Why do I have to specify the room name when using Alexa?

Which is probably one of the reasons Sonos doesn’t give out timelines, since, in software, they’re incredibly difficult to keep.

@Ken_Griffiths you would think? It’s clear that all the level one techs aren’t capable of or aren’t allowed to think critically. I explained this multiple times and they didn’t get it. Their email and phone teams are also completely split it seems. So the email people requested the video, I provided it, and they basically told me to call and stopped responding to me. The phone team I don’t think was able to watch the video. I was thinking about streaming the whole 5 hours yesterday on twitch. The whole thing had the same energy as Kitboga scambaiting people. I had to explain this very basic feature of Alexa to basically everyone I talked to for the first 4 hours. The conversations all want the same way pretty much, except nobody’s story was the same about the status of that “technical ticket” as they kept calling it. Some said it was waiting for a reply from the technical team, some said they had replied and there was no way to reply to them again. They all had the same move, they would say they would get a supervisor or look for additional resources, put me on hold, and the call would drop exactly 5 minutes later. I made some “progress” I guess in that after I got hung up on about 5 times whenever I would call back someone would answer “Hi Charles this is ___ from the technical support leadership department.” I would explain the issue and then they would connect me with the “escalations team.” The first two people on that team said that someone would call me back in 24 hours, which I’ve heard before. Never happens. The 3rd person I talked to on that team was the last person I talked to yesterday, who gathered some more information and screenshots to send to that technical team again. At least that’s what they said. We’ll see.

Customer service reps are often the last ones to get any ‘real’ information. 

Sonos Support, no. They work off of the phones. The only Sonos folks who frequent these forums are Forum Moderators. 

@charlespick,

By the way, did you ‘highlight’ the point to the Amazon Support Rep. about the two "playback options” that are associated to an "Amazon Alexa Enabled Group” and what it says in that area of their Alexa App…

 

The problem is I can’t get the Sonos into an Alexa enabled group. The only eligible devices that show up with I configure the group is my Echo Pop. 

I got the video. Going to send it to Amazon. If they give me any problems then idk what’s wrong with them. This is literally exactly what I can’t get my own to do. 

Thanks so much!

All done, let me know how you get on.👍

@charlespick,

By the way, did you ‘highlight’ the point to the Amazon Support Rep. about the two "playback options” that are associated to an "Amazon Alexa Enabled Group” and what it says in that area of their Alexa App…

@charlespick,

Yes, I can probably sort that for you.

Can you outline/remind me.. what are you looking for in the video? … Is a screen-capture video of the devices grouping automatically in the Sonos App and playing the requested audio (without a room name) what you’re looking for? Only that won’t show what was said?

Or will a video of say one speaker playing be okay, when I say ‘Alexa play some music’ to a Sonos product, like a Roam, or Move, for example.

Let me know what you’re looking for and I’ll see what I can do.

Amazon sent me an email saying they’re working on it. We’ll see how long that takes. 

Note too @craigski that its usually ‘best practice’ to uniquely name each device/room/group in the Alexa App device list, so that Alexa knows which device/room/group you’re referring to if you do incorporate a name in the voice instruction - hence my Sonos Arc has different/unique component names. So note my Alexa ‘enabled’ Group is called ‘Lounge’ rather than ‘Living Room’, just so that there is no confusion as to whether I’m referring to the speaker, or the group. So as a further example, I can ask Alexa to play music on ‘Living Room’ and in that instance the assistant will not auto-group the three rooms in the Lounge group.

Glad the info helps and it has always worked that way here for me.👍 I’m not sure if things differ by Country, but FWIW I’m based in the UK. However why else would there be the two playback options for such a group that say this…

It’s the reason why the group ‘Playback Options’ are set to ‘Always’.

@craigski,
Just to also add, the ‘Living Room’ speaker component which has the Alexa component, originally called ‘Ken’s Sonos Arc’ embedded inside it, is added to the first section of an Alexa ‘enabled’ Group to control the group, which I call Lounge in my Alexa App … it is also added to the third ‘Speaker’ section of the group (amongst other speakers). See screenshot attached… to which I’ve added some notes.

If I give a voice instruction to one of the three Alexa devices held in the Lounge Group, such as “Alexa, play Pink Floyd”*… then Alexa will group together Living Room, Portable and Fireplace and begin playback of Pink Floyd songs on the three (grouped) Sonos Rooms. 

*Note: the ‘Playback Options’ for the group need to be set to ‘Always’ in the Alexa App. It’s this that eliminates having to use the group name in the Alexa instruction.
 

Everytime I use the "Alexa” wake word too, the playing audio will ‘duck’ all Sonos speakers that are held in the first and second sections of the Alexa Group.