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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Stuart_W

World-Class Superstar

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?

It will either be because the technical challenges in implementing voice search and control for a multitude of music services is far from trivial.

Or it will be because Sonos want to restrict the usability of voice integration by limiting control to one music service.

You decide.

Arc + Sub (Gen 1) + 2 x Play 1/ Stereo Play 3s/ Era 100 Stereo in Kitchen, One Stereo in Bedroom, Play 1 stereo pair in Study, Play 1in Bathroom, Sonos Move 2

UKMedia

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?

Have you added those same music services to the Alexa app? The Alexa search should follow this order:

1. Your default music source, set within Alexa App> settings
2. Amazon music
3. Any other music service identified within the Alexa App

Or you can force Alexa to a specfic music source by including it within the command. e.g. 'Alexa, play soft jazz playlist from Spotify'

Remember: Sometimes Red Wine helps :)

K

Kumar

When using the Echo Spot with the Sonos Alexa integration, for what sources of music does the Spot show the artwork of the track that is playing?
PS: Duplicated question, please ignore it.

J

jmkingsbury

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.”

Well it doesn't work on my Sonos Ones (Ive got 3) if I turn them off and back on again.....

Ryan SAuthor

Retired Sonos Staff

That's odd, jmkingsbury. I'd recommend that you give us a call on our support line if you haven't had a chance yet. They'll help sort it out for you. This could be a conflicting account, or perhaps a problem with naming or the connections.

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

melvimbe

That's odd, jmkingsbury. I'd recommend that you give us a call on our support line if you haven't had a chance yet. They'll help sort it out for you. This could be a conflicting account, or perhaps a problem with naming or the connections.

@Ryan, jmkingbury went into more detail about his situation here

Danny

Ryan SAuthor

Retired Sonos Staff

Thanks! I had thought he might have. The invite still stands if he wants to work with a technician to make sure everything is as optimized as it can be. The slow recovery could be due to something local.

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

K

KM4ME

Avid Contributor I

I’ve just come back to sonos and am using Alexa to control my play 5 and 2 play ones.

it might be a silly question but does using Alexa to control Apple Music have any effect on audio quality? I seem to be detecting a slightly lower quality stream using Alexa vs using the sonos app

am I crazy?

missyagogo

Avid Contributor I

Ryan, after reading your opening post, I can only say that Alexa and Sonos do not always “just work.”

I have had numerous times where Alexa stops responding to my Sonos Ones/Sonos Beam setup. There is not always a Sonos app software update (software updates sometimes cause Alexa glitches; I am not sure why, but I now always check if Alexa is acting glitchy to see if an update is needed). Sometimes there is a Sonos software update, but it doesn’t always fix Alexa’s lack of response to my Sonos Ones and Sonos Beam.

The only sure-fire way I have found to get Alexa functioning again is the nuclear option: deregistering all devices via the alexa.amazon.com website, disabling the Sonos skill, removing Alexa from all rooms/Sonos speakers, signing out of all Sonos and Amazon products, restarting my phone … and painstakingly adding it all back again. But why is this necessary?

Again, why is this necessary? I have seen numerous complaints on here about these issues--Alexa and Sonos not communicating properly. Alexa was working fine, but now she doesn’t respond to Sonos.

The fix is for the Sonos developers to take these complaints seriously and work with the appropriate Amazon dev team to get to the bottom of why these glitches happen. In my case, sometimes they appear to affect one or two skills, but if left unchecked, it ends up affecting all skills; i.e., a nonresponsive Alexa that needs the nuclear option in order to once again function with Sonos.

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