Soundscape Skills Not Functioning

  • 22 November 2017
  • 38 replies
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I call them "Soundscape Skills" - like "Relaxing Nature Sounds", "Ambient Sounds: Cricket Sounds", "Rain Sounds", etc. There's hundreds of them. On my Sonos One, perhaps only one in ten works properly. If a Soundscape Skill doesn't work properly, the symptom is that I hear nothing at all. Evidence seems to point to the fact that Alexa thinks that the Soundscape is playing, but nothing whatsoever is audible at any volume level. I tried dozens upon dozens of these late last night, and only found a handful which worked properly. Alexa otherwise seems to be performing perfectly well.

I am working with Sonos tech support on this, but since the diagnostic reports look absolutely fine, it's difficult for support to troubleshoot this problem. My question is, am I the only one with this symptomatology?

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Adrienne... I am wondering if you are simply finding those sounds with Amazon music and not the skills. There are some soundscape like skill on Amazon music that are not a skill that will play.

Also, apologies. Forgot to update this thread.

Since I posted I have heard from both Sonos and Amazon. Actually Sonos gave me their theory / reason and I doubled back with Amazon to see if they heard the same.

At first I was told this fix would be sometimes in 2018 but the day after I chatted with someone on the Alexa team I was updated the fix should be sometime in early to mid January.

Not sure of the extent of the fix, etc. I appreciate finally having this however addressed, identified, etc.

Here is hoping it is a January fix indeed.
I assigned the “Ambient Sounds” skills for Rain Sounds and Rain Forest sounds in the Alexa app. But I’m not sure where Alexa is pulling the music from in reality. I’m still learning how all this integrates. Im 3 days into this with Alexa - longer term Sonos user. Let’s hope resolution soon.
I can get “Ambient Sounds” like “Rain” to play on my Echo Dot, and tell Alexa to play it on “Master Bedroom” for example. On Dot, I can tell it to stop in an hour. On the Sonos, it shuts off after maybe 5 mins. I just can’t get it to Loop for some reason. Any suggestions? BTW, any other streamed content sent to Sonos plays just fine and stops as programmed. Odd, eh?! :8
Same problem, added two "Ambient Sounds" skills and both are silent after Alexa's introduction. It would be a massive let down if Alexa's full functionality wasn't available on the Sonos One, especially considering the price
Same problem here Daily Dose doesnt work on Sonos one but it works on Echod dot 😞 I gonna return Sonos ONE :((
I am also having problems with all Alexa audio skills through my Sonos One, although I can go in another room to my Echo dot and tell it to play on the Sonos One and it will. When I speak directly to the Sonos One Alexa, she sets it up and then silence. Like others, I'm looking for guided meditations and ambient sounds. Any updates on when/if this will be resolved?
Hi, I'm in the UK and having the same issue. Haven't been able to find an ambient skins skill which will play on sonos one. No problem on my Echo Dot. Another annoying thing is that music alarms are not supported. On reading another forum, it seems this now works in the States but, unfortunately not on this side of the pond... Yet! Hope there's soon to be more functionality.
I’m getting the same issue with my brand new Sonos One. Sleepsounds skills are not playing by, even though Alexa blinks and responds like she is starring the skill.

@Sonos: Will this be addressed?
Convinced the wife to upgrade to the Sonos One instead of picking up another Echo Dot or Echo 2nd generation. A couple days after getting it she mentions that it's broken. I did buy it via Amazon Warehouse deals, so I was hoping it wasn't actually broken, but she mentioned it wouldn't work with any of the meditation/white noise/soundscape skills she has used on our old Echo Dot or any new ones she tried.

I said a few commands to try some other skills. Reuters Flash Briefing, Jeopardy, and Heads-up all work without issue. Saying the command to start most of the 'soundscape' skills she installed resulted in nothing more than a flashing white light with no response from Alexa whatsoever. I was able to get one of them to open and list off all of the different sounds it can play, however when you ask it to actually play a specific sound, Alexa returns with just a flashing white light. Bummer.

There's a slight way around this was to ask Alexa to 'Play White Noise Sleep Therapy' which is an album on Amazon Music (included with Prime). That shuffled the album of relaxing noises/sounds.

I'd really like to get a skill to work for this. Has anyone found a 'soundscape' like skill that works with Sonos One?
I downloaded three of the Ambient Sounds (rain, ocean and rainforest) scapes and none of them worked - argh! - ....UNTIL reading the second/third post on this blog and started adding "playlist" at the end of each comment. So, "Alexa, play rain sounds playlist" - and hey presto - they all work! Hope that helps. Simple but effective - fingers crossed. 😉
Thanks for this thread. Was frustrated by the lack of soundscape functionality too. Based on the insight that invoking the skill from an echo to execute on a Sonos one works, I tried this on my Sonos one (assigned the name "Kitchen" in the Alexa app):
"Alexa, play heavy rain sounds on kitchen"
Which works.

It's strange to refer to the Sonos one by name when you're querying that specific one, but hey, got my ambient sound back.
It actually does work only sometimes for me if you say something like Play X in Y
*FIXED* I was having the same problem with the soundscapes not playing. I tried saying "play [name of sound] in [name of room]" and it worked! I tried using words other than play (open, loop, etc) and it didn't work. Adding the name of the room is the key!