Skip to main content
Ryan S
Retired Sonos Staff
October 3, 2017

Alexa + Sonos: How it Works

  • 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.”
This topic has been closed for further comments. You can use the search bar to find a similar topic, or create a new one by clicking Create Topic at the top of the page.

179 replies

chicks
February 3, 2018
Great new feature, but I don't see any way to play from my music library. Is that in the works?

Some interesting discussion in this podcast with Patrick Spence: https://www.recode.net/2018/2/2/16961978/sonos-patrick-spence-apple-homepod-alexa-virtual-assistants-too-embarrassed-swisher-goode-podcast

Right around :32 minute mark, he teases about Alexa controlling everything Sonos does, evens hints at Apple Music being controlled by Alexa. Possible? Maybe...
Enthusiast I
February 8, 2018
Great new feature, but I don't see any way to play from my music library. Is that in the works?

Some interesting discussion in this podcast with Patrick Spence: https://www.recode.net/2018/2/2/16961978/sonos-patrick-spence-apple-homepod-alexa-virtual-assistants-too-embarrassed-swisher-goode-podcast

Right around :32 minute mark, he teases about Alexa controlling everything Sonos does, evens hints at Apple Music being controlled by Alexa. Possible? Maybe...


I highly doubt it given the Sonos One still seems incapable of playing audio for any added Alexa skills. She responds like she will play the request but then you get silence. A bit like the Sonos support team, it looks like they're going to respond to this issue (since October) but then silence...
UKMedia
February 8, 2018
Great new feature, but I don't see any way to play from my music library. Is that in the works?

Some interesting discussion in this podcast with Patrick Spence: https://www.recode.net/2018/2/2/16961978/sonos-patrick-spence-apple-homepod-alexa-virtual-assistants-too-embarrassed-swisher-goode-podcast

Right around :32 minute mark, he teases about Alexa controlling everything Sonos does, evens hints at Apple Music being controlled by Alexa. Possible? Maybe...


I highly doubt it given the Sonos One still seems incapable of playing audio for any added Alexa skills. She responds like she will play the request but then you get silence. A bit like the Sonos support team, it looks like they're going to respond to this issue (since October) but then silence...


It must be your pleasant attitude when dealing with people on the forum - Reap what you sow!
Remember: Sometimes Red Wine helps :)
Enthusiast I
February 9, 2018
Great new feature, but I don't see any way to play from my music library. Is that in the works?

Some interesting discussion in this podcast with Patrick Spence: https://www.recode.net/2018/2/2/16961978/sonos-patrick-spence-apple-homepod-alexa-virtual-assistants-too-embarrassed-swisher-goode-podcast

Right around :32 minute mark, he teases about Alexa controlling everything Sonos does, evens hints at Apple Music being controlled by Alexa. Possible? Maybe...


Thanks for the link. He said they are doing work into tying (alexa) into all the services that sonos supports and that alexa does not have access to itunes & apple music but sonos does and so they are hoping to deliver this later this year, we think we can bridge that gap we are working on this right now. This is good news if it happens and makes sense because sonos already has all the hooks into itunes and apple music they just need to make a recipe for alexa to link into the sonos code that controls this. Once this happens I will be buying my first alexa device (probably a dot, already have 3 sonos's)Since apple seems unwilling to open siri up that much to 3rd parties, they will push me to get one that does.
Enthusiast I
February 10, 2018
Great new feature, but I don't see any way to play from my music library. Is that in the works?

Some interesting discussion in this podcast with Patrick Spence: https://www.recode.net/2018/2/2/16961978/sonos-patrick-spence-apple-homepod-alexa-virtual-assistants-too-embarrassed-swisher-goode-podcast

Right around :32 minute mark, he teases about Alexa controlling everything Sonos does, evens hints at Apple Music being controlled by Alexa. Possible? Maybe...


I highly doubt it given the Sonos One still seems incapable of playing audio for any added Alexa skills. She responds like she will play the request but then you get silence. A bit like the Sonos support team, it looks like they're going to respond to this issue (since October) but then silence...


It must be your pleasant attitude when dealing with people on the forum - Reap what you sow!


Interesting theory. So you're saying that my antagonistic posts are the cause of the Sonos One not working as advertised? Wouldn't that cause a temporal paradox? How would they know I would respond that way when they're not working, and how can I be sure my response was not triggered by the fact they're not working? Maybe Alexa can time travel?

Yes guilty m'laud for some snippy posts, but there are several threads asking about this, some have been going since October, and in at least one of those it is stated that this functionality indeed does not yet work on the Sonos One (see below).

https://en.community.sonos.com/amazon-alexa-and-sonos-229102/sonos-one-not-playing-alexa-output-6792472

Despite this, there are other threads that suggest if you get the silent treatment from Alexa, reset everything and delete everything, and disable and re-enable everything, clear your caches, browse in private mode and change your social security number and... it won't change a thing!

