Sonos and Alexa - Ducking

Again disagree and being Sonos has said priority from day one I would expect fairly soon. Sonos doesn’t publically mention anything unless they are actively working on.

It's hard to know who to blame, Amazon or Sonos. However, Amazon have provided a way to group Alexa and Sonos devices (at a device level, NOT audio!) since November last year, so SOMETHING knows that an Alexa device and a Sonos wireless speaker are in a device group... It would seem odd that Amazon would provide such function but then not externalise that information to third party developers... Again this is not audio grouping, just Alexa smart device groups that allow Alexa to limit control of things like "Turn lights on" to just devices in that group... Seems like a small jump for Amazon and Sonos to limit ducking to any Sonos devices defined in such a group...

Here’s my workaround. Disable the Sonos skill in Alexa App. Connect a Bluetooth Receiver to the line input of your Sonos Play 5, Sonos Connect or Connect Amp. Enable Autoplay on the Sonos device. Pair the BT receiver to your Echo Dot and it will ‘duck’ and play in the selected Sonos group, without affecting any other Sonos devices.
This workaround has the advantage that when Echo Dot is disconnected from BT Receiver, you can use BT to play BBC Podcasts and older material directly from your phone via your Sonos system.
Hope this helps some other users.
Melchet.

That's a ridiculous solution to a problem that shouldn't exist. Unless Amazon expect you to have multiple Alexa devices in the same room, it's a tiny amount of code to allow 1:1 relationships between sonos devices and the Alexa device in the same room.

Ducking- Hi is there any signs of a resolution to the ducking problem as it is really annoying. Got three Echo dots for me and the kids for Christmas adnd someone is forever asking alexa a question and everyone else's experience of Sonos is affected. Please help soon otherwise it is going in the cupboard until sorted!

No timescale for this to be addressed yet but Sonos have agreed to investigate. My personal view would be to use Alexa Groups and only devices within that group would duck. How do you set that up as that might be a short term fix

No timescale for this to be addressed yet but Sonos have agreed to investigate. My personal view would be to use Alexa Groups and only devices within that group would duck. How do you set that up as that might be a short term fix

He wasn't saying using Alexa Groups is a short term fix, he was saying that would be the method to use for the coming long term fix. Right now, there is no way to use Alexa Groups with Echos and Sonos for either the ducking feature or for actual grouping, the only "fix" for ducking is to disable the Alexa skill.