How do we automatically play music when arriving home?

  • 5 January 2019
  • 8 replies
  • 8309 views

I’ve got a Sonos one, and both Alexa and Siri up and running. I’ve got my Hue lights coming on automatically when I get home. All good. Except I’d really like a selected playlist (or anything for that matter) to start playing also. I have ecobee sensors and geo fence, if that’s relevant. Any ideas?

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8 replies

You can setup play on arrival home using IFFTT. There are several recipies and the work fine for me.

Find more here: https://ifttt.com/
You can create an Alexa routine and add an action to the routine to play music. Call it "I'm home". It will run when you say "Alexa, I'm home".
Doesn’t work. Do you have a prime membership or something? I was just hoping Sonos could automatically play one of my iOS playlists. Or even a tunein radio station. I was hoping Siri / Homekit could do this. But the only supposed option is the Alexa option. And even it is unclear. You have to select a provider (and I assume My Library isn’t actually my music on my phone, but rather an amazon cloud thing?). I selected Tunein. You have to select an artist. Not sure how this would work, but I typed Beethoven. I give the command “Alexa, I’m home.” And I get a variety of error messages including “I couldn’t find any video skills.” So frustrating.
Doesn’t work. Do you have a prime membership or something? I was just hoping Sonos could automatically play one of my iOS playlists. Or even a tunein radio station. I was hoping Siri / Homekit could do this. But the only supposed option is the Alexa option. And even it is unclear. You have to select a provider (and I assume My Library isn’t actually my music on my phone, but rather an amazon cloud thing?). I selected Tunein. You have to select an artist. Not sure how this would work, but I typed Beethoven. I give the command “Alexa, I’m home.” And I get a variety of error messages including “I couldn’t find any video skills.” So frustrating.Perhaps use IFTTT App with Sonos ... see the available list of triggers/actions here:
https://ifttt.com/sonos.
Alexa can only play from Alexa enabled services. Not from your local library. Alexa enabled services are:

Amazon Music*
Spotify
TuneIn Radio
Deezer
Audible
Pandora (Not available in the UK, Canada, or Australia)
iHeartRadio (Not available in the UK or Canada)
SiriusXM (Not available in the UK or Australia)
*Amazon Music is available for streaming in Australia and Canada through Alexa on Sonos, but it is not available within the Sonos app.

You can play a TuneIn station. You need to select TuneIn as the provider, and the station name in the Song, Artist, or Playlist section.

For example, I just tested:

Routine Name: Test Routine

Added Smart Home Scene: Sonos - This turns on my home theater Sonos via the Harmony remote skill. This is the preferred speaker for my living room Alexa. All this is not needed for a One.

Added Music: Play (Song, Artist, or Playlist) 98.5 The Sports Hub from (Provider) TuneIn.

Save and exit.

"Alexa, test routine" turns on the Home Theater receiver, switches to Sonos, then turns on 98.5.
Now it’s saying “audio actions and routines are not supported on this device.” Maybe the problem is that I seem to have no ‘FROM’ options. At the bottom of my Alexa screen, final step, you’re supposed to select the device that will perform the action (play the music?)! I’ve got no options. Who knows.
Alexa 'Routines, are not fully supported on Sonos Alexa devices, but the actions do appear to work for some things, despite the 'audio actions message' that Alexa comes back with.
You can arrive home to music right now and if you want to turn the lights on all in one routine. SimpleCommands on the web, ios and android provides this right now.