Priya Abani, director of Alexa Voice Service, announced in April 2018 that third-party Alexa-enabled devices will get calling and messaging abilities. In fact, since August 2018, these key Alexa features have been available on Eufy Genie - a third party Alexa-enabled gadget. Sonos, however, remains tight lipped about its plan. I received my Beam earlier this week and was really excited. I was planning on purchasing two more for the whole family. I'm so disappointed to find out that key features such as calling, messaging, and drop-in are not supported on Sonos Beam or One. It appears that Sonos has no plans to support these features at all. At first, I thought Amazon refuses to allow third-party gadgets to have these features. But, Eufy Genie, a 3rd-party device with an RRP of only $35 (and on sale for $15 on Amazon at time of this post), supports all these features. I would like to ask a couple of questions: Are these key Alexa features on the roadmap of Sonos Beam and Sonos One? Sonos should be transparent so consumers can make informed decisions for this holiday season. If these features will never be introduced to Sonos Beam and Sonos One (but only to a new product), what's Sono's plan on allowing users to use Sonos Beam next to an Echo device? To use voice calling, I keep my Echo in the same room, but Beam and Echo would respond at the same time. I understand it's possible to change the wake word, but it's really dumb that I have to remember Alexa is Beam and Computer is Echo (and they have the same voice!). I appreciate that Sonos is working hard to support more Alexa skills, but those essential communication skills of "Alexa" are equally important. They should not be missing on a $399 device (considering a $15 Eufy Genie has these features). Ryan, I understand Sonos is very careful about announcing new product features under development (especially after the delays of Google Assistant support). But your loyal Sonos customers deserve to know better - at least whether the features are in the product roadmap/backlog. Please convince the management to share more information. I really don't want to return my Beam and I'm willing to wait, but I need to know the features will eventually be available on the current generation of the device - not a Sonos Beam 2. Thanks!

Contributor I

Answered

Amazon Allows Calling and Messaging on Third Party Alexa Devices - Sonos?

Forum|Forum|7 years ago
December 1, 2018
25 replies
10236 views

Priya Abani, director of Alexa Voice Service, announced in April 2018 that third-party Alexa-enabled devices will get calling and messaging abilities. In fact, since August 2018, these key Alexa features have been available on Eufy Genie - a third party Alexa-enabled gadget. Sonos, however, remains tight lipped about its plan.

I received my Beam earlier this week and was really excited. I was planning on purchasing two more for the whole family.

I'm so disappointed to find out that key features such as calling, messaging, and drop-in are not supported on Sonos Beam or One. It appears that Sonos has no plans to support these features at all.

At first, I thought Amazon refuses to allow third-party gadgets to have these features. But, Eufy Genie, a 3rd-party device with an RRP of only $35 (and on sale for $15 on Amazon at time of this post), supports all these features.

I would like to ask a couple of questions:

Are these key Alexa features on the roadmap of Sonos Beam and Sonos One? Sonos should be transparent so consumers can make informed decisions for this holiday season.
If these features will never be introduced to Sonos Beam and Sonos One (but only to a new product), what's Sono's plan on allowing users to use Sonos Beam next to an Echo device? To use voice calling, I keep my Echo in the same room, but Beam and Echo would respond at the same time. I understand it's possible to change the wake word, but it's really dumb that I have to remember Alexa is Beam and Computer is Echo (and they have the same voice!).

I appreciate that Sonos is working hard to support more Alexa skills, but those essential communication skills of "Alexa" are equally important. They should not be missing on a $399 device (considering a $15 Eufy Genie has these features). Ryan, I understand Sonos is very careful about announcing new product features under development (especially after the delays of Google Assistant support). But your loyal Sonos customers deserve to know better - at least whether the features are in the product roadmap/backlog. Please convince the management to share more information.

I really don't want to return my Beam and I'm willing to wait, but I need to know the features will eventually be available on the current generation of the device - not a Sonos Beam 2.

Thanks!

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.

Best answer by Ryan S

Hi TtiGeR, thanks for asking!

We're always looking to improve the Alexa and Sonos integration, both by adding new features and improving existing ones. We're focused on building on the Alexa integration to provide the ultimate music listening experience at home, and will keep on updating it. We don't have any specifics around Messaging and Calling possibly coming to Sonos that I can share. I'll let the team know you're looking for it, and as soon as there's any news, I'll be sure to post it on the community.

As melvimbe suggested, when new features come, assuming the hardware can support them, they'll come to all devices capable of it. Most Alexa features are cloud-based, and therefore the hard work isn't done by the speaker, making it easier to support older hardware and bring them new features.

Show previous replies

M

matthewday88

Lyricist I

Very disappointed drop in, messaging, and calls are not supported. When you spend hundreds and hundreds of dollars on an audio system with Alexa capabilities you expect it to be the best experience.

B

Benikat

Lyricist I

I have an arc and 6 x play 1s through my apartment and find it madness that Alexa calling is not available on the arc, sort it sonos you are spoiling a good product

Krishma M

Retired Sonos Staff

Hi folks and welcome to the new users here. As Ryan said, we're always looking to improve the Alexa and Sonos integration and we’ll make sure your voice is heard and let you know once we have an available update about this feature. Appreciate your patience and understanding.

We and the community are always here to help.

Help others find useful content by clicking the like button and selecting the best answer to your question.

G

Gibby

Lyricist I

I just bought my Sonos one gen 2 and it’s amazing sound but I can’t seem to call my family with Alexa ? Now that I see the form here it looks like Sonos for over 2 years will not answer the question on is this feature coming. That answer is NO if it was coming they would have not been misleading customers for over 2 years.
it’s sad because is sounds beautiful but everyone that has come in my house tries to call my mom on it and they give me a look like it’s broken.

does anyone know of a good 3rd party speaker that sounds good and works with Alexa calling ?

Thanks

M

Mr TVR

Lyricist III

I have just replaced most of my Amazon Alexa devices with Sonos (Sonos Arc, Sonos Sub gen 2, Sonos Amp + 4 off Sonos One and a Sonos Roam) only to find that Sonos doesn’t support mobile calling! This might not be a surprise on some cheap Chinese product from Bangood but I expected Sonos to have this support.

I’m not happy that after spending several thousand on Sonos kit I have effectively lost functionality that I used to have on the much cheaper Amazon devices.

Please can you tell me if a future firmware update is planned to fix this situation?

Sign up

Login to the community