setting up multi-room music in Alexa app

Currently the the Alexia/Echo “multiroom” and “everywhere” are restricted to Echo only. I assume this is because either Sonos or Amazon wish you to fill your entire house with just their own speakers. :D

I am hopeful that the Alexa groups can eventually be used to create named groups of Sonos speakers, or Sonos will have a named group feature all of their own. But not at all hopeful that you'll be able to play echos and sonos speakers together. Yes, it has something to do with wanting to sell you're products and make a profit, but the fact that there is any integration at all shows that both companies realize that working together can make both companies more profitable (for now anyway). There is also the fact that Sonos has both companies have their own multiroom protocols. Sonos doesn't want to share that with anyone, and Amazon surely feels the same way. Maybe circumstances will change on that one day.

Just to clarify - you can play music to a group of speakers via voice control but you need to group them in the app first and then ask Alexa to play to any player within the group.
So if I want to use to voice control to play music throughout my house, I have to find my phone, set up a group in the app, and then issue the voice command.

I think we are stretching the definition of voice control here! There needs to be a way to create the group with an Alexa command.

Just to clarify - you can play music to a group of speakers via voice control but you need to group them in the app first and then ask Alexa to play to any player within the group.
So if I want to use to voice control to play music throughout my house, I have to find my phone, set up a group in the app, and then issue the voice command.

I think we are stretching the definition of voice control here! There needs to be a way to create the group with an Alexa command.
Even Alexa does not do that for Amazon devices at the moment... so Sonos may have to wait for Amazon to get that resolved first.

Even Alexa does not do that for Amazon devices at the moment... so Sonos may have to wait for Amazon to get that resolved first.

No waiting is required. Sonos simply needs to add grouping to its API, then Alexa can access those features. Alexa controls thousands of devices. Do you honestly believe that each of those thousands of companies just sat around and waited for Amazon to support them??? No! Each of those companies simply wrote their own API with the features that they need. Once that's done, Alexa is able to access those features.

It's the same thing here, Sonos simply needs to add grouping into its API. Once that's done, Alexa will be able to use the new feature.

My guess is the Sonos team is buried in trying to set up Google Assistant and isn't thinking about anything else at the moment.

Kirk33

So where does the actual creation and interpretation of the initial voice instruction come from then?... such as ... 'Alexa, group my living room with my Lounge' Does that not have to be created by Amazon then ? How will Alexa know and become aware that I’m talking about my speakers and not my Hue Lights or my living room smart plugs, for example?

Calling to the Sonos API features to group my speakers is one thing, but what about the initial Amazon Alexa side of things and it’s interpreter?

Ken, I believe if you simply say "Alexa, tell Sonos..." then Alexa will let the Sonos API handle whatever words come next. Therefore "Alexa, tell Sonos to group all my speakers" is a command that Sonos could create all by themselves. They can do it anytime they want. However, if you simply want to say "Alexa, group all my speakers", then Sonos needs to work with Amazon.

IMO, the "tell Sonos" thing is perfectly acceptable. But that's just me. I want to specify that I'm not an API expert. I believe the above is accurate, but I'm not 100% certain.

The Alexa/Sonos interface was not designed as a "Alexa, tell Sonos" type skill. It is far more versatile and interactive. Being so, it is also far more reliant on development by both Sonos and Amazon for new features.

The Alexa/Sonos interface was not designed as a "Alexa, tell Sonos" type skill. It is far more versatile and interactive. Being so, it is also far more reliant on development by both Sonos and Amazon for new features.

True, the existing command set does not rely on "tell Sonos". That absolutely does NOT mean that new commands can't be added using "tell Sonos". The alternative is that we wait for years, maybe forever, to get Amazon to implement the most basic of Sonos features like grouping. Is that your definition of "versatile"??? I'm sorry, but that sounds insane to me.

Sonos could literally write that API in just a few days, all by themselves. Now THAT is versatile.

Personally, if it required "tell Sonos", I would be looking elsewhere. I suspect others would too and, versatile or not, that is not good for Sonos.

I'm certainly no expert here either, but I would have thought the Alexa voice command would need key 'unique' words in it, in a particular order, that passes through the Amazon speech engine and is then interpretted into a particular compiled set of instructions that are encrypted and passed back to the Sonos API on the users local network. I think it would need work from both sides to do something like that. I would be surprised if Sonos are able to add their own unique key words in an instruction. I would have guessed that needed to centrally managed by Amazon, personally speaking, aswell as compiling and encrypting the returned instruction back to the API interface?