assistant is available in more countries than Alexa, then maybe they'll open up sales of the speaker to those countries as well once Google Assistant becomes available through it.
is exactly what amazon is doing with its echo devices, and it makes no sense. People can speak english and german also outside UK USA and Germany. They dont seem to understand that. Thank god Sonos is actually going another direction
Hi captain_alex. You are in the same boat as the rest of us.

Haha! :-)

Thanks Falco and Ivan. I guess I will just order a local Chinese device from Sonos when it becomes available and try it out. If it doesn't work, i can always return it.
We wouldn’t recommend trying voice out in other countries, but if you have a Sonos One elsewhere in the world it’ll work great with Sonos, just not for voice. It’ll also be voice ready when services become available in your country.
Automatically voice ready as soon as Amazon makes Alexa available in a country outside the present lot? Or after some Sonos tweaks or upgrades?
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We wouldn’t recommend trying voice out in other countries, but if you have a Sonos One elsewhere in the world it’ll work great with Sonos, just not for voice. It’ll also be voice ready when services become available in your country.
Automatically voice ready as soon as Amazon makes Alexa available in a country outside the present lot? Or after some Sonos tweaks or upgrades?

It wouldn't likely be immediately when voice becomes available, but soon after. We'd need to test a few things out first.