Sonos One seen as "Smart Home" device, not "Alexa enabled" device

+1 to this.

This limitation means you cannot use the Alexa simplified room lighting/device controls.

For example, if within the Family Room you create an Alexa group consisting of the Alexa Echo physically in that room, along with the lights in that room, say "Couch Lamp", "Ceiling Light", and "Spot Light", then when you are in that particular room and speak to the Alexa in that room, you can say "Alexa, Lights on" instead of "Alexa, Family Room Lights On", or worse, having to ask for each light individually, by name, to be turned on.

This is particularly useful when you have multiple Alexa devices in multiple rooms. With the "smart grouping", you can walk into any room and say "Alexa, lights on" and the appropriate, pre-selected set of lights for that room, turns on without having to remember the unique names of the lights in that particular room.

The problem is that with Sonos ONE not being recognized as an "Alexa-enabled device" you cannot replace an existing Alexa with a Sonos ONE in a particular room and continue having the same capability. That sort of defeats the whole purpose of using a Sonos ONE as a "superset" of a regular Alexa for voice commands but with much better sound. Now you have to give up existing convenience if you want better sound, you can't have both.

Hi both

You are correct, the Sonos One does not support Alexa Groups as yet, this is mainly due to Amazon only releasing the ability to do this with 3rd party speakers in Dec 2017.


The problem is that with Sonos ONE not being recognized as an "Alexa-enabled device" you cannot replace an existing Alexa with a Sonos ONE in a particular room and continue having the same capability. That sort of defeats the whole purpose of using a Sonos ONE as a "superset" of a regular Alexa for voice commands but with much better sound. Now you have to give up existing convenience if you want better sound, you can't have both.

You wrong here: The Sonos One is recognised as an 'Alexa Enabled Device' but it is not recognised as an 'Alexa Device'.

Having said all of that; now that the API has been released, I would be surprised if Sonos didn't support Alexa groups soon but that is just my opinion.

Thanks for this. I guess in the meantime, I can try to create a workaround with Routines. Obviously, I need to pick my words very carefully, to avoid triggering a pre-programmed action.
I'm a newbie here. What is the best source of info on software/feature releases, outside of this forum?
I'm also interested in knowing when (if ever), Sonos will support Alexa skills that stream audio (e.g., Rain Sound, the BBC skill, etc).

Hi

I use the Announcements section of this forum personally: https://en.community.sonos.com/announcements-228985

With regard to your workaround - The Sonos One isn't supported in Routines for the same reason as groups. :(

There are a lot of people asking for support of Audio skills but there has been no commitment from Sonos as yet.

Thanks for the link.

There are a lot of people asking for support of Audio skills but there has been no commitment from Sonos as yet.
While we do not have any specific dates or timetables to share, I think it's important to know that the team is aware of this and actively working to get these audio skills working. Thanks for your patience on this!

That is great news! Thanks for the update.

There are a lot of people asking for support of Audio skills but there has been no commitment from Sonos as yet.
While we do not have any specific dates or timetables to share, I think it's important to know that the team is aware of this and actively working to get these audio skills working. Thanks for your patience on this!

Yes. Thank you very much Keith N - please keep us up to date. The BBC Alexa Skill was by far the most used skill on our Echo in the kitchen, and now we have replaced it with a Sonos One, we miss it very much (as stated frequently elsewhere, Tune-In just not as good for a variety of reasons).

What's Sonos status wrt integrating the new "smart groups" API so that the Sonos One can take advantage of the simplified room lighting/device controls? "Alexa, turn on the lights" is a whole lot more convenient than having to specify the name of the room. 😞

I’ve been waiting for this feature since the announcement about 4 months ago now. I wonder if the hold up is on Sonos or Amazon’s side. The Sonos One still doesn’t get recognized as an “Alexa Enabled Device” under groups, and I’m starting to wonder if it ever will...