Retired Sonos Staff

Alexa + Sonos: How it Works

Forum|Forum|9 years ago
October 3, 2017
179 replies
100089 views

So you’ve read all about Amazon Alexa working with Sonos and you want to know more. Here’s a rundown of how the integration works.

Your Amazon Alexa devices are listening for you to say the wake word, “Alexa”. When they hear that word, the microphones record what you say and send the audio to the Amazon Alexa cloud to be translated.

That voice line turns into a string of text. The Amazon protocols determine if it’s meant for Amazon Alexa or for a Sonos player. If it’s for Sonos, that text is then sent directly, and securely, over to the Sonos cloud to be turned into a command using our own codes.

Finally, the Sonos intended command goes down to the system.

Want to try it out?

Here are some fun commands to try. I like starting with:

“Alexa, play some salsa in the kitchen.”

how it works

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S

Skelton

Prodigy I

Uh oh, it's probably only a matter of time before I end up with salsa music playing instead of it salsa being added to my shopping list now. 😃

M

MarcelDume12

Lyricist I

Cool! how do you start the external input i.e. TV connected to my playbar?

M

Majorroyboy

Lyricist I

Apple Music on the horizon?

Ryan SAuthor

Retired Sonos Staff

Cool! how do you start the external input i.e. TV connected to my playbar?

I don't believe that's supported yet. Alexa doesn't know what the line-in is on the PLAYBAR. But the skill will keep getting better over time, so that may show up one day. You could always enable autoplay and the PLAYBAR will automatically start playing that line in.

Apple Music on the horizon?

You never know. We don't have full details to share on what services are coming, though Spotify is on the horizon.

Mark good posts by pressing the like button, and select the best answer on questions you've asked to help others find solutions.

C

Chuckles

Trending Lyricist I

Is there any way to play Sonos playlists or favourites? Alexa seems to recognise the "playlist" keyword, but doesn't recognise any of my playlists. Alexa is presumably looking for them on the default music service.

I don't use any of the currently supported services other than TuneIn for radio stations (roll on Apple Music support 🙂 ) but in any event, would prefer to use my local FLAC library rather than stream over the Internet wherever possible.

M

MushyMiddle

Trending Lyricist I

Great new feature, but I don't see any way to play from my music library. Is that in the works?

M

mike k

Lyricist I

I've run into one problem.. I ask Alexa to play a radio station on the Sonos (in the kitchen). And it does! But then I can't get Alexa to stop it. It plays from Tunein, and shows up in the Sonos app and I can end it from there. What do I need to say to Alexa to get her to stop it?

Ryan SAuthor

Retired Sonos Staff

Is there any way to play Sonos playlists or favourites? Alexa seems to recognise the "playlist" keyword, but doesn't recognise any of my playlists. Alexa is presumably looking for them on the default music service.

Alexa doesn't have direct connection to the stuff on your local player, like playlists and favorites, though it can change the play state. So if you start a playlist from your Sonos app, or have it in the queue, you can use the "Alexa, play on..." command to start the music, or use Alexa to change the tracks.

Mark good posts by pressing the like button, and select the best answer on questions you've asked to help others find solutions.

Ryan SAuthor

Retired Sonos Staff

I've run into one problem.. I ask Alexa to play a radio station on the Sonos (in the kitchen). And it does! But then I can't get Alexa to stop it. It plays from Tunein, and shows up in the Sonos app and I can end it from there. What do I need to say to Alexa to get her to stop it?

Hi Mike, try "Alexa, stop." If that doesn't work, "Alexa, stop in the ...."

You can also use "pause" instead of "stop".

Mark good posts by pressing the like button, and select the best answer on questions you've asked to help others find solutions.

N

npompei

Lyricist II

This is more of a hardware question - for people with in-ceiling speakers where you have say a Connect:Amp, will the new Alexa integration benefit you as well? Or is this only for the physical Sonos speakers?

So for example: I am running a connect amp, into a receiver which powers my in-ceiling speakers. I also have an echo/dot somewhere in the house. Can I say, Alexa, play "xxx" in the kitchen?

Because in theory, Alexa now communicates via wi-fi to the Sonos cloud. So does that work with the amp? Or only physical speakers? Hopefully this makes sense?

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