Disable Sonos One Alexa from playing a sound when I say "Alexa"

Original message posted below; looks like link to it won't get posted:

Keith N Sonos Staff 4082 replies 7 days ago
Hi there! Thanks for the post. If you would like to get in contact with our support team, our contact information can be found here.

If you are looking for a way to change or silence the Alexa response tone/chime, it is not possible through Sonos. I've seen a few threads where people have asked for this, however in most cases, these topics are tagged as feature requests and should have a response from Sonos staff.

I've seen the specific topic you are talking about and it has an answer marked from Ryan S:

Ryan S wrote:
Since the Sonos One doesn't have the light ring that you might find on the Echo Dot, the tone was enabled so that you know when the Sonos One heard you and when it's communicating with the cloud. There isn't a way to turn that off, but I'll pass on your request to the team for you.

Thanks for reaching out!



As of now, we still do not have any information to share regarding changing or silencing the Alexa response tone. However, if that were to change, we will certainly post about it here and make an announcement.

Thanks for your patience.

HelpMe2,

The response you have shown from Ryan S. is not entirely correct, as whilst Sonos does not have the Amazon (blue) ring light, it does light-up/brighten the Status LED light on both the Sonos One and Beam Speakers. So I see that as an adequate replacement for the Echo device circular light. I’m sure, if Sonos wanted to, they could switch off, or perhaps change, this tone. It is most certainly annoying to a lot of people and I include myself on that list.

At the very least it would be nice to change the Sonos device to 'brief mode' (as available through the Alexa App) so that the Sonos Alexa sounds and responses fall in line with the echo responses.

This Sonos Alexa 'notification tone' strikes me as though it is an 'error-tone' and some family and visitors to my home have commented on it.

It does initially cause visitors to pause their own voice instructions, thinking there was some kind of error, as their own Alexa devices don’t bleep at them in this way.

I live in hope that Sonos will fix this issue.

SONOS, please listen to your customers and provide a solution. This hideous dong has no place in these great speakers. I HATE THE ALEXA DONG SOUND in the SONOS ONE.

@HelpMe2

Absolutely nothing new or 'definitive' there. All those replies tell us is that it is not currently possible to disable Amazon's wake sound on Sonos with the software/firmware currently available to us, not that it can't or won't be done.

I actually have a couple of wall mounted units where I can't see the the status light on top of the unit and wouldn't mind the tone remaining on those units if it weren't so annoying. I agree with Ken that Amazon's choice for this sounds like an error tone.

Ken, maybe I'm misreading your post, but don't you have 'Brief Mode' available on your devices? Is that possibly a regional thing, because I've enabled it on all of my Ones.

A lot of times, it's not the tone itself that's bothersome, but that fact that it plays at whatever volume I currently have music set to.

And as far a light goes, like Master T, the light on top isn't always very visible. I've also got into the habit of not looking at the Beam or One while I'm making commands anyway. It typically goes "Alexa" -> [wait for beep] -> "do such and such".

Now that I think about it, if the beep could be replaced with "yes master?", that would be ideal. 😃

@HelpMe2

Absolutely nothing new or 'definitive' there. All those replies tell us is that it is not currently possible to disable Amazon's wake sound on Sonos with the software/firmware currently available to us, not that it can't or won't be done.

I actually have a couple of wall mounted units where I can't see the the status light on top of the unit and wouldn't mind the tone remaining on those units if it weren't so annoying. I agree with Ken that Amazon's choice for this sounds like an error tone.

Ken, maybe I'm misreading your post, but don't you have 'Brief Mode' available on your devices? Is that possibly a regional thing, because I've enabled it on all of my Ones. Yes, you are right master T. I have it under settings so presumably it’s for all Alexa devices.
I have no tone at all on my Amazon echo devices, just a circle of light and after giving an instruction a nice little tone, or sometimes a short reply takes place.. it’s simple and pleasant to listen to.

On my Sonos devices I get the ”BONG” of the 'notification tone' which is like an error sounding bleep to me and really that’s the bit I would like to see turned off... for those people that can’t see their speaker LED light, then by all means leave it on in your settings somewhere, if you want to.

I would just love the option to switch off that tone and to have the LED light be the visible notification.

Very annoying

I cannot believe this is still an issue. There is simple no excuse for the lack of such basic functionality. The sound annoys me, my wife and makes my dog shiver. Please sort this out, it must only be a few lines of code.

It must only be a few lines of code.

The fallacy of this statement has been discussed here repeatedly. The issue is more complex than just code.

That said, I would also like to see this change.

It must only be a few lines of code.

The fallacy of this statement has been discussed here repeatedly. The issue is more complex than just code.

That said, I would also like to see this change.

I may have been a little glib in saying it’s just a few lines of code owing to my frustration. Whatever the reason, it certainly isn’t complex given what is achievable with Alexa and Sonos.