Play One for kids' rooms - any way to disable Alexa other than the mute button?

Forum|Forum|8 years ago
October 11, 2017
5 replies
3126 views

I know that you can press the mute button on top to prevent the mic listening in for privacy reasons but for using Play:One in kids' rooms where I simply don't want my kids to use the Alexa feature to ask for an endless string of knock knock jokes is there a way to disable it that's more permanent?

Out of the box is Alexa enabled? Or is it only active (listening, responding, etc) if one logs into an Amazon account and links the Play:One to it, enables Alexa skills, etc. Those are things a kid can't do and so it would effectively disable the Alexa feature for my purposes. But if out of the box Alexa has some functionality then I suspect it's likely more of a distraction than we want in the rooms where they're theoretically doing homework. 🙂

Disable Alexa

This topic has been closed for further comments. You can use the search bar to find a similar topic, or create a new one by clicking Create Topic at the top of the page.

Best answer by Ryan S

Mike is correct, it'll have the option for voice control, but you won't need to set it up. After all, the Sonos One is being sold worldwide, including places that don't have Alexa voice yet. Also, there is an option within the settings to turn off the buttons on top of your players. In this cease, it'd disable the top cap capacitive touch. I've tested it out and this will also disable the ability to turn the microphone on or off using the touch. So you could turn off the microphone, then disable the touch surface and it'll stay off until you re-enable the surface and tap the player to turn it on. The other surface buttons wouldn't work either, like volume control, and play/pause. But it might be worth it.

Also, we'll continue to be selling the PLAY:1 alongside the Sonos One. So you could get them one without the microphones if you so choose.

MikeV

Since it sounds like there are plans for multiple voice services to be available through the Sonos One speaker (Alexa first, Google Assistant next, something else down the road?), I would imagine that you will add a voice service to the speaker in a way similar to how you add a music service (though it would apply to just that speaker, rather than the whole Sonos system). So if you don't want the speaker to have a voice service associated with it, you don't add one to it. This is just a guess on my part, since the speaker isn't available yet, but it seems like that would make sense to me.

The S in IOT stands for Security.

BMF

Prodigy III

An option would be to buy a Play One as opposed to a Sonos One ... the older Play One does not have any microphones and cannot act as an Alexa device without adding an Echo Dot.

J

jbsjbsAuthor

Contributor I

Thanks MikeV. I'm not sure whether anyone from Sonos prowls these forums but that was my assumption too, I was just looking for confirmation.

BMF, because I'm not ready to purchase them now, it's more something that I've planned to add to my Sonos system in the future and I'm wondering whether it's going to remain a viable option.

jgatie

Thanks MikeV. I'm not sure whether anyone from Sonos prowls these forums but that was my assumption too, I was just looking for confirmation.

BMF, because I'm not ready to purchase them now, it's more something that I've planned to add to my Sonos system in the future and I'm wondering whether it's going to remain a viable option.

Sonos has stated the Play:1 will be sold in parallel to the Sonos One. So at least for now, the Play:1 is staying in the line-up. Though why they would do that without making it possible to pair the two, I don't know. Perhaps pairing is coming? (pure speculation)

Ryan SAnswer

Retired Sonos Staff

Mike is correct, it'll have the option for voice control, but you won't need to set it up. After all, the Sonos One is being sold worldwide, including places that don't have Alexa voice yet. Also, there is an option within the settings to turn off the buttons on top of your players. In this cease, it'd disable the top cap capacitive touch. I've tested it out and this will also disable the ability to turn the microphone on or off using the touch. So you could turn off the microphone, then disable the touch surface and it'll stay off until you re-enable the surface and tap the player to turn it on. The other surface buttons wouldn't work either, like volume control, and play/pause. But it might be worth it.

Also, we'll continue to be selling the PLAY:1 alongside the Sonos One. So you could get them one without the microphones if you so choose.

Mark good posts by pressing the like button, and select the best answer on questions you've asked to help others find solutions.

Sign up

Login to the community