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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efolson

Lyricist II

Hi Ryan

Yes, I can see all my Sonos speakers and my Cabinet lights in the Alexa app. I can use Sonos One to play music on other Sonos speakers. (However, it often stops playing after 2 songs.) also, Sonos One controlled other speakers even before I added them to Alexa App.

Alexa on Sonos One works for any questions I ask it. It just won’t recognize my other devices despite showing in the app.

Based on the original post I’d expect that Sonos One would be listening for something in the language to indicate that it should process through EchoPlus when I ask about a device other than a speaker. Right now it just says it doesn’t know that device.

Thanks
Ennis

Ryan SAuthor

Retired Sonos Staff

Thanks for the details. I think it'd be best to give us a call on our support line and work with a technician to get to the bottom of this. Right now, an outage is developing with authorizing Alexa on Sonos, so I'd hold off on doing so until it's resolved, but that hopefully won't take too long.

Edit: It's now resolved.

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

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efolson

Lyricist II

Got it. Thanks for the responsiveness and help! Will give support a call.

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el_matt0

Avid Contributor II

Are you guys able to ask Alexa to change volume while playing from TV input source on the Playbar grouping (“Living Room” with Playbar, sub, 2 play1 surrounds)? I could’ve sworn this functionality used to work, but recently she only seems to be able to change volume in that same Playbar group while playing music from Spotify etc. Now she just replies “Living room doesn’t support this” when asked to increase volume during TV playback.

jgatie

Are you guys able to ask Alexa to change volume while playing from TV input source on the Playbar grouping (“Living Room” with Playbar, sub, 2 play1 surrounds)? I could’ve sworn this functionality used to work, but recently she only seems to be able to change volume in that same Playbar group while playing music from Spotify etc. Now she just replies “Living room doesn’t support this” when asked to increase volume during TV playback.

Usually that is a sign of more than one smart device with the same name. Check in your Alexa app under smart devices for any duplicates.

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el_matt0

Avid Contributor II

I don't think it has to do with naming, as my Sonos group is called "Living Room", while the Echo itself is called "Echo Living Room". Recently when I ask Alexa to increase/decrease volume in the living room, it occasionally works, but most often she replies either that "living room isn't responding", or "living room doesn't support this". The issue is both while using TV input to the Playbar, and also while listening to Spotify on this speaker grouping.

Oddly, if I ask Alexa to change track etc in Living room, that works fine. Anyone else encountering similar issues, or have any suggestions?

EDIT: changed echo names to "echo 1" and "echo 2" and it seems to be completely resolved. Guess you were right - thanks jgatie!

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el_matt0

Avid Contributor II

Unfortunately renaming didn't resolve it! The issue with unresponsive volume commands to "Living Room" grouping of Playbar/sub/Play:1 surrounds is still popping up fairly frequently. Any commands related to volume seem to get either a "Living room doesn't support that" or a blue light ring and boop noise on the Echo dot (failed command I believe?). Oddly, I can ask it to jump to next track on the Spotify playlist and that works fine, even while the volume command issue is present. Is there any chance this is because I'm using the US-only Sonos Alexa skill from Canada?

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el_matt0

Avid Contributor II

Update: when everything is working normally, I can trigger the non-responding volume commands issue by asking Alexa to "set volume in Living Room to 1.5". (I guess she doesn't support half-step volume changes yet?). Normally I can ask for any number between 1-10 and it works fine, but asking for half steps seems to lock out any further volume commands from working until I restart the Spotify session and initiate it from my Sonos app.

michaelstano

Contributor III

I listen to music via RadioTunes, which is not a music service listed by Sonos as is Pandora, etc. My RadioTunes stations were added via the "Manage" + "Add radio station." These stations wind up in the "My Radio Stations" menu. Will the Dot be able to call up these added stations, or do commands work only with the built-in music sources provided by Sonos?

No, play cannot be initiated via voice control for unsupported services. However, once you initiate playback via the Sonos app, basic play/pause/skip/volume controls work via voice for any service and or source.

I asked the question above 3 months ago. Has Alexa changed in any way that would change the answer to my question? I would still like to be able to change stations I have added to "My Radio Stations" via Alexa. TIA for any updates.

Mike Stano [BOOST + PLAY:1 x 9 + PLAY:3 x 2 + PLAY:5 x 2 + MOVE + Beam]

MrMookie123

Avid Contributor I

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.”

All I want is my new Alexa Play One to allow me to group speakers with a voice command, and play to those speakers I have grouped. Setup: Sonos One, Playbase with 2 Play 1's as a stero pair, and one other Play-1. Maybe this is available by now, if it's not throw it to the top of the list.

Playbase, 2 Play 5's, Move, Sub, 6 Play One's

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