Contributor I

Answered

SONOS ALEXA Integration?

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Been waiting to hear news about when this will happen and am starting to think it never will. I have Sonos and Alexa in every room. I did this with the assurance that Sonos and Alexa are going to work together. There has been next to no news regarding integration for the past 6 months.... When can we expect to hear about Sonos and Alexa integration? Is it still happening? Please any update would be appreciated.

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Ryan SAnswer

Retired Sonos Staff

Hi everyone, there's a lot of interesting discussion going on here and I love the energy you all have around voice control and Alexa. My message from way earlier in this thread is still very much still the case, so I'll quote it here:

Thanks for jumping in everyone. Great answers already. As suggested, I can't really provide any extra details today, but I assure you, we're as excited about this as you are. It is coming. We'll let the world know as soon as there's more to say, and we'll announce here on the community (and elsewhere) if there are any opportunities to help us beta test.

On top of that, I just want to take a moment to make sure everything is clear about a few things. First off, to use voice control with Sonos, you will need to have a device with Alexa built in. We're largely talking about Amazon Echos and Dots here, but you never know what other fun gadgets may work as well, at launch or after it.

Second, once the software is live, it will work with every updated Sonos component. As long as you already have an Alexa-enabled device, you aren't going to need to buy any new hardware to use Alexa with Sonos. Just make sure your players are updated to the latest version of the Sonos software (when Alexa control comes out for Sonos), you will be able to take advantage of the voice commands sent by your Alexa-enabled devices. We're not going to go into the magic right now, but there have been some pretty good ideas here in the thread already.

That's all for now. More to come later, so stay tuned!

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

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Tom Phan

Avid Contributor I

I can say "Alexa, turn off hallway" and the Hue lights in the group Hallway will turn off. So I could see a similar functionally for Sonos being "Alexa, pause livingroom" to pause whatever is playing on the Sonos devices I've grouped together as Livingroom.

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IDBash

Lyricist I

A lot of people don't realize what they are doing and as a result why it is taking so long... Sonos and Amazon are defining a new way to connect speakers to players. Instead of the player going direct to the speakers via cable, bluetooth, or wireless, they are now adding it at the OS level to communicate with all available speakers allowing us to be able to switch locations seamlessly for all apps on its platform, making it easier for all to play on Sonos by making it a platform feature instead of something app devs have to build themselves.

Short version: When this is done, all Alexa and Google home apps will be able to play to Sonos. No more selecting music sources off a list of 5.

That said, CAN WE PLEASE HURRY?! And how can I get on the beta? I just equipped my entire house thinking it was done, and not in beta still.... whoops...

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upstatemike

I don't know but based on the way Alexa handles smart home devices I would speculate that there will not be any assignment of a given echo to a particular Sonos speaker. Room names, speaker names, and Echo names are likely to remain simple labels as far as the logic goes. Any Echo will be able to operate any Sonos speaker by name and will not know or care if it is in the same room or not.

Agreed. That does mean that echo can't mute or pause sonos when it's listen for a command, since it doesn't know which speaker to pause. And, this little detail would likely go over very well with Echo's customers. I personally have 5 echos and about 20 or so smart lights. It would be darn nice if Echo had some location awareness. This also would be a big plus to their calling/intercom feature. If I want to speak to my daughter on the echo in her room, I don't want my son picking it up in his room.

I would think mute and pause would work in conjunction with the Sonos speaker name... "Alexa, Mute Kitchen" etc.

You can call directly to a specific room using an Echo... "Alexa, call the Living Room" etc. Not sure what more you are looking for there. I assume you will need your Echo names to be unique from your Sonos names when the integration is released.

Local music library with carefully constructed playlists - no shuffling!, Integration with Homeseer Automation, No touch screen devices, No streaming services, No Apple products ever

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yemiad1

Lyricist I

Perhaps we are getting carried away with the Alexa buzz, and we should, they have their adverts coming on aggressively everywhere. From most of the posts I have read here, I suspect it might just be more beneficial for SONOS to build in their own voice recognition system on top of their existing development framework. Easier to scale and richer functionalities for us users in the long term. As many have pointed out, integration with ECHO will require decision to be made by both managements. This in itself may take longer to conclude than the actual integration work itself. If I were SONOS, I will prefer to exercise some patience in order to have autonomy in design and implementation and support, ensuring an ECHO integration to cater for SONOS customers that wish to buy ECHO for other uses that are not music based, such as calling and messaging. In my view, this is likely to deliver a tightly integrated voice recognition system unto SONOS for optimum quality of service and better user friendliness.

jgatie

Sonos is not going to build their own voice control system. That has already been established. They are going to leverage others like Echo, Google, and Apple.

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thosf

Lyricist I

[quote=yemiad1]Perhaps we are getting carried away with the Alexa buzz, and we should, they have their adverts coming on aggressively everywhere. From most of the posts I have read here, I suspect it might just be more beneficial for SONOS to build in their own voice recognition system...
Well yes there is a lot of buzz around Alexa just like there was a lot of buzz around the IPhone and other Apple products when they were the first with the most in any given product category. Echo has around 70% of the market for voice-controlled speakers. Yeah, that share may go down with the relatively recent introduction of products by Apple and Google but for at least the next couple of years Alexa is the market. The Alexa buzz should be a key market driver for Sonos and I'm sure it is, but they don't seem to see any need to keep their customer base updated on progress with integration and updating us on the ETA for it. Could it be that arrival in 2017 is slipping into 2018? It doesn't indicate respect for their customers; have they reincarnated Steve Jobs or just his attitude towards the people who keep them in business?

jgatie

Sonos has never given release dates or detailed progress reports. They release according to testing goals met, not calendar days passed. It has nothing to do with respecting their customers, unless one counts not misleading their customers with estimated release dates that may or may not be hit depending on how the testing goes.

If you want release dates, go buy Denon. They gave release dates for a Windows UWP app, Google casting, and Alexa integration. Of course they missed all three dates, and have yet to deliver on any of these promised items. But hey, they gave dates, so they must respect their customers! ;)

As to updates, there have been several in this and other threads. The Sonos/Alexa integration is currently the top priority, it is being worked on, and it is on schedule for the announced release in 2017.

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BobbyDylberg

Lyricist II

August 2, 2017 - how's it going, Sonos?

jgatie

August 2, 2017 - how's it going, Sonos?

Read the post above yours. The latest update is that it is being worked on and is on schedule for release in 2017.

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HarveySonos

Lyricist I

This was announced over a year ago. In today’s day and age I have no interest in having a relationship with a company that can’t deliver an offering in a calendar year and does not communicate with its customers if that announcement is delayed for whatever reason. Add this type of behavior in with the looming threat from HomePod and I would not be surprised to see Sonos reduced to “BlackBerry-like” status very soon.

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