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Sonos Skills in Alexa India account

  • 20 December 2020
  • 31 replies
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Can you please provide me information if Sonos is actively working on creating skills for Alexa India Account. If yes, whats the target completion date. If not, is there any other way I can add Sonos skills in Alexa India account or connect echo dot to Sonos Playbar?

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Best answer by Paul A 20 December 2020, 17:44

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Hi @tanujh007.

Welcome to the Sonos community and thanks for reaching out to us. This is still currently a feature request. Let me help you out with this feature request.

Let me share with you the guide about Amazon Alexa availability on Sonos. Currently, India is not supported yet. However,  I will be more than happy to send this to our engineering team to take a look into. I would recommend subscribing to this thread and our announcement topic for any feature releases and updates as you will not receive any direct messages from our engineering team. All feature releases, feature updates, and bug fixes will be announced on the provided link.

Please feel free to let us know or create a topic if you still have further questions or concerns. We highly value all feedback and feature requests.

Thanks,

Thank you for getting back to me. I would not imagine it would be any difficult to add the Sonos skills to India’s Amazon Alexa account. Can you please pass this to the concerned team, and see if this can be easily done. 

Hi Paul A,

 

ive been following all the threads since last 3 years and you guys answer pretty much the same every single thread. But there’s been absolutely no progress and it seems no desire to integrate Sonos skill for Alexa in India. I have a lot friends who own Sonos products are are quite disappointed and many others who just won’t buy your products. You need to take the india market seriously as I see you’ve been promoting your products actively in india. These same standard replies just aren’t cutting it anymore. Here’s hoping for a more productive and a pro active reply !! 

Hi

     I had purchased my new SONOS ONE, a week back. Apparently available since last one to two months in India, officially through online sales channels  unlike escalated earlier price[ for direct overseas shipment and custom duty].

     Went through all the available threads and called the customer care and mailed them too. As advised by customer care executive, no official integration yet. But, to try the community page for possible solution.

     Successful Alexa integration - As advised change the country as United states in the sonos webpage, not in app. After a few minutes through the app it allows integration with alexa app. Only difference, you have to get used to the non Indian english accents of Alexa. Since, the existing Indian -english accent option on regular ECHO devices are not available. A small bit though. The integration was smooth and all functionality are there as my existing regular Echo devices. 

  Partly successful Google assistant integration -  The linking with Google assistant was smooth and was functional . But, however even after repeated reconnections, fails to play songs although youtube music and gaana are linked. It was playing songs from the app from my iphone, but not from the Sonos one device. It does answer all your queries however. 

   Am happy as the Alexa integration was possible and it controls my bedroom light by voice command and great music listening experience ofcourse.

    Many previous listeners had mentioned their inability to connect to Alexa. Hence,this detailed note. As there would be more increasing Sonos ONE fans, now that it is available in India at more competitive price and easily than before. 

 

Cheers .

Hi @ANANDL ,

I was able to follow the steps you mentioned when i first bought my Arc 3weeks ago and had Alexa fully functional. I had to do a factory reset on the Arc last weekend and since then, i’m unable to have Alexa play anything.

Does your Alexa app show Sonos skill added?

Referred lot of posts online that ask to disable / re-enable skill, de-register devices, delete apps, reinstall, register, etc. However, that has not worked.

 

Regards,

Vishal

Hi Vishal

Had rechecked after you asked. There is no Sonos skill available in the India Alexa app. And mine is working only after changing the country as US in the Sonos account in the webpage, nothing to do with Sonos skill as such.It redirects to Amazon login account that’s all.

But yes although  google assistant was also functional it does not play any songs.

Hey guys, tired of the same drub with SOnos. 
I am giving away my sonos or trashing it some place distant so I don’t get to see this stinking brand any more.

THumbs down, Sonos!

Don’t bother replying to my thread. Not anticipating your pathetic reply.

The feature request is pending for 4 years now, Sonos! Boo!

@Corry P : This does merit serious attention from Sonos, now that the voice controlled One is being sold officially via the Sonos store on Amazon India. It is ridiculous that Sonos are selling a product that essentially does not work, I think you will agree... 

