Retired Sonos Staff

New to Sonos or Alexa? How to set up

Forum|Forum|9 years ago
October 3, 2017
194 replies
139172 views

So you have an Alexa device and Sonos players, where do you go next?

1. Make sure your Sonos and Alexa devices are all powered up and connected to the network.

If you're new to Sonos, this means Installing the Sonos app, and going through the steps for Setting up Sonos here.

If you're new to Alexa, install the Alexa app (currently only available in the US, UK, and Germany) and make sure your Alexa device(s) show up. They will be listed under Settings > Devices. Amazon has a setup guide for the Echo Dot here.

2. In the Alexa app, search for and add the Alexa Skill for Sonos.

3. Follow the on-screen prompts to authenticate your Amazon account, then your Sonos account.

4. Finally, inside your Alexa app, select discover devices under Smart Home or on the Sonos skill page.

You are now ready to try out some commands! There’s a great, comprehensive list here.

Wondering how it all works? Check out the How it works thread.

If you run into any trouble, please feel free to take a look here to start, or ask any question in the Amazon Alexa and Sonos forum.

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Show previous replies

melvimbe

I don't think Ryan ac921o1 meant to imply that you can create permanent groups in Sonos, just that you have grouped them in the app first, then tell Alexa to play a song to one of the speakers in the group.

For me, I almost always have my bedroom and bathroom grouped. It doesn't go away often, because I never ungroup them. Therefore "Alexa, play Weird Al in the bedroom" plays it in both plays synced.

Danny

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Skelton

Prodigy I

So I have to assume there is some commercial arrangement in place between Sonos and Amazon which currently prevents them offering spotify via this release.

There's no evidence to support that. A more logical understanding would be that Spotify and Sonos already have considerable functionality beyond the "standard" Alexa functions which were delivered in this beta skill. It's more reasonable to assume that they didn't want to deliver a compromised offering, and also not hold off on what's currently available until that enhanced functionality was ready.

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Billy73

Lyricist II

I must say that personally I’m really disappointed that this doesn’t allow me to select and play from my own music library. I don’t use streaming or hosted services as music I like isn’t typically available on them. The ability to select music from a known library on a local drive already in the Sonos ecosystem must be possible. It’s interesting that this use case wasn’t prioritised; but I’m perhaps in a minority here....

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ac921ol

Avid Contributor I

I don't think Ryan ac921o1 meant to imply that you can create permanent groups in Sonos, just that you have grouped them in the app first, then tell Alexa to play a song to one of the speakers in the group.

For me, I almost always have my bedroom and bathroom grouped. It doesn't go away often, because I never ungroup them. Therefore "Alexa, play Weird Al in the bedroom" plays it in both plays synced.

Bingo, that's what I do as well, bathroom and bedroom are always linked, so it works perfect for me.

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Steven C

Lyricist I

Finally! Good integration and intuitive.... and works with existing speakers. Thank you. When I saw the announcement for the One - with integrated Alexa, I thought that was the totality of the Alexa integration, which would have been disappointing.

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Skelton

Prodigy I

I must say that personally I’m really disappointed that this doesn’t allow me to select and play from my own music library... It’s interesting that this use case wasn’t prioritised; but I’m perhaps in a minority here....

I agree, I wish it was available too. I also wish the ability to change inputs on the Playbase/bar was out there.

I'll make these two points though. I think local play is the minority. Streaming is how most people in the US consume their music. Additionally, from a technical standpoint it will have been easier to deliver the features in this first release than things not inherently part of Alexa.

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Erica_1

Contributor I

Thank you melvimbe for explaining. I've grouped the speakers in my Sonos app and will try to leave them that way. The way I'm doing this is I grouped all the speakers together and then told Alexa to play Pandora in the 'kitchen'. Because they are all grouped together it turns on all of the speakers. Now how do I tell Alexa to turn up the volume? If I tell Alexa to turn up the volume in the kitchen will it actually turn up all the speakers because they are grouped?

jgatie

I agree, I wish it was available too. I also wish the ability to change inputs on the Playbase/bar was out there.

I'll make these two points though. I think local play is the minority. Streaming is how most people in the US consume their music. Additionally, from a technical standpoint it will have been easier to deliver the features in this first release than things not inherently part of Alexa.

A few years back, Sonos released some information they gathered about usage, and online streaming was 93% of the usage on Sonos, with local libraries being the other 7%. It most certainly has risen from that figure by now.

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Grrrrallye

Lyricist I

I'm another that would like to be able to play from you library as well. I don't use streaming services (just happen to have amazon prime at the moment) but all my music is stored on a NAS drive that I would much rather use.
That said, so far very impressed with how easy it was to set up and use once i had un grouped speakers.
Best tip so far is to set speaker names to be simple so its easier for Alexa

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scottreadman

Trending Lyricist I

Is there a way to test this without having an amazon music account? Currently when I ask it to play to living room the echo listens but does or says nothing. I only have Spotify setup on my echo.

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