Contributor I

Answered

Recent update now breaking groups with Alexa

Forum|Forum|7 years ago
December 11, 2018
55 replies
3580 views

After an update to the Sonos software this weekend, the Alexa integration is "broken" in that now, starting music using voice commands breaks apart groups of speakers. Are there new commands, or is there a way to roll back the software version to one that actually worked? If this is the "new normal," then I will need to discuss returning all of the Sonos products I own and looking into a new Alexa compatible system.

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Best answer by Ryan S

I posted this in the other thread with the same topic, but so the information is in both threads, here's an update on some things you've noticed.

We're working with Amazon to bring some additional features and improvements to Sonos. These are rolling out in stages, and you've noticed some of them. Not all of the changes are out yet, but I wanted to clarify a few things here for you. We'll make a public announcement when that work's complete.

There are some changes that you're seeing around naming rooms when you go to perform a function. One of these changes is that when you explicitly call out to stop/pause an active Sonos speaker, just that room will stop playing.

"Alexa, stop in living room" will stop the music in just the living room, even if it's grouped with other players in the Sonos app. For example, if the player was grouped with a Sonos speaker in the Kitchen, the two will ungroup, and the Kitchen will keep on playing.

This also includes telling rooms to play music. If the Living Room and Kitchen are grouped in Sonos and not playing music, "Alexa, play in the Kitchen" will remove Living Room from the group in Sonos, and start playing in Kitchen only.

And this applies to Sonos players that have Alexa built in too, so if you have Living Room and Kitchen (a Sonos One) currently grouped and not playing music. Speaking to the Sonos One "Alexa, Play Music," will cause the Sonos One to remove Living Room from the group and start playing on its own.

If you notice Sonos groups changing due to your voice commands, open your Alexa app and look for the new Groups setup. Tap the lower-right icon, a house outline with two levers, to find it. Create an Alexa group with your desired speakers and assign your Alexa or Sonos device as the input for that group. Your voice commands will now use that group without needing to say the location name as part of the command.

You will also notice some other changes soon, and we'll let you know when it's all live. Stay tuned!

Show previous replies

melvimbe

While the cloud release is rolling out, some experiences may change. But currently, if it's an active group, meaning something is currently playing on the Sonos One and other speakers (grouped via Sonos)

Ryan, would a room or group that has music currently passed or has music queued but not playing be considered an active group?

If I may, this is quite unintuitive behavior (Sorry, I'm a UX/Service Designer, so everything is a nail).

I'm not sure there is such a thing as intuitive behavior in this case, or perhaps what's intuitive is different for each person, not really universal. There are so many factors and permutations of executing what you want to do, that I think it's going to be really difficult to find functionally that fits what everyone wants to do with their system intuitively.

A new Sonos One user who brings the device home and hooks it up to their existing setup, groups it with other speakers in the Sonos app and then proceeds to ask Alexa to play something, will be confused and possible frustrated when the music won't play in the entire group.

Yes, this is true. But here's another scenario. A couple is listening to music in a group with the bedroom and kitchen going one evening. Then stop the music and call it a night. One of them wakes up in the morning and stumbles to the kitchen to make some coffee, and ask the echo/sonos one in the kitchen to play some music. Even though kitchen is part of an existing group, you only want music to play in the kitchen so as not to wake up your partner, still asleep in the bedorrm.

I'd say you're scenario and mine are both intuitive response you'd want to see from the system...based on the scenario at hand. But the Sonos/Alexa system doesn't comprehend the scenarios really, and therefore can't give different responses based on these scenarios.

I can imagine this will be similarly frustrating for users who create ad-hoc groups for specific situations. Alexa-created groups are intended to be "permanent" (because they're used in scenes, etc). Sonos groups have a much more flexible nature and lend themselves to the way people use multi-audio in their home.

Agreed, I think. But as I play different scenarios in my head, I don't know that their is a design that makes logical sense for all the scenarios. Or maybe there just needs to be some level of training, it can't just be intuitive to meet all the possible uses cases, and things can work smoothly after the basic training.

I don't have a solution for this, other than to work with Amazon to allow the Alexa app to mirror grouping created in the Sonos app automatically.

I don't know how ad-hoc groups and named groups can mirror each other. That is further complicated by some name groups applying by default if you set it up that way. Or maybe I just not wrapping my head around what you're getting at just yet.

