Hi Sonos team, can you provide an estimate of when the Sonos skill will be available for Alexa users in Australia?
Given the development process basically requires opening the Alexa “Code Editor” selecting all the JSON text and copying it; click “Skill Information” to go back to the languages selection. Then go to the new language tab for English (Australia), select the “Interaction Model” at the left side, go to the “Code Editor” and replace all the code there with that one that you’ve just copied. Then Click “Apply Changes” and then “Build Model”. Then you need to wait while model is built (usually around 40 seconds) and then click “Save Model”.
Click “Skill Information” to go back to the skill and take a look at what’s missing here. Likely only the “Publishing information” tab that’s missing, so just go and fill it out.
Finally scroll down the page and click “Submit for certification” button.
Then in a day or maybe at worst a few; us poor Aussies will be able to add the Sonos skill to the Echo’s we’ve been training to take care of the rest of our automated homes.
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Hey adriannoblett,
I'm not sure that's the case, I tried to get a 'homebrew' version of Alexa for Sonos working (https://github.com/hypermoose/AlexaForSonos) using the Australia Alexa Skills Kit. The problem I had was that when selecting the Australia version of the Skill, many built-in Intents were missing in the aussie version of the Skill Builder. I don't think Amazon have published all the built-in intents available in the Australia version of the Skills Builder (https://developer.amazon.com/docs/custom-skills/built-in-intent-library.html), most notably the Music intent libraries.
I'm not sure that's the case, I tried to get a 'homebrew' version of Alexa for Sonos working (https://github.com/hypermoose/AlexaForSonos) using the Australia Alexa Skills Kit. The problem I had was that when selecting the Australia version of the Skill, many built-in Intents were missing in the aussie version of the Skill Builder. I don't think Amazon have published all the built-in intents available in the Australia version of the Skills Builder (https://developer.amazon.com/docs/custom-skills/built-in-intent-library.html), most notably the Music intent libraries.
Yeah, if it were that simple, skill releases would be globally contemporaneous. Track record for the UK is typically zero to six months behind the States, I don’t see other territories being different.
Sounds like it should be simple and time delays between territories are more for marketing purposes similar to the way movies are released at different times in different countries. C’mon Amazon and Sonos get your Aussie act together
Personally I find that since one of the major selling point of the Sonos One is the Alexa skill, it should be clearly stated which territories this skill is not available and estimate dates when it will be release. The fact that i had to discover this after purchasing my Sonos and attempting to add the Alexa Skill is very disturbing.
Amazon Skill support between geolocations is nowhere near as simple as you claim. Amazon really only care about the US market, there are literally hundreds of features that remain, to this day, US-only, even when no actual "translation" is required (eg for English-speaking countries).
What we are saying is it should be simple to say "Alexa ask Sonos to play xxx in kitchen" in the USA, Canada, UK, Australia or any other English speaking country. That it's obviously not simple is something that needs addressing urgently even on a purely financial point of view for Amazon. The cost of engineering the software for essentially the same command just because the IP says the location is a different country sounds like its a waste of money. And the customers suffer because we wait and wait and wait
In this specific case it is the "xxx" that is the problem. To recognize artist/album/track names in "xxx" you have to use a music built-in, but built-ins are only available on Alexa-US. See https://forums.developer.amazon.com/questions/99791/what-is-the-point-of-the-built-in-library.html
There is a ton of frustration among the Skills developer community, here is another: https://forums.developer.amazon.com/questions/85853/after-over-8-months-of-silence-is-it-time-to-accep.html
I can understand the frustrations by the developers. I think if Amazon treat their developers and customers in such a shoddy manner then maybe we should be looking at alternatives like google or apple. In any case we still wait for Amazon and Sonos to talk and to get these skills developed.
It was released in Australia / NZ today, so will setting it up (move from US to Aus) and trying it tonight.
It’s been working very well so well done to Sonos and Amazon for the lovely implementation of the skill.
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