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When will Sonos Roam support Alexa Household Profiles?

  • 17 June 2021
  • 6 replies
  • 236 views
J

Having jumped on the Sonos bandwagon with a Sonos Beam, then a Sub, I was very keen to replace a Bose+Echo combination we had in the kitchen with the Roam and preordered it.

When it arrived I eagerly set it up (relatively easily) and it seemed to solve an outstanding issue I had with my Beam with playing Spotify on the same network.

However several months on Alexa Profiles still aren’t supported (“I can’t do this right now...”) and Alexa is rather selective in hearing, mostly who Alexa listens to. My commands are correctly interpreted most of the time, whereas others are not and require three attempts.

I see sbg89 heard from a Sonos Engineer that updates are coming[1], are there any updates on this? It doesn’t appear so from the thread.  

I have tried delinking and relinking the Sonos skill in Alexa, and reconfiguring from the Sonos S2 app as well. Many, many times...

 

[1]: 

 

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Best answer by Corry P 18 June 2021, 15:59

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6 replies

Corry P
Userlevel 7
Badge +18

Hi @JakeHendy 

Welcome to the Sonos Community!

First, I am not sure that the exact issue that the “Sonos Engineer” was referring to is the same issue that you are referring to. Alexa Profiles are not available to devices not manufactured by Amazon, and as far as I am aware, Amazon will keep it that way.

Secondly, if your commands are understood, then it would appear to be working correctly. I can only recommend that others speak more clearly, or if they are trying too hard to speak clearly, perhaps they need to speak more naturally? Reducing noise from around the speaker may also help.

 

"Common sense is the collection of prejudices acquired by age eighteen." - Albert Einstein
J

Hey @Corry P 

Thanks for your reply.

My apologies I think I must be confusing the terminology, when I say to my Sonos Beam “Alexa Switch Accounts” it switches between the Alexa Household Profiles that exist within my Alexa account. Additionally, it uses the correct Spotify account inked to that user’s profile.

When I say to my Roam “Alexa switch accounts”, I’m told “[...] isn’t supported right now”.

 

Thanks for the “more naturally” tip, that would explain it… I’ll let you know how I get on :) 

 

Corry P
Userlevel 7
Badge +18

Hi @JakeHendy 

We do not support multiple Amazon accounts, but we do support multiple Profiles within one account. So, it seems it boils down to the exact command you are saying. I would not expect “switch accounts” to work, but if set up correctly, “switch profile” should. We suspect the Beam’s unexpected behaviour is due to a household being setup on an account, and multiple Alexa/Amazon accounts being used on the same network.

I found this (old) thread which may be of help to you:

Ideally, you wouldn't need to issue a command to switch profile - your voice should be recognised, and the switch made automatically.

This is an Alexa feature, however, and not a Sonos one, so I can’t really help you further, but I’m sure the community will be able to assist you should you need further help. Or, of course, Amazon support.

"Common sense is the collection of prejudices acquired by age eighteen." - Albert Einstein
J

Hi @Corry P 

 

Thanks for your reply. It seems that (at least in the UK) these are synonymous; which doesn’t help when describing the issue, sorry :). 
I have one Amazon account which is registered under my name and connected to Alexa. Additionally, this account is the Amazon Household owner. 
As part of Amazon Household there is another profile which is linked to its own Spotify account, which Alexa (as in the Alexa Service) fully supports.

Sonos is registered to this one Amazon Alexa account (mine), and with the Sonos Beam you can say “Alexa switch accounts” (which is synonymous with “Alexa switch profiles”) to move between the household profiles, which I’ve verified with different Hue behaviour in between profiles and different Spotify accounts. This behaviour works correctly and exactly the same across the Sonos Beam and my other Echo devices. 
The one device that it doesn’t work is the Roam, where if you say “Alexa switch profiles” you’ll get the reply “Sorry I’m not able to switch accounts at the moment”. 
The other person in my household did ask the Roam for the news earlier to which the Roam recognised the other person’s voice. However the reply was “[name] here’s the news...” but no news was actually spoken, which I believe is a known bug with the Roam. The Roam appears correctly in the Alexa app for both profiles. 

To summarise, the Beam is displaying the expected behaviour (and I’m sorry I confused matters with the terminology) but the Roam (as a device) isn’t fully integrated with Alexa. Which matches with the bug report in the linked thread in my opening post that there is development underway to fix some bugs with the Roam.

I’d be more than happy to help beta test any software for the Roam, even Alpha versions, as I have an unfortunate habit of hitting edge cases... :) 

Corry P
Userlevel 7
Badge +18

Hi @JakeHendy 

Apologies - I think I got so hung up on trying to find out if profiles should work at all or not, that I forgot about your Roam.

I recommend you get in touch with our technical support team, who have tools at their disposal that will allow them to give you advice specific to your Sonos system and what the Roam reports. Should it turn out there is a problem with the Alexa implementation on the Roam, there will be then a case (or one more case) and documentation to serve as evidence for further investigation.

You can start the process of signing up to the Sonos Beta Program by selecting, in the Sonos app, Settings » Support » Beta Program.

"Common sense is the collection of prejudices acquired by age eighteen." - Albert Einstein
J

Great, thanks @Corry P :) I’ll post back here when I have more information, if it’s shareable.

Have a great weekend!

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