Danny

S

ScottHallAuthor

Contributor I

Ryan - is there somewhere that we can find the new voice commands? "Play Christmas music in Kitchen" no longer works for the group (it now ungroups the speakers), so I set up Alexa groups that include my Sonos speakers. When I say "Alexa, play Christmas music in whole house," (for example) she responds that she can't play music in groups yet.

If this is because further updates are coming, can someone let us know when that update will come? Is there a way to play music where I want it to play using voice commands, or is the Alexa integration, for the time being, rendered, by and large, useless by the "upgrades" being made?

Ryan S

Retired Sonos Staff

While the cloud release is rolling out, some experiences may change. But currently, if it's an active group, meaning something is currently playing on the Sonos One and other speakers (grouped via Sonos)

Ryan, would a room or group that has music currently passed or has music queued but not playing be considered an active group?

There is a bit of a timeout period in which a group becomes no longer active. As this update goes live, there will be some changes. So we'll hold off on specifics until things settle.

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

melvimbe

There is a bit of a timeout period in which a group becomes no longer active. As this update goes live, there will be some changes. So we'll hold off on specifics until things settle.

Ah, that makes since it fits what I was seeing when I was playing around with things.

Danny

G

gio424

Contributor I

It appears that part of the new changes is that Apple Music is now live on Alexa. However, after setting it up properly, it gives a message saying "Apple Music is not supported on this device"

Ryan S

Retired Sonos Staff

It appears that part of the new changes is that Apple Music is now live on Alexa. However, after setting it up properly, it gives a message saying "Apple Music is not supported on this device"

Apple Music is live now on Alexa, but it's not available on Sonos through Alexa at the moment. Rest assured, our team is always interested in helping you control the music services you love with voice. Nothing to share now, but stay tuned. We'll share more as soon as there's any news.

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

C

Caligo

Contributor I

It seems to work if you don't have any room or group active. If you still have an active device or group Alexa will play Spotify on that one only even though you have the new group configured without this particular active zone. Active doesn't mean that it hast to be playing someting.

(edit: it now only plays spotify in the living room no matter what I tell Alexa where to play... how long is this timeout period Ryan mentioned? For testing purposes this information would be seriously useful. I mean we are after all testing it now - feels totally beta.)

I could however witness (in the sonos app) that the grouping works - provided you have your favourite speakers set in the Alexa App. And yes, you need to select every speaker as favourite again even though these are already in the group. At least in my case.

UKMedia

It seems to work if you don't have any room or group active. If you still have an active device or group Alexa will play Spotify on that one only even though you have the new group configured without this particular active zone.
I could however witness (in the sonos app) that the grouping works - provided you have your favourite speakers set in the Alexa App. And yes, you need to select every speaker as favourite again even though these are already in the group. At least in my case.

Can you confirm that you have carried out these steps: Please open the Alexa App>Smart Home>Groups and create an Alexa Group for each Echo device, I call them the room name the Echo device is located in. Then add the Echo & Sonos devices that you want to have music on when music is initiated from each specific Echo device, and then set these Sonos devices as Preferred Speakers. Now ask Alexa for your music and it will group the Speakers in the Sonos App and output to that group.

Edit: I case you are wondering why this solution will work, Amazon have recently released an upgrade which means there is now support for 3rd party speakers via the Preferred Speaker setting. Prior to this Sonos did not support Alexa Groups. I don't think this option is available in all countries yet but if you get the issue of Alexa breaking Sonos Groups then please try the above.

Remember: Sometimes Red Wine helps :)

C

Caligo

Contributor I

Can you confirm that you have carried out these steps: Please open the Alexa App>Smart Home>Groups and create an Alexa Group for each Echo device, I call them the room name the Echo device is located in. Then add the Echo & Sonos devices that you want to have music on when music is initiated from each specific Echo device, and then set these Sonos devices as Preferred Speakers. Now ask Alexa for your music and it will group the Speakers in the Sonos App and output to that group.

The Problem with grouping in my case: I can only select the Echo devices for one group. So provided this is a necessary step to "speak" to the speakers in its group it's therefore not possible to create another group with the same echo device. In my case I'd like to have a group Dining Room as well as a larger group Living Room (which includes players from the Dining Room group). The echo device is however already assigned to Dining Room and not available for other assignements.

Now I wonder if you need to set a Multiroom-Group instead of a "normal" group, but there are no Sonos devices to select when trying to create a group.

Chris

Lead Maestro

You add a regular group. You have to choose an Alexa device for that group to create the group. Once its created you can go into the group and add Sonos speakers to the group and also choose sonos speakers you want to group and play when you use that alexa to play music.

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