Renaming issue using Alexa smart home groups and Sonos

7[quote=angelr91]Just to put my input in, I've renamed all of the Sonos players by adding SONOS to end of each, this ensures a clear distinction (e.g. Kitchen Sonos, Lounge Sonos, etc) and means that your Alexa group name can be shorter (e.g. Group 'Kitchen' contains Kitchen Echo, Kitchen Main & Kitchen Background lights and Kitchen Sonos)

I had thought of doing this, but I stopped since I wasn't sure how the "living room" room would work as "living room sonos" doesn't fit as there is a character limitation. How did you rename it? Did you rename is something like "LR sonos"? If so, how do you call to alexa to play in the living room sonos? Something like this "alexa, play blah in LR sonos"?[/quote

I used Lounge Sonos instead ?

The Automation Group for the Living Room is called "Living Room"

The Alexa Audio Group that includes the Living Room is called "Downstairs"

There are a pair of S5s on the living room fireplace mantel wired to an Echo Dot called "Mantel". It is part of the "Downstairs" Audio Group

By "Automation Group", are you refering to the smart home groups in Amazon/Alexa? Pretty sure that's what you meant, but Amazon really did a poor job with the naming convention and organization of these features/groups in the Alexa app.


The living room is mostly used for formal entertaining so the lights are called "Formal Lighting". "Formal Lighting" is included in the "Living Room" automation group.

There is a lamp on the end table called "End Table Lamp". It is also part of the "Living Room" automation group.


I see the logic in this, but it becomes a problem when it comes to the names being intuitive and easy to remember. It's not too bad for me, but for other members of the household it's a pain.


Alexa does not seem to get confused about what device or group I am using in a command with this setup. If instead I had called the living room lights "Living Room Lights 1" and the end table lamp "Living Room Lights 2" and kept the automation group name at "Living Room" and called the Echo Dot "Living Room Echo" then I would expect Alexa to get confused, especially if there is background noise or I happen to mumble or am across the room.

Yes, it does, but if I can't remember that I called it End Table lamp instead of Table lamp, then it doesn't really matter whether Alexa understands or not.

I personally like the convention of "Room Name + Device Type". Device type would be Sonos, Echo, light, fan, lamp, etc.

I also want to add that there are going to be some smart devices that you will never (or rarely) do voice commands directly, because they are part of a group. You can use non-'easily pronounced' name for these to keep them "out of the way". For example, I've got 2 lamps in the living room. I call them L1 and L2, and are grouped as Living Room Lamps. I haven't played with it much, but if you're setting up smart groups for the purpose of dropping the room name, then the name of smart group doesn't need to be prouncable either.


Whatever naming convention chosen, be consistent. I made the mistake of sometimes calling the room 'living room', sometimes 'family room'. Changing everything to match correctly is a pain.

I agree that the "Room Name + Device Type" convention is a lot simpler and if I can get Alexa to be reliable going that route I will definitely adopt it. For now though the uniqueness method has solved a lot of problems with Alexa understanding reliably at the expense of my having o remember all of those unique names.

I also need to do more testing of operating devices from the Echo within a Smart Home Group against operating the same device from an Echo outside of the group to be sure whatever methodology I use works well in both situations.

Additionally I need to reconcile my Alexa naming convention to the naming I use in other systems like my Home Automation and Lighting Control systems. In these I also had to wrestle with naming devices based on device location vs. the location of the load they are controlling, etc. They also have concepts like rooms, floors, scenes, and device folders that should somehow be aligned with naming Alexa Smart Home Groups, Audio Groups, Smart Home Scenes, and Alexa Routines. I hope a good methodology emerges that works logically across all platforms without getting Alexa (and me) totally confused.

I myself use the "room name + device type" methodology, and i too have lamps that i have named "left" or "right". However, with hue lightbulbs i am able to create a new "device" that connects then together since i will rarely turn one lamp on and not the other so i have "bedroom lights" or "living room lights" (i only use lamps to light my space up not the overhead lights so this helps to not have another "living room lights" vs a "living room lamps").

I have found the smart groups with alexa helps to really leave out the headache to remember the name as i have played with it and it works marvelously. However, i have this duplicate issue with my sonos being called "living room" and i can't create an alexa smart group called "living room". Therefore i have to figure out if i will call sonos something different and how long it is since i can't add simply the word "sonos" at the end as "living room sonos" is apparently too long of a word. I'm afraid to name my sonos (in the living room) something like "LR sonos" since then i may have to ask alexa to "... play in LR sonos" which is not elegant nor easy to remember or intuitive...

This is actually why i started this discussion in the first place to see if others have faced this problem and what people suggest. So far i'm happy with the turn out this discussion has had.

Has anyone tried naming their speakers after friend's name? Alexa play song on bill, or julie? Then keep lights by room and type? I prefer naming the speaker by room, but it is frustrating when it doesn't recognize. I haven't tried it yet figuring it would be too hard to remember 7 differnt speaker names. But once you remember would it work better?

Or how about something simpler, like "(room name) Sonos" or "(room name) speakers"?

Or how about something simpler, like "(room name) Sonos" or "(room name) speakers"?
That's what I currently have but all my light switches are smart. And Alexa cant consistently understand the difference between living room light, living room sconce, living room fan, and living room Sonos. Maybe I mumble or maybe there is better phonetic names that aren't easily confused. I want simple but I also want it to work.