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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Feenix7

Lyricist II

I'm confused. I have the newer play5s. Both grouped as Living Room. I updated my app. I updated my Sonos system. I even scanned devices in Alexa app (but not sure if Sonos should show up there or not (it does not). I say things like "Alexa, play jazz in the living room" and she says things like "I cannot do that in the living room" and other versions of "no".

I have Hue bulbs that are grouped as Living Room too. Any ideas what I should be saying? How I should be saying it? Or why I am having problems?

jgatie

Been waiting a long time for this - it's really great! My question for someone in the know:

I can enable two rooms to play from Pandora if I ask Alexa separately, i.e., one at a time. Is there something I'm missing to play in each room with just one command?

Thanks.

Grouping functionality is not in this release, though it may be planned for the future. For now, you need to Group via the app, then you can use a voice command to either room and it will play in both. Or vice versa, voice to play in a room, then Group via the app.

J

jvettrus

Lyricist II

Anyone know if there's a command to have Alexa play "TV" audio on Sonos?

jgatie

I'm confused. I have the newer play5s. Both grouped as Living Room. I updated my app. I updated my Sonos system. I even scanned devices in Alexa app (but not sure if Sonos should show up there or not (it does not). I say things like "Alexa, play jazz in the living room" and she says things like "I cannot do that in the living room" and other versions of "no".

I have Hue bulbs that are grouped as Living Room too. Any ideas what I should be saying? How I should be saying it? Or why I am having problems?

More than likely it is defaulting to the bulbs. Name the bulbs "Living Room Lights" or something similar (or name the Sonos "Living Room Sonos".

C

castalla

Local Superstar

..... so how to command Playlists and/or Favourites ?

It's the courageous bee's knees - all 6 🐝🐝🐝🐝🐝🐝. - - - - - Make Sonos Great Again - - - - -

B

BriPink

Contributor I

It's a bummer that none of this works with my local music library. If all this does is allow you to tell Sonos to play the same streaming sources that Alexa can already play natively, what's the point of going with Sonos instead of simply connecting your Echo Dot to some nice speakers?

Ryan SAuthor

Retired Sonos Staff

+1 on the 'Stop Playing" bug. Alexa wont stop playing music on a Sonos player even though she was able to start it.

Alexa might not be hearing the room name right, so make sure that it's picking up the one you want. For troubleshooting, try some of the suggestions here. What command are you using? Word for word is really important.

If I ask Alexa to start playing music in the bedroom all the Sonos speakers will play. Should it be possible to just start playing on one speaker or do I need to group/ungroup in the app before giving the play command?

It'll start playing in all the rooms that are grouped with that player. If you just want to play in that room, you'll need to separate the group out. We'd love to add some grouping features one day, so stay tuned. The skill will get better and have more features over time.

I'm unable to enable the Alexa skill. Despite going through the Amazon and then Sonos dognon pages it still doesnt appear as an enabke skill. Any ideas?

Just making sure, you were able to find the Sonos skill in the Alexa app, right? Once that's done, you need to log in with your Amazon account, then your Sonos account. Once that's done, just discover devices.

Where are you located? Are you in the US, UK or Germany?

Been waiting a long time for this - it's really great! My question for someone in the know:

I can enable two rooms to play from Pandora if I ask Alexa separately, i.e., one at a time. Is there something I'm missing to play in each room with just one command?

Already answered this above, but for now you'll need to target each room individually, or use the Sonos app to group them together.

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

D

deljaso

Lyricist III

I'm confused. I have the newer play5s. Both grouped as Living Room. I updated my app. I updated my Sonos system. I even scanned devices in Alexa app (but not sure if Sonos should show up there or not (it does not). I say things like "Alexa, play jazz in the living room" and she says things like "I cannot do that in the living room" and other versions of "no".

I have Hue bulbs that are grouped as Living Room too. Any ideas what I should be saying? How I should be saying it? Or why I am having problems?

My rooms show up as devices in Alexa app after scanning. You have to search for the sonos skill (and sort by release date, because searching will pull up a lot of non-official apps) to add the skill to your Alexa before searching.

F

Feenix7

Lyricist II

I'm confused. I have the newer play5s. Both grouped as Living Room. I updated my app. I updated my Sonos system. I even scanned devices in Alexa app (but not sure if Sonos should show up there or not (it does not). I say things like "Alexa, play jazz in the living room" and she says things like "I cannot do that in the living room" and other versions of "no".

I have Hue bulbs that are grouped as Living Room too. Any ideas what I should be saying? How I should be saying it? Or why I am having problems?

More than likely it is defaulting to the bulbs. Name the bulbs "Living Room Lights" or something similar (or name the Sonos "Living Room Sonos".

I renamed the sonos pair to Couch. I have nothing else with Couch in the title. I say "Alexa play classical music on the Couch. (I also tried remove the "the" and just said Couch."

It does not work. She tries to play stuff on her own speaker.

It would really help if they had provided more info. I feel like I have no idea how to set this up or how to request from Alexa to play on Sonos.

F

Feenix7

Lyricist II

I'm confused. I have the newer play5s. Both grouped as Living Room. I updated my app. I updated my Sonos system. I even scanned devices in Alexa app (but not sure if Sonos should show up there or not (it does not). I say things like "Alexa, play jazz in the living room" and she says things like "I cannot do that in the living room" and other versions of "no".

I have Hue bulbs that are grouped as Living Room too. Any ideas what I should be saying? How I should be saying it? Or why I am having problems?

My rooms show up in Alexa app after scanning. You have to search for the sonos skill (and sort by release date) to add the skill to your Alexa before searching.

Ahh. this may be it. I had no idea there was a skill involved in this case. Thanks.

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