Podcasts and Voice Control

Hi ​@jhamm212 

I think the limitation that you are likely hitting is that Sonos Voice Control operates locally on your speaker - it cannot possibly have the resources available in order to recognise all words/artists/content that you might ask for. As the English version of SVC is meant for the USA, we program it to know the top Artists, Songs, Albums and Radio Stations currently in the USA. Unlike Alexa, which runs on datacentre mainframes with near unlimited resources, it cannot recognise every word you say to it.

I suspect that you will fare far better in this specific case by using Alexa on your Sonos speaker rather than SVC. Note that you can install both assistants on one speaker - just use the right wake word for the one you want to use. If you link the same Spotify account to your Alexa/Amazon account, it is distinctly possible you will see better results.

Set up Amazon Alexa with a voice-enabled Sonos speaker

I hope this helps.

Sure, I guess this is the “best” answer but it doesn’t change the fact that Sonos (Corry) lied by saying SVC would play podcasts via Spotify then tried to walk it back by saying I should just use Alexa. I wish companies would just be forthright about something not being possible instead of trying to say “oh just use something else” when earlier the statement was “SVC will control podcasts via Spotify” but alas…it does not. And instead of Sonos just saying that is the case, there’s some long winded answer about how it needs the cloud to figure out what I’m saying? That’s a crock. 

Hi ​@jhamm212 

I understand it’s frustrating when a feature doesn't work as expected, but I want to be clear that there was no intention to mislead. My goal is to explain the technical framework of Sonos Voice Control (SVC).

Because SVC processes commands locally on the speaker to prioritize privacy and speed, it doesn't have the "infinite" cloud-based dictionary that an assistant like Alexa uses. It is programmed to recognize the most popular content, which is why your experience may vary depending on how niche or mainstream a specific podcast is. We don't have a manual list of every supported track or podcast because that database changes by the second across global streaming services.

We’re always working to improve the local library of recognized terms, and your feedback about the podcast experience is helpful for our development teams to see where those gaps are.

I hope this helps.

This page can be used to see which services support podcasts:

https://support.sonos.com/en-us/services

However, what it needs is a checkbox for “supported by SVC”.

​@controlav the fact Spotify is one of the ones that has podcasts is also a load of bull. If you go and search any podcast (via Spotify) in the Sonos app, you will not find it. 
 

like sure, I can start a podcast IN Spotify and use Spotify connect to play it on the Sonos speakers, but that doesn’t exactly translate to native podcast support (which again, doesn’t seem to exist for any major streaming service). 

​@Corry P  can you show me where in the Sonos app I can find Spotify podcasts?