Groups and Alexa commands

Forum|Forum|7 years ago
December 26, 2018
15 replies
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Hi guys. I have a playbar and two Alexa enabled Sonos ones setup as a surround system in the lounge. I now also have another Alexa enabled One in the kitchen. When I’m playing music in the lounge I can ask Alexa to play in the kitchen, but it stops playing in the lounge. How do I get it to play in the kitchen as well as the lounge? Meaning play everywhere instead of transferring from one to the other

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Best answer by jgatie

You can use the Sonos app to group them together after they are already playing.

You can also create an Alexa Group. To do this:

Using the Alexa app, you can go into the Devices tab (last one on the right) and select the + at the top to make an Alexa group. Just assign it a name, an *Alexa-enabled device, and then the other smart home devices that are part of the group, including Sonos speakers. Once the group is made, tap on it from the main Devices page to set your Sonos speakers in it to be Preferred Speakers.

Please note, microphone enabled Sonos speakers can only be in one Alexa Group at one time for now, but the non-microphone enabled ones can be in multiple groups.

So in your case, you can make a group (call it something distinctive, like "Lounge and Kitchen"). Then use the process above to select the little speakers icons labelled Lounge and Kitchen. Then, at the bottom of the page, tap Preferred Speakers, and again select Lounge and Kitchen. Save.

Now, when you say "Alexa, play XXXX in Lounge and Kitchen" it will play in both. You can set up similar groups like "Upstairs", "Downstairs", etc.

*Note: It is not necessary to select an Alexa enabled device. This is only necessary if you want the device to always default to the group of speakers, without having to say "Alexa play XXXX in (room name)". Setting the Alexa enabled device eliminate the need for "room name".

See this link for a big discussion on Alexa Groups:

https://en.community.sonos.com/announcements-228985/sonos-now-playing-with-alexa-groups-6817588

Show previous replies

UKMedia

Sonos skills and groups clashing somehow maybe???

I've found that some Alexa updates break the linking of the Alexa and Sonos accounts, a Disable followed by Enable fix this.

Remember: Sometimes Red Wine helps :)

D

DiscozombieAuthor

Contributor I

I tried disabling and re enabling the sonos skill in Alexa last night and again tried to make a group called everywhere with all sonos ones included. Still can’t figure out why they won’t all switch on when asked 😞

UKMedia

I tried disabling and re enabling the sonos skill in Alexa last night and again tried to make a group called everywhere with all sonos ones included. Still can’t figure out why they won’t all switch on when asked :(

Hi

Can you just confirm if you are including your speakers in the Group or Preferred Speakers? Also what command are you using?

Remember: Sometimes Red Wine helps :)

D

DiscozombieAuthor

Contributor I

Hi there. As above - playbar and 2 sonos ones set up as lounge surround. 1 sonos one in the kitchen

Alexa will swap between these two (sonos) groups via the Alexa Sonos skill by saying ‘play this song in the kitchen’ or ‘play this song in the lounge’ depending where I am.

I’ve made an alexa group called ‘everywhere’, have added all three sonos ones and made them all preferred.

With a song playing in lounge (or kitchen) I say ‘play this song everywhere. Alexa acknowledges and says ‘playing this song on everywhere’. But the other speaker doesn’t activate, just carry’s on playing in whichever room it was already playing in.

I’ve tried making some speakers preferred and not others but no matter what I do it won’t work. I’ve tried the command ‘play on all speakers’ but no good. I’ve tried making a kitchen group and a lounge group and using the command ‘play this in the lounge and the kitchen’ but that isn’t recognised.

I just want to be able to play whatever song happens to be playing on any one of my speakers on the rest of them with a voice command. As I said, I’d like to add more speakers upstairs over time and this feature would be perfect (ie, playing a song in the lounge - ‘Alexa, play this song everywhere’ - song plays on all speakers). I hope this all makes sense. I know it isn’t the end of the world if this isn’t supported but surely it would be a good thing to be able to do?

UKMedia

Hi

If these are set-up as Preferred Speakers with the Sonos One as the Alexa Controlling device, you don't need to mention the Group name in the command. As per Scenario One in this post:

https://en.community.sonos.com/amazon-alexa-and-sonos-229102/an-overview-and-explanation-of-the-new-support-for-alexa-grouping-6817788/index1.html#post16298346

Can you try 'Alexa, Play Piano Chill Playlist' and see what happens?

Commands like 'Play this song everywhere' isn't a correct command and Alexa is interpreting I suspect.

Remember: Sometimes Red Wine helps :)

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