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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Airgetlam

Laugh. Completely understood. I, too, want it all today 🙂

Bruce

R

rubberduck

Renowned Enthusiast I

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.

How can you do 90% now from a NAS when a local
Library is not supported by Alexa, sort, amazon

Airgetlam

I start play of a playlist from the controller app, and then use the voice controls for everything else. Louder, softer, pause, resume, skip, repeat all work.

Bruce

T

twangus

Lyricist III

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.

I have no insider information, but I wouldn't hold your breath from Apple Music support. It seems like this integration is set up such that Alexa is handling all the syntax processing, searching for music, etc., and then passing it onto the Sonos to play. For that to work, both Alexa and Sonos need to support the music service in question. They both support Spotify and we know that is in the works -- it's just not done yet. But Alexa doesn't support Apple Music.

Again, I don't know for sure, but I don't think you will be able to use Alexa to play songs from Apple Music on a Sonos speaker until Alexa itself supports Apple Music as a service. And who knows when that will happen...

S

Skelton

Prodigy I

twangus, I would agree with your analysis of the situation.

This is why Google "assistant" has been identified as the next target. If Apple wants to play nice then Sonos is going to bring them into the fold, but if not...

L

leathamsw

Lyricist I

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?

Ditto. Is it possible to get Alexa to play in multiple rooms at once?

jgatie

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?

Ditto. Is it possible to get Alexa to play in multiple rooms at once?

Not via voice. But if you group via the app, you can tell Alexa to play to any of the grouped speakers and all in the group will play. You can also group after issuing the voice command.

Voice grouping is said to be in the works for a future release.

A

aaronsen

Lyricist I

After the app update, my Lutron PICO remote no longer allows me to Play/Pause music, Volume up/down and toggle favorites work, I unpaired, and repaired the remote with no luck, anyone else with a remote able to confirm if this is the case for them?

G

gjviiii

Contributor I

After waiting over a year i have to say this is a letdown. I dont understand how Sonos can spend a over a year and they have NOTHING for local libraries. A quick simple search shows others have done it in much less time, without breaking anything else and without being affiliated with Sonos.

https://github.com/rgraciano/echo-sonos

https://emby.media/community/index.php?/forum/174-amazon-alexa/

I'll put this down on my list as a FAIL.

K

Kumar

Pardon me for asking a question that may have been answered.

I notice the with Dot, Sonos will only work in the few countries where Amazon has released Alexa.

Does this limitation apply to Sonos One as well?

And seeing how alike the One is to the play 1, are the heard of music sound quality improvements carried over to installed play 1 units?

And Bruce, many thanks for the PM heads up!

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