Alexa Multi-room Music / Audio Groups

I’m not sure the logic behind sonos and Alexa when Alexa is built in to sonos 1 but won’t support multi room music like the echo’s do. It’s the same..... “Alexa”. This is very frustrating after I spent the money for this I may be returning my sonos and just get the Amazon Alexa plus and a couple more echos and eliminate sonos from the equation. So sad. Could have been a highly recommended product but without that capability it’s useless and I will not recommend the product. :@:@

I personally don't need Echoes or Echo Dots to group with Sonos but agree that on giving Alexa the Sonos"skill", you'd expect to be able to. I certainly expected to be able to control Sonos grouping (fully) using an Echo Dot and "I can't play music on the group yet" is disappointing. The mos salient point I think is @Tomparks above - what is the point of having Alexa built-in to new Sonos speakers, if it still can't control grouping in the same way as the Sonos apps? There seems no incentive to add to or replace existing Sonos speakers with "Alexa" capable ones.

I am very disappointed with sonos1 for the fact that it doesn't have ALL the capabilities with Alexa as do the alexa dot's have. I don't understand that logic at all. for all the peeps out there that want to have sonos1 and be able to use alexa you will be disappointed because some of the features are not available. your getter off getting a alexa echo with distribute multiple dots throughout the house and take sonos1 out of the equation. I will be returning my sonos1 very soon. 😠

I am very disappointed with sonos1 for the fact that it doesn't have ALL the capabilities with Alexa as do the alexa dot's have. I don't understand that logic at all. for all the peeps out there that want to have sonos1 and be able to use alexa you will be disappointed because some of the features are not available. your getter off getting a alexa echo with distribute multiple dots throughout the house and take sonos1 out of the equation. I will be returning my sonos1 very soon. :@

The Sonos One is an 'Alexa Enabled Device', Amazon impose some limitations on these compared to 'Alexa Devices'.

Multi-room play can work great if you have your sound network based on Sonos (not Echo). Go into the Sonos app and name one of your speakers "Sonos". Make sure this speaker "Sonos" is always in the speaker group you create on the Sonos App. Make sure Alexa has discovered all of your Songs speakers (whether Songs One or others) and then just ask Alexa "Alexa, play "whatever" on Sonos". Works like a charm. Music will play on all the Sonos grouped speakers if you ask Alexa to play on any one of them. I just named one of the Speakers "Sonos" to make the verbal command seem seamless. Cool!!

You can not group Sonos One with Echo devices as far as multiroom audio. Sonos One will only group with other Sonos units. I'm not even entirely sure about this. I have a home full of SONOS speakers, and if I can't figure out how to control them from my SONOS One's, I plan to upgrade to Apple Homepods as soon as they (1) offer bigger speakers or (2) allow me to control my SONOS speakers from one or more Homepods. Don't get me wrong -- I LOVE the sound quality of my SONOS system. I am just INCREDIBLY disappointed by the lack of clear support on basic setup issues like these. In the rare event that I have a problem with an Apple product, at least I can reach a human on the weekend. Let's go SONOS -- get it together. *sigh*

I just got a Sonos1 to add to my in-ceiling Sonos speakers and outdoor speakers. I went through setup in Alexa app to group speakers (I.e. multi-room music) via Smart Home > Add Group) and created two groups. So, SONOS in-ceiling “X” and new SONOS1 “Y” we’re grouped as “Z” (yes, I’m generalizing the name because posts like this last forever, and who’s to say 5 years from now hacking won’t be to the point where people are querying your IOT devices in your home by their name to hack into your house!). I thought I would be able to say to Alexa “Play Spotify/Amazon Music/Etc on Z,” but this doesn’t work. Alexa says “I can’t play music on the group yet.”

However, I can go into Sonos app, select the group “Z”, which did magically appear in Sonos app after creating in the Alexa App. At that point (interaction within the Sonos App), then if I say “Alexa, Play Spotify on X”, then Spotify is played on all speakers just selected within the Sonos app.

I know this probably doesn’t help those of you who are mixing Echo’s and Dots with Sonos, but maybe it will help looking into or setting up Sonos and the Play1 Alexa-enabled speaker (whose sound is FANTASTIC btw).

This was more helpful in addressing my problem -- inability to control other SONOS speakers with SONOS ONE -- than anything else SONOS or Amazon has published on the issue. The trick, apparently, was to go into Smart Home to setup the group. That said, it still doesn't work. *sigh* Here's how it plays out after the group (which consists of only SONOS speakers) is created:

Me: Alexa, play [INSERT SONG] on [INSERT NEW GROUP].
Alexa: I can't play music on the group yet. To play on your speaker, use the device name or setup multi-room music in the Alexa app.

So, basically, she's telling me she can't do what I'm asking unless I do what she's already asked me to do.

If SONOS doesn't fix this soon, I'm going to start replacing my SONOS speakers with Homepods. Here's to hoping Apple launches some bigger speakers soon.

It's not Sonos who needs to fix it. Currently, there is no support for ANY 3rd party speakers in Alexa groups, Sonos or otherwise. Amazon is said to be working on a new SDK to address this which will be out in early 2018. Nothing Sonos can do about it.

I finally decided to purchase a couple of Echos, only to learn today through trial and error and this thread that you can't group them with Sonos speakers, including the ones with Alexa built-in. I, like others, thought that there was compatibility between Sonos and Alexa, not understanding that such compability is limited to the Sonos One. Unlike others on this thread, I'll be keeping my Sonos speakers with Alexa built in and returning the Echos. With the Sonos One, I can enjoy the excellent sound quality of Sonos and a whole-house music setup (I have Sonos speakers in every room) through the Sonos app. Through the Sonos Ones I can have Alexa where I want her to read me the news and weather and play selected music using voice command on whichever speakers I select through the Sonos app. Isn't that the best of both worlds? Why do I need an Echo? I will be buying two more Sonos Ones to put where I was planning to put the Echos. The sound quality is way better on a Sonos. If Amazon wants me to buy-in to the Echo concept, they're going to have to offer more.

Even Sonos seems to be confused on this issue, so it's no wonder so many consumers are too. Check out this page, where it reads, "Sonos + Echo. Easily connect Alexa to your existing Sonos speakers using an Echo device." When you click on "Learn More", it takes you to an explanation of how to set-up Alexa on a Sonos One. https://www.sonos.com/en-us/alexa-on-sonos