So that was the reason I was grumpy... honestly I am not a complete douche, but it's kind of like when you call tech support for your internet service provider and they make you clear your cache, reset your browser (and forget everything) and reinstall Windows/macOS and buy a new laptop and go on a diet for 3 weeks... and then after you've tried everything they ask, they finally say "there's an outage in your area"... If that doesn't frustrate you, I bow to your superior disposition, I really do.

-Peace
Ryan S
Ryan SAuthor
Retired Sonos Staff
February 10, 2018
I highly doubt it given the Sonos One still seems incapable of playing audio for any added Alexa skills. She responds like she will play the request but then you get silence. A bit like the Sonos support team, it looks like they're going to respond to this issue (since October) but then silence...

I'm sure I've responded to this thread and others since October... But we're happy to help where we can.

Most Alexa skills will work great with the Sonos One, but we've found that some skills that play audio which isn't just Alexa's text to speech could run silent. We're working with the teams involved to get it working great across all skills, so you can count on that to get better over time. Also, if there's a skill in particular that you find is always silent, let me know and I'll pass it along to them to look into.

As to the Echo features of Alexa, many of them are already on Sonos and we're working to bring more as well. Some features, like the Calling, Messaging, and Drop In are only available on some Echo devices at this time and aren't available on other Alexa enabled devices. I can't speak to the future on that one, but if there's any news to share we'll let everyone know.

If you're having trouble with your Sonos One, I'd recommend give us a call on our support line so we can help live. I know some of the basic troubleshooting does seem very basic, "turn it off and on again", but when it comes to getting all the necessary moving parts behind the scenes to snap into alignment, that's often what it takes.
Mark good posts by pressing the like button, and select the best answer on questions you've asked to help others find solutions.
Enthusiast I
February 10, 2018
I highly doubt it given the Sonos One still seems incapable of playing audio for any added Alexa skills. She responds like she will play the request but then you get silence. A bit like the Sonos support team, it looks like they're going to respond to this issue (since October) but then silence...

I'm sure I've responded to this thread and others since October... But we're happy to help where we can.

If you're having trouble with your Sonos One, I'd recommend give us a call on our support line so we can help live. I know some of the basic troubleshooting does seem very basic, "turn it off and on again", but when it comes to getting all the necessary moving parts behind the scenes to snap into alignment, that's often what it takes.


OK I'll call.

Here's an example of what I have experienced. I have an Alexa Skill called Babbling Brook. The skill recommends you try something like "Alexa, start babbling brook". So I did. Here's what happened...

Alexa replied with "Babbling brook will only play for one hour, but if you try saying 'loop on' it will loop continuously until you say 'Alex, stop'. Now playing, Babbling Brook". Then silence.

So I know she heard me. I know the response was correct, but the sound does not play. The Sonos app does not show any sound playing.

I have the BBC set up as my flash briefing, and when I ask for my flash briefing, I get a news summary, but it's playing from TuneIn. I think this works because TuneIn is an native Sonos application.

I've added Podcast skills, and Alexa will respond by saying she's about to play a podcast (if I name the Skill), but then silence. If I ask for the Podcast to played without naming a skill, she'll play it happily from TuneIn. Actually the TuneIn integration is fantastic, beyond brilliant, it really is.

So just now I added a skill called 'Premier League' - it works fine. Why? Because all of the audio is Alexa answering questions, it's not trying to play audio from the app itself.

So for me, I cannot get ANY added skill from Alexa to work that requires audio to be played from anything other than TuneIn or Alexa's own voice.
March 14, 2018
Has anyone gotten this integration to work with podcasts from Spotify?

I would like to play "The Vergecast" from Spotify on my Sonos speakers, but Alexa can't find that in Spotify. I know that Sonos supports Pocket Casts, which would be the ultimate solution if Amazon were to introduce support for that, so trying to play from Spotify instead is my current stop gap.
Lyricist I
May 21, 2018
Close, but no cigar.

I stayed away from another brand that rhymes with scrapple to avoid being limited to the streaming services I had access to. I am sort of bummed that I can only access Amazon music from my echo. The other functions work, but I wish it wasn't so selfish. Sonos uses a lot of streaming services, why does Amazon not allow it to search all of them?
jgatie
May 21, 2018
Close, but no cigar.

I stayed away from another brand that rhymes with scrapple to avoid being limited to the streaming services I had access to. I am sort of bummed that I can only access Amazon music from my echo. The other functions work, but I wish it wasn't so selfish. Sonos uses a lot of streaming services, why does Amazon not allow it to search all of them?


I imagine that is a question for Amazon.