@AjTrek1 no problem! What you're missing is that both in your and my setup, there's no "Alexa" category in the room. Hence, you need to be specific with commands and say "Alexa, turn lights on in some room". If it did detect it as an Alexa device, you could say "Alexa, turn lights off" and it would apply to that specific room.

It's only a minor inconvenience, I know, but I found it very odd that it isn't working (seems like a bug).

The specific command …turn off lights or turn on lights… in my setup applies to all lights in my home. I use the turn off lights command every night. I even use…Alexa, arm or disarm ADT.

So whatever other command is possible for a specific room doesn’t seem to affect my use of Alexa. I guess “ignorance is bliss.”

If you were able to install the Beam (gen 2) into the first controlling section of your ‘Ginger’ group and then said to the Beam ‘Alexa, turn on/off the lights’ it would just perform that action on the lights in that group only (lamp 3 in your case) - also if you had multiple Sonos speakers in the same physical room you can use Alexa groups to control the grouping/ungrouping of speakers ‘automatically’ within groups. 
 

You can do these things with all Sonos devices that have the Alexa VA installed - each one can be used (one instance only) to ‘enable/control’ the Alexa group devices (without using room names)… it just isn’t possible (yet) to do this with the Beam (gen2) at the moment … er ..nor the Sonos Roam, but all other Sonos products work fine.

I suspect it’s a case that the Beam (gen2) is waiting for authorisation from Amazon, but it’s not really clear what’s going to happen with the Sonos Roam?

I’m thinking the Roam ‘perhaps’ might not get authorised by Amazon, as it is mainly a portable device and so ‘dynamic’ as far as ‘groups’ are concerned, but I have some things, I would have liked to have tried with those little speakers, had they have been authorised to enable/control a group. I’m keeping my fingers crossed for this added Roam functionalitynot least because it is available with the (also)‘portable’ Sonos ‘Move’’.

 I understand why Sonos/Amazon might not authorise things with the Roam, as I guess it could introduce ‘issues’ for those who don’t fully understand the Alexa group features and use their Roams when away from Home, whilst they are still controlling an Alexa group with devices installed in their home.

Anyhow that’s the difference between installing the Beam just as a speaker in an Alexa Group and it being used to actually ‘control/enable’ the Group - I hope that somewhat brief explanation assists with the understanding here. 

@Ken_Griffiths 

Thanks for the explanation. Much appreciated!

Just to add to this - I have the same behaviour as OP and Ken/others. Unable to add the Beam as a control device to a group (add as speaker is fine though).

I previously used a Gen 1 Beam and adding as a control device works.

Really hope Gen 2 is certified soon - is there any official comment from Sonos on this?

Update:

Known issue for Roam and Beam 2, Sonos are aware, no timeline for fix. Confirmed via their support today.

I guess we just keep waiting.

Still not approved by Amazon…

Still not working. I tried it with the new version 13.4.1, no success. Sonos, this is very annoying!

Having just upgraded from beam 1st gen to the Beam 2nd Gen ive fallen into this infurating problem! really hope Sonos sort this out!

I literally spent hours trying to work out what was wrong, deleting group, re adding all products, uninstalling app reinstalling, etc etc finally glad ive found its not just me!

It sounds very first world problemy but having to say “alexa turn the lounge lights off” instead of “alexa turn the lights off” is going to bug me for a long time...

I’m having this exact same problem with Beam Gen 2. I tried contacting support today who told me to contact Amazon. :(

Yes I wish Amazon would sort this too - did Sonos Support provide you with a link as to where to report this to Amazon, as I will report the matter too?… it’s also a feature that’s missing for the Sonos Roam, but can be done with the Sonos Move and being able to use the Roam to enable/control a group would be useful too.

No they didn’t provide anything other than “you need to contact Amazon”. I haven’t even begun trying to figure out how to do that. Feels like something Sonos should be doing, not their customers. 

I assume Sonos have already done that. No harm in a two pronged approach I guess. Here’s hoping that Amazon will listen to their customer:

Maybe try this link to chat to their customer service:

https://www.amazon.com/hz/contact-us/csp

It should be the Sonos devs dealing with Amazon to get this sorted, end users contacting Amazon isn’t likely to help. There must be some sort of certification process that Sonos need to do with Amazon.

Add another with this problem, just upgraded from beam gen1 to gen2 and I can longer set the gen2 as the default Alexa enabled device for my office room. Having searched online what bothers me is how long the roam has been available and also suffers from this issue whilst it hasn’t been fixed. It could literally be months before this functionality which already works is added to the newer products. Also I can say I wouldn’t be happy if I contacted Sonos support and they told me to report to Amazon, as others have said this is something Sonos/Amazon need to resolve between each other and fast! If this is a sign of things to come in regards to Sonos/Amazon playing nice together it doesn’t really bode well for the future!

It’s so frustrating that this hasn’t been resolved. If you haven’t already I suggest dropping a note to Patrick the CEO ceo@sonos.com If enough of us raise the issue hopefully they’ll respond.

Hi I’m new here (just got my fist Sonos product Beam Gen 2) and I think I have the same problem as the title but not the rest of the posts:

Ive set up Alexa on my Beam just fine (it controls my lights, TV, and music but I cannot add it as a speaker in a group, or if I do my echo stops playing music and just the Beam plays. 
 

I’ll try to add screen shots below. But in the group section of speaker selection if I choose echo I can add any number of dots but not the beam. If I add the Beam no Amazon product can be speakers.

Very confused?

You can’t put Sonos Speakers and Echos in the same group, they aren’t able to play together in sync.  

Well that’s a bit annoying. 
 

But thanks for the quick reply.

This should now be fixed for Beam 2.

Yes, it’s all working here for me now.

Yes looks like this has been fixed now

Finally fixed! Now if they’d only sort the 7.1 downmix issue the device would be perfect for me.

I’m having the same issue with my Arc. :(

‘Enabling’ an Alexa group is working for the Arc here, which is called ‘Living Room’ in our case. See screenshot of our Alexa group.