The Sonos India skill has been in private beta from at least December 2019; it is equally ridiculous that it has not found its way into even S2 systems.

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Hi @Kumar 

It is ridiculous that Sonos are selling a product that essentially does not work, I think you will agree... 

I think this is heavy exaggeration, at best. If it plays music, it’s doing it’s job - being a speaker. This is the “essence” of a speaker. If it could not play music at all, I would agree.

The Sonos India skill has been in private beta from at least December 2019; it is equally ridiculous that it has not found its way into even S2 systems.

I am afraid I have nothing further to share at this time.

@Corry P It isn't an exaggeration for the voice controlled One that is also being sold. Your excuse for Sonos holds no water for that model in the product line up on Amazon India.

@Corry P : Copy pasted from the feature list of the unit on Amazon India:

  • Brilliant sound - Get rich, room-filling sound with Sonos One, and control it with your voice, the Sonos app, Apple AirPlay2, and more
  • Voice control - Amazon Alexa is built right in so you can play music, check news, set alarms, get your questions answered, and more, completely hands free

If this isn't false and misleading, I don't know how to define that adjective “false and misleading”.

@Harish'sG  and other India located customers on this thread:

Be aware that Sonos does not treat you with the respect you deserve as a paying customer, no matter how small a market you may constitute for them, such that you are irrelevant in their eyes. Buy therefore at your own risk.

Fortunately there are now many options easily available in India for getting equally good and feature rich solutions that this need not be a dampener on your ability to experience what other Sonos customers in geographies like the US /UK do. This was not the case when I bought Sonos via Amazon US for use in India back in 2011, but many others have now caught up with Sonos.

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Hi @Kumar

@Corry P : Copy pasted from the feature list of the unit on Amazon India:

  • Brilliant sound - Get rich, room-filling sound with Sonos One, and control it with your voice, the Sonos app, Apple AirPlay2, and more
  • Voice control - Amazon Alexa is built right in so you can play music, check news, set alarms, get your questions answered, and more, completely hands free

If this isn't false and misleading, I don't know how to define that adjective “false and misleading”.

As this is in English, it seems it’s been copied from our main product feature list (intended for fully supported regions). As we do not sell products anywhere but on our own website, it seems Amazon have bought stock and decided to sell some of it in India (if it’s even Amazon that’s doing it - who is the seller?), and therefore it’s not our advertising or responsibility, but Amazon’s (or the reseller’s). 

Similarly, you could sell your Arc on eBay, claiming that it can play DTS. It’s not true, and it’s not our fault you’ve made that claim.

@Corry P It isn't an exaggeration for the voice controlled One that is also being sold. Your excuse for Sonos holds no water for that model in the product line up on Amazon India.

I made no excuse. I objected to your description of a speaker not able to use voice control in an unsupported region as “essentially does not work”. Essentially, a speaker plays music. Semantics, I guess.

@Corry P I can understand that as someone that gets a salary from Sonos, you have no choice but to support all that they do. Other readers will figure that out too.

But this is the same tired argument that Sonos trots out about other issues, where the first thing it does is blame other service providers; this is like a government party line, but we would be foolish to expect different.

Since you asked: This voice controlled unit is also NOW being sold by Amazon India’s trading subsidiary in India. So it isn't the case of “if it’s even Amazon that’s doing it”.

My objection is to the fact that the voice controlled unit is also being sold, at a premium, alongside the Sonos One SL. The premium being collected is for voice control. A feature that does not work in India.

But... it is never Sonos’ fault. The lawyers would have their knickers in a twist if any Sonos Staff was to admit that.

@Corry P I can understand that as someone that gets a salary from Sonos, you have no choice but to support all that they do. Other readers will figure that out too.

But this is the same tired argument that Sonos trots out about other issues, where the first thing it does is blame other service providers; this is like a government party line, but we would be foolish to expect different.

Since you asked: This voice controlled unit is also NOW being sold by Amazon India’s trading subsidiary in India. So it isn't the case of “if it’s even Amazon that’s doing it”.

My objection is to the fact that the voice controlled unit is also being sold, at a premium, alongside the Sonos One SL. The premium being collected is for voice control. A feature that does not work in India.

