Joining the Sonos Echo/Alexa beta

I would be glad to test german commands🆒

jgatie is correct. If there is a private beta going on now from what leaks here seem to say. Historically betas have lasted in the order of 60 days. So my uninformed opinion would be we wouldn't see general release until the September time frame.

First leak was around May 11th in Billboard or Variety, forget which. So, we could be seeing public beta within days...

I think initial leaks were about people being recruited for betas. Not sure I would be that hopeful for public beta that quickly. Seems we have just recently been seeing some great NDA breachers asking questions about beta.

Well I have been using Alexa with sonos for a while now. I use Indigo Dominic's smart home software together with IFTTT to control sonos. Basically Alexa triggers IFTTT. IFTTT triggers Indigo, and Indigo triggers sonos. I have created some presets to turn on my commonly used stations in a few different sonos zones. I also created a stop command and volume control. It's a little bit of a pain to set up, but it is doable.
Problem is that when music is blasting, Alexa can't hear you clearly enough to receive a command.

Also, since the novelty wore off, I rarely use Alexa to control Sonos.

Voice is great for playing a quick random song. It's not for listening to multiple songs where the controller is far superior.

Voice is great for playing a quick random song. It's not for listening to multiple songs where the controller is far superior.

I have a Dot into my Connect. I use it often to play songs from an artist, play an entire album, or a radio station from TuneIn. The controller is required to search for things I can't remember by name. Voice will complement the controller software, but will never replace it.

I don't know, they run a pretty solid (although single core) ARM chip at >800mhz. The Sonos by comparison seem to be able to do it with much less processing power.

Bigger question, would Amazon really want to build this into the echo? Seems like a weird use case. I love my echo, but the speaker is nothing to write home about.

Looks like Amazon plans to improve the sound quality of Echo speakers before the end of the year...

https://www.engadget.com/2017/07/12/amazon-echo-homepod/

I would be glad to test german commands🆒

I think it is highly unlikely that anyone except Amazon-US accounts will be able to use the Alexa integration. Amazon's support for Alexa is half-assed in the UK and Germany with so many features missing (eg the ability to understand artist names or album names), only the USA is properly supported. This could change in time for Sonos, but Amazon have shown a total lack of urgency in updating the non-US Skills services so far.

I would be glad to test german commands🆒
I think it is highly unlikely that anyone except Amazon-US accounts will be able to use the Alexa integration.
No. Nice try to tell a scary story, though. 😉

I would be glad to test german commands🆒
I think it is highly unlikely that anyone except Amazon-US accounts will be able to use the Alexa integration.
No. Nice try to tell a scary story, though. ;)

I hope you are right, but I also worry about this, So many skills do not make it outside the US, Mainly because the underlying developer API's are currently only available in the US, for example

The entertainment API for controlling connected speakers etc https://developer.amazon.com/blogs/alexa/post/78f44d51-5bdf-4a4c-8eaa-57d1282c8212/introducing-entertainment-capabilities-in-alexa-smart-home-new-device-controls-for-tvs-av-receivers-and-ir-hubs

And all the Slot types related to music functionality, artists tracks etc https://developer.amazon.com/public/solutions/alexa/alexa-skills-kit/docs/built-in-intent-ref/slot-type-reference

However Sonos have usually done a great job supporting users internationally so I remain hopeful that the level of partnership with Amazon means that they wont be encumbered by these limitations by the time the integration is available