Alexa + Sonos: How it Works

Which is to say, it works exactly as the current controller does. You have to actually separate grouped rooms in the controller.

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?

Limiting it to only music Alexa directly knows about makes this the most disappointing introduction of a much-anticipated feature of all time. Seems Alexa isn't really talking to the whole Sonos platform.

The major value of Sonos to me is that it is service-agnostic, so this sucks. My Sonos library is searchable via an API - that's how the client does it. This direction won't really be useful to me until Alexa can be like a full client, with search and control of playback of my library, playlists etc.

Agree 18 months for supposed sonos integration. It in fact it's only integration with streaming services supported by amazon. It doesn't talk to device at all.

Which is to say, it works exactly as the current controller does. You have to actually separate grouped rooms in the controller.
Sure, but in the app, it shows you exactly what is currently grouped so you can edit it before you hit play.

But I get where you are coming from. If you keep your groups relatively static and know that two rooms are always going to be paired together, then I can understand why you wouldn't want it to break those up. But Sonos groups don't seem like they are really designed to be static and that's not how I use them.

Maybe the default behavior could be a user-preference specified in the Alexa skill...

With all due respect not all of us "choose" the way we listen to music...

I do appreciate the lack of planned obsolescence from Sonos overall - I just thought local music would be their first priority.
Semantics. My points all remain.

It isn't logical to me to expect that Sonos would target a smaller, shrinking market first. I will be happy when they do though!

It is still misleading. Sonos is not using Alexa to talk to the sonos devices and control them. It is purely a delivery system that is not agnostic and relies on users being signed and subscribed to a music service. Hat should be made clear.

Yup, I think we all agree. It's a user thing. We're both right, as singular use cases. 🙂

Yep - agreed.

Note that the way I thought grouping would work is that the Sonos speakers would integrate with the Alexa's own multi-room playback grouping.

https://www.theverge.com/2017/8/29/16219978/amazon-echo-multi-room-music-playback-how-to

Those groups do look like they are intended to be static (e.g., a "Downstairs" group with multiple devices).

Personally, that would be ideal for me. I don't actually need to ability to create custom groups on-the-fly using the voice interface. But I would like the ability to issue commands to start playing music in only a single room (i.e., "play X in the kitchen") or among commonly grouped sets of rooms (i.e., "play X downstairs," "play X everywhere," ...).

This has no effect or change for me. I don't have the Amazon music services so I'm stuck with the same old thing. I use Apple Music and can't do a single command non are recognized. I'm a little discouraged as I play around. It's not what was told to us as a group. We were and continue to be sold on the idea that we can control our music with our voice. It seems only with amazon music will this work. Not till today did we find out the limitations of this partnership. Guess I should have seen it before hand. However sonos kept saying control your music with Alexa. Not control your amazon music account via sonos with Alexa. Guess I sit around for another year waiting for Apple to be brought in to the loop. Ugh!!!! Was excited for this until realization hits home.

Actually, it was stated that the the Alexa integration would workwith Echo enabled services "at the least."

Yes, this is version 1.0 of the release. They've stated rather clearly that they're continuing to work on adding features. Would you have preferred if they didn't release it until everything was ship shape and tidy for every user? I'd look at it this way, all the people (like me) who are using it right now are making it better for you when it gets released for Apple music. Think of all the bugs we'll be able to discover, features that we can suggest, before you get your Apple music. It'll be perfect by then!

To be honest, I don't stream much, but I play a lot from an NAS, which isn't yet fully supported by this release. But I'm pleased. I can do 90% of what I need to do via voice, and the rest works in the controller, the same as it did before. As has been pointed out, volume, next, previous, start, pause, all work via voice, if you've already started playing on the app.

Is it perfect right now? Nope, don't think so. But it's a huge step forward, and what they're going to learn based on the thousands/millions of users now using it will be very helpful in the long term.

I hope you can wait it out to bear the benefits.

I can bear with for the benefits. Trust me. I love how my home sounds via sonos. I was discouraged not mad or pissed off. I just really wanted to have it today....... I will use and learn and be ready for Apple Music. I just hope it's around the corner and I'm at the last house from the corner.