But... it is never Sonos’ fault. The lawyers would have their knickers in a twist if any Sonos Staff was to admit that.

 

So you want Sonos to talk with Amazon India to get them to change their product description or stop selling the Sonos One in that market?   Why wouldn’t you complain directly to Amazon India?  I’m not saying Sonos couldn’t do something about it, and perhaps it’s a contract violation of some sort, but I would think the more direct route would be a better way to go in this case.

I don't want Sonos to do anything. I am only updating Indian customers about why they are better off not buying Sonos. 

I reckon Sonos, for the same reasons, will also refuse any warranty obligations for non voice controlled products.

@Corry P I don't understand why Sonos' developers can't simply enable the Alexa skill for English (IN). Its just a checkbox that they've to click. No code changes needed. We're not asking the Sonos Alexa skill to support Indian languages. We're just asking for it to work with the Indian dialect of English, which is practically the same as the British dialect.

Until this small change is done, the only way to use Sonos with Alexa is to change my country settings in Amazon to USA. This comes with its own problems as it prevents me for accessing Alexa skills which are specific to India.

As others have mentioned, this request has been in the pipeline for many years now. Could you please share if there has been any effort at all from the development team on this? Whether you sell your products in India or not, we're your customers, and more importantly, we're fans of Sonos products. Why wouldn't you listen to a simple request from your user base?

In the time it takes for you to respond to this thread, you could enable the Alexa skill for English (IN). I'm an Alexa skill developer, so I know.

 

In the time it takes for you to respond to this thread, you could enable the Alexa skill for English (IN). I'm an Alexa skill developer, so I know.

I suspect it is more than just a check the box thing and involves Sonos server infrastructure upgrades to ensure that the necessary Sonos and Amazon server level integration works fine all the time in a distant geography. 

Amazon sees India has a strategic market of interest, and therefore does not allow India to lag behind the rest of the world in terms of product/feature releases. Sonos does not, and given all the options that are now available in India to what Sonos offers as a solution, I doubt that they will ever garner much volumes in India - and knowing this may well be behind Sonos dragging their feet on this.

And although I am not interested in the Sonos skill anymore having bypassed the need for it, I would be happy to be proved wrong via a release of the skill.

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In the time it takes for you to respond to this thread, you could enable the Alexa skill for English (IN). I'm an Alexa skill developer, so I know.

I suspect it is more than just a check the box thing and involves Sonos server infrastructure upgrades to ensure that the necessary Sonos and Amazon server level integration works fine all the time in a distant geography.

As someone who has actually rolled out a Sonos Alexa skill to India, I can tell you it is NOT just a checkbox. The India endpoints have less language features than the en-us ones so you need to adjust the schema, change the code to handle the differences, then re-test everything, plus you need to host your servers somewhere vaguely close to India else the latency is a killer. You also need to stand-up a permanent test system in each geography in order for Amazon to test against every month or so, else they disable your service. Just some of the reasons it was easier to pull my entire Alexa skill then try to keep it running.

Please provide Alexa link to sonos in India. I use Sonos and love it. But cannot use its potential because of no link with Alexa.  Can you tell him a what steps are taken to resolve this issue. Thanks

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For what it’s worth, here’s another plea to Sonos product management for prioritising the release of Alexa skill on the Indian skill store. The most basic use case is really just having my echo devices play music on my Sonos speakers. e.g. saying “Alexa, play music in the living room” and having the music play on the Sonos speaker group instead of the echo device in the room (Alexa allows setting a default speaker for music playback in each room) - This has worked on my Heos speakers in India since 2017 but does not on my Sonos speakers. 

Sadly, I have been fooled by Sonos, and Amazon India. Wish I had seen this thread earlier.

After purchasing from Amazon, I immediately asked for exchange the speakers with something else, but Amazon India denied. I purchased from Amazon Inda authorized seller Appario Retail Private Ltd.

Please Sonos and Amazon India don't fool people. 

Sonos Team,

 

any update on the availability of Alexa for India ? 

I have been planning to buy sonos now hearing the response... I am wondering if Sonos is actively looking for Indian Market, i would like to know the Alexa and Google assistant support availability in India 

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