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Amazon Echo / Dot and Sonos Integration

Forum|Forum|10 years ago
September 14, 2016
190 replies
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So with Sonos integrating Amazon Echo within their eco system a couple of questions:

- If I install an Amazon Echo Dot in each room that I have Sonos speakers in will I be able to assign that particular dot to that rooms speakers? For example, I don't want to ask Alexa a question and then have all of the households Sonos speakers respond.

- I assume using the Dots that as well as having full control of Sonos Music system I will also have full use of the usual Amazon Echo services i.e. Alexa, what's the weather forecast, and it will use that particular rooms Sonos speakers to respond?

The potential is quite compelling if it's implemented well but good to get some clarification.

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Best answer by Ryan S

We can mark this request/question as answered now! Alexa integration is now live with our beta skill for Amazon Alexa. Check out the announcement here. Also, there's some info on the Sonos One here.

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spcdustAuthor

Avid Contributor I

Airgetlam

Maybe I didn't explain myself very well. The fact that Sonos don't have, and likely never will have Bluetooth capability means they cannot connect to Echo Spots over Bluetooth like some of their competitors. However if they allowed a Dot to connect to different Sonos speaker groups in another way, say at Firmware level, then they could make the integration so much slicker than the competition.

Airgetlam

spcdust,

I think you've just confused me more. But that's OK, I get your general direction, regarding a firmware connection between Sonos and the Echo ecosystem. I would certainly hope that it heads in that direction, although I'm doubtful about how much "integration" would occur without Amazon purchasing Sonos (or vice versa, if you want to smile a bit). But the tighter the integration, the better for those of us who already use both devices, to be sure.

I'm just 99% convinced that there won't be a bluetooth connection involved, between the speaker and anything. But as I say, I could be wrong.

It will be interesting to see where they end up.

Bruce

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spcdustAuthor

Avid Contributor I

spcdust,

I think you've just confused me more. But that's OK, I get your general direction, regarding a firmware connection between Sonos and the Echo ecosystem. I would certainly hope that it heads in that direction, although I'm doubtful about how much "integration" would occur without Amazon purchasing Sonos (or vice versa, if you want to smile a bit). But the tighter the integration, the better for those of us who already use both devices, to be sure.

I'm just 99% convinced that there won't be a bluetooth connection involved, between the speaker and anything. But as I say, I could be wrong.

It will be interesting to see where they end up.

I think we are likely reading from the same Hymn Sheet here and ultimately it's all speculation but, like yourself, I would like to see a tighter integration than just simple commands that control Sonos. Time will tell.

Ken_Griffiths

I just see the Amazon 'dots' being assigned over wifi to a Sonos room or zone, during their integration setup, like you would with any other Sonos device and It's resonse to 'nearby' voice commands, will be 'constrained' just to that same assigned area (usually where the ’dot' is located), but you can play, stop pause the music etc. in ANY room or zone, or grouped areas.

I think it makes sense to have each 'dot' attached to a zone and direct its responses just to that one room or maybe the 'user-assigned, rooms that have temporarily been grouped to it's assigned default zone.

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spcdustAuthor

Avid Contributor I

I just see the Amazon 'dots' being assigned over wifi to a Sonos room or zone, during their integration setup, like you would with any other Sonos device and It's resonse to 'nearby' voice commands, will be 'constrained' just to that same assigned area (usually where the ’dot' is located), but you can play, stop pause the music etc. in ANY room or zone, or grouped areas.

I think it makes sense to have each 'dot' attached to a zone and direct its responses just to that one room or maybe the 'user-assigned, rooms that have temporarily been grouped to it's assigned default zone.

That's how I would envisage it.

jgatie

I gotta say spcdust, you've got me convinced. It's not something I thought of before, but now that I hear it, it's a good implementation.

chicks

Echo currently lets you select your default music source (I have it set to Spotify right now). I would expect the same sort of configuration for each Dot, to select a default speaker/stereo pair. Don't know why not, anyhow. But just a guess...

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Andy_39

Contributor I

I don't particularly see the Sonos unit needing to be the "Voice of Alexa". I had my dot hooked to my play:5 as the voice and really found no use for it being the voice of Alexa. The only real reason I had it hooked was so I could use voice control to play music - which I found very limited because I do not have Spotify and Amazon music library is not very vast. So I ended up removing it from my play:5 and let the dot just speak from its own speaker. Once Sonos adds the ability to control music via Sonos then that will cover my desire to be able to ask for music and have it play.

Note: Not only did the play:5 being hooked to the dot not do me a lot of good. The play:5 would take about a second or two to come out of standby and I would miss the first word or 2 Alexa would respond with.

I believe you can adjust Play:5 settings to Autoplay from Line-In. Would this solve the issue?

Paulw123

Virtuoso

No , as sonos has said it will work with all play units, and a play1 has no line-in. It will all be done over wifi, I guess with alexa grouping, un-grouping or using the sonos groupings...I can't see sonos giving away control of grouping, so alexa will have to access it only.
Control of grouping seems to have been what killed "play on sonos", so hopefully with full alexa intergration this will be solved......now what about the other elephant...bbc iplayer 😉...might have to wait for googles voice offering launch in October.

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Ed Edwards

Lyricist III

I expect Sonos to keep the overall experience as consistent with the current experience as they can. Right now if you want to listen to Spotify you set up an account with Spotify on their app, and you set up Spotify as a source on Sonos' app. It "should" work similar with Echo and Sonos. You'd set up Sonos on the Echo app, and then Set Echo as a service on the Sonos app.

That way when you command Echo to play music it knows you are talking about Sonos, and knows what credentials to send to Sonos' server. Via the Sonos app, Sonos knows which zone is the Echo default and what other zones or groups you have, so it can respond properly to the instructions it gets from Amazon.

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