Contributor I

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

Forum|Forum|8 years ago
February 17, 2018
26 replies
6846 views

Hi,
I recently bought a Sonos One to upgrade the sound quality in my living room. It replaces an Amazon Echo (1st Gen), which now sits in one of the bedrooms.

I was obviously disappointed to see that most Alexa skills (the ones involving sound) do not work on Sonos One. I'm looking for a work around until an update is released.

I have another issue. I also use Alexa to control my smart home devices (mostly lightbulbs). I have become quite familiar with the procedure needed to add an use devices on Alexa.

I also use groups, and this is where my question comes from. I noticed that Alexa sees Sonos One as a "Smart Home" device of unknown type. The Alexa app sees my other Amazon speakers as "Alexa enabled devices" when creating groups, where as Sonos One is seen as just another device called "Living room".

Is this normal?

I am sort of happy to accept that I can't use Drop In, but creating Groups is a really important feature when you have a few Alexa and smart home devices lying around.

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nicka99

Local Superstar

++1 - just got a beam (my first sonos alexa enabled device) and really disappointed by lack of support for groups so cannot just say ‘alexa turn on the lights’ :-(

Hi

Yes you can now - Alexa update in the last week. Open the Alexa App and press the Home button in the bottom right of the app. If you haven't got a Group for your room name, then please create a Group and Add Devices - Your Beam and Your Alexa light switch for that room. Please Save the Group and allow 5-10 secs for this to be sync'd. Now if you ask your Beam 'Alexa, Turn on the Lights' it will control the associated light switch.

Also note: that if you have Non Alexa Sonos devices and an Echo Dot, then you can do the same as above and group the Sonos Device and the Echo Dot and then set a 'Preferred Speaker'. This will now output music to the Sonos device without the need to include the Sonos device name in the command. i.e. 'Alexa, Play soft Jazz' to the Echo device will output the music to the Sonos device and not the Echo Dot.

Let us know if you have any further questions.

It’s not working for me. I’m aware of alexa groups and preferred speaker but I cannot select the beam as the ‘alexa enabled device’ in the top section (see pic) - only echo devices are shown. This means that, although the beam can be a part of the group, it doesn’t act like an echo would act. Without an echo as the ‘master’ of the group, I have to specify the correct name of the lights in order for them to be understood by the beam. This is different to other alexa groups with an echo as the ‘master’ where it is no longer necessary to specify the full name.

UKMedia

Ahh, sorry. I don't have the Beam but I have a Group with a Sonos One, a Smart Plug and a LightwaveRF light Switch and can select Sonos Devices for my Preferred Speaker. Sorry for the silly question but what type of Group are you creating?

Remember: Sometimes Red Wine helps :)

M

McBeakison

Lyricist I

++1 - just got a beam (my first sonos alexa enabled device) and really disappointed by lack of support for groups so cannot just say ‘alexa turn on the lights’ :-(

Hi

Yes you can now - Alexa update in the last week. Open the Alexa App and press the Home button in the bottom right of the app. If you haven't got a Group for your room name, then please create a Group and Add Devices - Your Beam and Your Alexa light switch for that room. Please Save the Group and allow 5-10 secs for this to be sync'd. Now if you ask your Beam 'Alexa, Turn on the Lights' it will control the associated light switch.

Also note: that if you have Non Alexa Sonos devices and an Echo Dot, then you can do the same as above and group the Sonos Device and the Echo Dot and then set a 'Preferred Speaker'. This will now output music to the Sonos device without the need to include the Sonos device name in the command. i.e. 'Alexa, Play soft Jazz' to the Echo device will output the music to the Sonos device and not the Echo Dot.

Let us know if you have any further questions.

It’s not working for me. I’m aware of alexa groups and preferred speaker but I cannot select the beam as the ‘alexa enabled device’ in the top section (see pic) - only echo devices are shown. This means that, although the beam can be a part of the group, it doesn’t act like an echo would act. Without an echo as the ‘master’ of the group, I have to specify the correct name of the lights in order for them to be understood by the beam. This is different to other alexa groups with an echo as the ‘master’ where it is no longer necessary to specify the full name.

Hi nicka99,

I’ve been watching this post for a week or so after encountering exactly the same limitation. No problem setting up “preferred speakers” - in fact my older Play3, Play5, Play1 and Connect are all non Alexa but can all be nominated. But I couldn’t set my Beam to be the Alexa for a room, meaning I couldn’t say for example “lights on” without also referring to the room I wanted to control (as I can with my Echo Dot).

However, I’m not sure if there’s been an update, but I tried again today and found I could do this (pic attached). The Beam is now working exactly like my other Echo Dot devices! Hopefully it’s now working for you too?

I did some other Amazon housekeeping today - deregistering old devices I no longer use etc via the website, but unsure if this could have changed anything?

Joel.

Ryan S

Retired Sonos Staff

This feature has been rolling out for a couple weeks, and yesterday was the final push. Just about everyone now should be able to use Alexa Groups with Sonos as expected. Check out the announcement here.

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

M

McBeakison

Lyricist I

Amazing! Thank you so much Ryan!

nicka99

Local Superstar

Hi Ryan & mcbeakison
Thanks for the info - up and working now 🙂

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