When will Alexa "Routines" become available?

That’s exactly the kind of thing you should be able to do with Alexa from Sonos. But no. It won’t work like that without a 3rd party integration like IFTTT.

would love to hear if this will ever work like advertised. Sonos are busy promoting ‘new colours’ for speakers when they should be fixing functionality first.

@Sebastien D. : could you please give us an update on this issue? Have you checked the api update from the link provided? What are the timelines for the fix?

This is suppressing me from extending my system :/

Greetings folks,

Thanks for your interest in Sonos and Alexa. New features are being added regularly, but we do not publicly post our development timeline.

Thanks, I understand sonos won’t  publish a roadmap, but many others do. What users are asking is simply “are Sonos aware of the issue and aware other smart speaker companies have solved the issue?”
 

just a simple ‘we know’ would be really handy. What’s happening here is people are losing faith in the claims on the box and in the marketing about ‘works with Alexa’. For many, integration like routines working as advertised is indeed a crucial feature for the longevity of our systems, and future purchasing choices.
 

Sonos won’t comment publicly on development, but they sure do comment a lot publicly through marketing and advertising. 

Hi,

I know you're hungry for news and eagerly awaiting any announcement or details from us and thank you for taking the time to share these concerns. While we have some great customers such as yourself, we do take our customers and installers feedback into consideration when looking at adding/removing features.

This has resulted in new product ideas as well as new features in the past. Your feedback has absolutely been heard and sent to the team.

Another unhappy customer here. I have a ton of Alexa routines. Bought a One and a Beam (plus One surrounds) thinking I would actually have Alexa functionality. Incredibly frustrating. 
 

Come on, Sonos, sort it out. This is a supposedly premium product.  And it can’t be that difficult; my Ecobee thermostats handle Alexa routines just fine. 

Hey Community,

Routines is now working for me and wanted to let you know what I did please downvote or reply if it does not work for you as this was only tested in my smart home environment. This I can only say worked with devices compatible with the new SONOS app (which all alexa enabled SONOS device are compatible with the new app)

• Install new SONOS app (Yellow Icon in app store)
• Join to your network and then update devices.
• Ensure Alexa is enabled on your SONOS device (I have the SONOS Beam) and link to your Alexa Account
• Group your alexa devices (I have the Beam and an Echo Flex in the living room. I set the Beam as the default speaker for the room so anything heard on the Flex is responded to on the Beam)
• Rebuild or renable your routine (My test routine gives me a compliment and then Plays Thunderstruck. When setting up the routine it will request you to choose a music service)
• In my environment I do not have to explicitly state “Play Thunderstruck on Sonos Beam” It automatically plays on the living room speaker (The Beam)

@Russellstark I suspect that this only works because the group has the Echo device in it, and the Sonos is just a “dumb” speaker in this scenario.

If trying to use the Beam on its own it still “fails” as usual (works, but with that annoying message)

I am just here to add my vote for this feature. Such a shame to not have this functionality which would really add a lot of value to the product. Fingers crossed, it gets added soon.

ISSUE RESOLVED

Sonos have finally implemented Alexa Routines in S2 version 12.1 which includes official support for Alexa Routines:

https://support.sonos.com/s/article/3521?language=en_US

I've updated today and it is working.  Thank you Sonos! 

I expect that Sonos will always lag Amazon where Echo features are concerned - either because Amazon won't let Sonos have access to these right away or because Sonos isn't agile enough to keep up.

For instance Alexa will soon be able to listen to a child learning to read and correct/encourage. How long will Sonos units take to do this thereafter? None can say.

Sonos/Alexa is therefore essentially a voice control for music feature; if the full feature Echo suite is desired as soon as Amazon releases it, the Echo device itself also needs to be bought.

The question then arises whether it is simpler to use this device for music play on Sonos either via the integration in the cloud or via Sonos line in jacks, leaving the built in Sonos mics unused.

Wow...thanks for the headsup @danellisuk , I just upgraded and it works for me too!!

Thanks to the Sonos team for sorting that...very happy to have that functionality available.

How many days after release by Amazon for Echo devices?

I just got used to ignoring the "not supported on this device"  message... Imagine my shock and surprise when she responded back to my routine pleasantly with a "you have a good night also"!!!  I didn't do anything differently I didn't update anything I think Sonos finally fixed the issue on their end 👍

This is good news.

The issue that now really needs fixing is the perception of some users that an Alexa-enabled speaker should have all the same functionality as an Echo device.

That feels like a wild exaggeration to me. I have 30-ish smart home devices controlled by Alexa and a few dozen Alexa routines, and all of them work perfectly on Sonos. I ask Sonos Alexa questions all the time and I almost always get a good answer. 

For sure there are a few things that don’t work. But I wouldn’t, for a second, consider getting echo devices and disabling my Sonos mics.

I’ve just come across this problem. I’ve got a routine to open my garage door, and the routines doesn’t work on the Sonos One or Move.  However, it seems that if I upgrade all my legacy kit so I can use the S2 app, then it will work. Any way to make this work under S1, or am I doomed to remain stuck with missing functionality.