I was doing a little research on Sonos and Amazon Echo integration. Most of the articles talk about how Sonos will support Alexa in 2017. That the integration will be impressive and the two services will work seamlessly. The thing is, I've already found two ways to get Sonos working with Alexa right now.



IFTTT; If This Then That:

Offers users a way to integrate various web based services together in really dynamic ways. Put simply can create simple recipes made of two ingredients.

A) The Trigger 😎 The Action. For example; if it rains, text me a message that's raining outside.

I saw a few recipes on IFTTT for controlling sonos, but there is one major issue with IFTTT at this time. If I use Alexa to send a command via IFTTT it can take quite a while to arrive on the other end. First Alexa interprets my voice command, then it gets sent to IFTTT's servers, IFTTT then tells the desired service to activate. This can take a lot longer than you might expect.



The other option that I found is called Yonomi. Unlike IFTTT, Yonomi is based in your local network. It allows you to add multiple actions to a single trigger and even creates virtual devices that can be operated by Alexa locally. Instead of having to start my voice commands with "trigger" as you have to with IFTTT. You simply have to tell Alexa to turn on the virtual device. I call them program instead of recipes since you can attach several actions to a trigger. At this time I have created enough commands to completely control my sonos devices by voice.



At this time I am experimenting with syncing Lifx color smart bulbs with my sonos. I am currently able to say, "Alexa, turn on Soul Lounge." The result is that the lights change to red and blue and my Play 5 starts playing a spotify playlist entitles Soul Lounge. While I cannot play any song or playlist that I want on whatever speaker that I want. I can create the illusion that I can do so.



If anyone sees this and wants to see more let me know. I've got video of Alexa running my Soul Lounge Program.