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Will Alexa work on my Sonos Roam if I'm outside my home network?

  • 6 January 2022
  • 2 replies
  • 960 views

To be clear: Sonos Roam works seamlessly with my other Sonos products in home, and Alexa is enabled and working on all Sonos devices - including the new Roam. 

(Alexa first entered our home when I purchased a Firestick and enabled it on my existing Sonos speakers)

More specifically, my question is whether Alexa will (should) still work on my Sonos Roam even after I leave my home network and take the Roam on the road or to another location with wifi network. So far this does not work for me. I had hoped that Alexa would continue to work when mobile simply by sharing the existing cell network from the alexa-enabled (paired) mobile phone. If that didn’t work, I then hoped that access to any wifi network, would make Alexa available, but this does not seem true either. 

 

Am incorrect with either hypothesis? Is there a work-around? 

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Best answer by melvimbe 6 January 2022, 17:39

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2 replies

Sonos Roam works fine in my home.  It works with Alexa and the Sonos app.  I have taken it on the road a number of times and used it in conjunction with my iPhone X via Bluetooth, and that has been fine.  A few weeks ago, I tried for the first time to connect it via WiFi in a vacation home.  The whole process was clunky - I had to start over several times.  Eventually I got the Roam on the WiFi, and my iPhone X connected to the same WiFi.  The Roam was willing to work with ALEXA (e.g. it would give the time and weather), but NOT with AMAZON MUSIC.  If I asked Alexa to play a song, the Roam would announce it was about to play the song, but all that followed was silence.

Any suggestions?

I believe this should work when on a different WiFi network.  I’ve certainly used Alexa when off my home network, but not sure I’ve ever done it with a Sonos device.

When using the phone hot spot for WiFi, are you sure that Roam is connected to your phone?  Typically, people use Sonos with a phone hot spot by connecting Sonos to the hot spot, and then a 2nd device w/the Sonos app to the same hotspot.  If you can do that, then you should also be able to use Alexa.

As for a 2nd WiFi network, again, you would want to confirm that Roam is actually on the WiFi.  It’s possible that it’s connected but this 2nd network has restrictions that prevents Alexa from talking to the cloud service.   Business WiFi, for example, will often block this.