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Contributor I
Apr 27, 2018 12:15 AM UTC

About ducking time

Ducking seems to be fixed now. I have grouped my echo and Sonos devices in the Alexa app and ducking seems to only affect the Sonos device that is associated with the echo that processes the command.
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    41 replies

    Chris
    Lead Maestro
    May 25, 2018 11:39 AM UTC
    Their is the ability to create smart groups under smarthome section where you can put all the devices in a room together. I use that to group hue light with specific Alexa so I don’t have to say “turn off light in bedroom” just “turn off light”. So I assume a Sonos could be added into those.
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    Avid Contributor II
    May 25, 2018 11:56 AM UTC
    With the Alexa smart home groups, you can definitely “pair” an Alexa echo device with one or more of your Sonos grouped speakers (rooms). Same as you would do with pairing lights etc to an Echo. However, this has no impact on the ducking behavior - as per my previous post, even with my bathroom echo grouped to my bathroom sonos, commands to that echo still cause all my household sonos speakers to duck. Same in reverse with my living room sonos/echo setup causing the bathroom speakers to duck.

    Also the Sonos One’s Alexa unit cannot be grouped under the Alexa app like echo devices can. Which (once room-specific ducking finally works) will be a huge PITA if Sonos doesn’t get that resolved!
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    Chris
    Lead Maestro
    May 25, 2018 1:35 PM UTC
    I would think when they release their updates that smartgroups would be the way to go with limiting ducking and also the hope of not having to say "in the kitchen" etc. when playing a song.
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    Chris
    Lead Maestro
    May 25, 2018 1:36 PM UTC
    Well the Sonos one already limits ducking and not having to say the room name. But yes that would seem to limit it with things like I'm doing with my other echos (ie. have lights in room and not have to say room name).
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    melvimbe
    May 25, 2018 2:28 PM UTC
    Well the Sonos one already limits ducking and not having to say the room name. But yes that would seem to limit it with things like I'm doing with my other echos (ie. have lights in room and not have to say room name).

    I was really disappointed with how Amazon implemented that feature. Since many of my rooms have a light switch and switch for the fan, I can do the 'short' command unless I want to turn both on/off. I assume it won't be an issue if/when they implement speakers into the group, since they can't really put speakers into the same object type as anything else.
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    Danny
    Chris
    Lead Maestro
    May 25, 2018 2:53 PM UTC
    hopefully down the road that gets corrected. Hasn't effected me yet since my Sonos One is in my bathroom and I don't have any other smarthome devices in there.
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    Contributor I
    Jul 15, 2018 5:55 PM UTC
    Selective ducking is working for me! I have created alexa enabled smart device groups and added an alexa device and a sonos speaker and only the Sonos speakers in the same group as the Alexa device that hears the command ducks 🙂
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    Jul 15, 2018 7:37 PM UTC
    Selective ducking is working for me! I have created alexa enabled smart device groups and added an alexa device and a sonos speaker and only the Sonos speakers in the same group as the Alexa device that hears the command ducks :-)

    I'm surprised this long awaited feature was not more prominently announced.
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    Trending Lyricist I
    Jul 23, 2018 2:12 PM UTC
    Selective ducking is working for me! I have created alexa enabled smart device groups and added an alexa device and a sonos speaker and only the Sonos speakers in the same group as the Alexa device that hears the command ducks :-)

    I'm surprised this long awaited feature was not more prominently announced.


    I agree - I was just conversing with Sonos support a few days ago and they didn't indicate it was fixed. I was about to decouple Sonos and Amazon b/c it was making my sonos playback non-usable if the rest of the family was around. I'd be listening to music outside and the dang things would keep ducking out b/c a kid was inside asking for songs in that room.
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    Trending Lyricist I
    Jul 26, 2018 8:58 PM UTC
    I don't think it's fixed. I haven't been home to check but just today I had a support ticket response saying "We cannot inform on any work being doing in this regard, but I can setup your feedback as a feature request."

    So like others, I too am disabling the Alexa skill.

    I have also posted reviews on several sites disclosing this. I think the only way we'll see movement here is if the community starts to reflect this in the reviews. Clearly after 9 months it's not a priority for Sonos and Amazon.
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