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SONOS ALEXA Integration?



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An interesting apology from Bose, who apparently promised to deliver Alexa integration by a specific date, rather than Sonos' broad "some time in 2017" announcement. Sonos hasn't needed to apologize for Amazon holding up delivery of this API.
I don't think that Amazon developed this single-handedly. Announcing an allegedly joint venture a year ago and then waiting in idleness for Amazon to deliver the API would have been strange; to say the least – remember this promotion video?


You can be certain that Sonos, Bose, Denon, Samsung at the very least, were all involved with Amazon. Small wonder it took a year.
You can be certain that Sonos, Bose, Denon, Samsung at the very least, were all involved with Amazon. Small wonder it took a year.
I think they'll avail of the opportunity.
I'm hoping that they will be following through with their initial communication regarding the full integration with Alexa. I have a significant investment in Sonos and have 2 Echo's and 4 Dots in anticipation of the integration. Fortunately I have been able to use my Sonos with Alexa for a couple years via my INSTEON smart home integration. I'm able to turn on and off my Sonos system and identify up to 10 'preset' stations with music services. It allowed me to set up 'scenes' called Jazz, Pop, Classical, etc. and I can say 'Alexa, turn on Jazz' or 'Alexa, turn off Sonos' or 'Alexa, turn on volume up'
You can be certain that Sonos, Bose, Denon, Samsung at the very least, were all involved with Amazon. Small wonder it took a year.
I think they'll avail of the opportunity.

All of them are announcing Alexa-enabled products Q4 2017.
You can be certain that Sonos, Bose, Denon, Samsung at the very least, were all involved with Amazon. Small wonder it took a year.
I think they'll avail of the opportunity.

All of them are announcing Alexa-enabled products Q4 2017.


They're all announcing Alexa-enabled products, but very pointedly they are not all guaranteeing reverse compatibility for legacy speakers to be controlled by Amazon echo or dot or Apple & SIRI. I challenged Sonos on this on Alexa integration to have Echo or Dot control legacy speakers and got this reply:

We have not received information from our development team regarding how the implementation will work, however we are looking to have the third party devices work with the entire Sonos range, if possible.

Which is far from the confident assurance that seemed to be out there last year and that other still carry. As I said in my first post, it SEEMS increasingly obvious we're in for a let-down here. It doesn't take a year to sort out an Alexa skill. I still hope I'm wrong and unduly pessimistic.
http://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20170831005372/en/DTS-Play-Fi-Onkyo-Pioneer-Announce-Support-Amazon

This will allow voice-enabled selection of music and control via an Alexa-enabled device, including the Amazon Echo, Echo Dot, Echo Show, Amazon Tap, Amazon Fire TV, or any of the three new DTS Play-Fi wireless speakers featuring far-field Alexa Voice Service – the Phorus PS10 wireless speaker, Onkyo Smart Speaker P3 and Pioneer Elite Smart Speaker F4 – that will begin shipping in late Q3/early Q4.
Is this a bad news

http://gizmodo.com/amazon-s-echoes-can-finally-sync-together-to-play-music-1798535130/amp
Ryan S - thanks for the update. Looking forward to the voice control big reveal

Can I clarify your point on all existing sonos devices being controllable by Alexa at launch - can you confirm that this won't be affected by geography - i.e. It will work outside the US?

Us Alexa users in the UK have been hurt before and I want to set my expectations accordingly.
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Is this a bad news

http://gizmodo.com/amazon-s-echoes-can-finally-sync-together-to-play-music-1798535130/amp


Not really, if you love ❤️ the sound of "Echoes", if you want better sound, go get an Echo Dot and buy "Sonoes"
You're supposed to tell us when that news will go out.... 🙂

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.

Quoted is the reason why this post should be on a sticky in a prominent place on the forum, along with the caveat that voice control will still only work in the geographies where Echo/Dot works.
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I think both Amazon and Sonos have had difficulties overcoming challenges in the two apps talking to each other, especially when you consider the Echo only supports Spotify and Amazon music, and must talk to the Sonos API and be able to play from all the sources available to Sonos.

Like many, have been eagerly awaiting integration since the turn of the year, but I do understand things that seem simple in practice, are often very difficult to engineer in practice.

Look forward to October 4th!
I think both Amazon and Sonos have had difficulties overcoming challenges in the two apps talking to each other, especially when you consider the Echo only supports Spotify and Amazon music, and must talk to the Sonos API and be able to play from all the sources available to Sonos.


No, Echo doesn't need to "talk to" the Sonos API. There is a brand new Alexa Voice Services Connected Speaker API that all the major wifi speaker manufacturers worked on with Amazon, which is currently in "developer preview" release, after a year of development. Sonos and their competitors will all be writing to this new Amazon API, not the other way around.

https://developer.amazon.com/blogs/alexa/post/7c9343ce-425b-4baa-ae63-49c36afb5341/giving-device-makers-more-ways-to-bring-voice-forward-music-experiences-to-their-products
Is this a bad news

http://gizmodo.com/amazon-s-echoes-can-finally-sync-together-to-play-music-1798535130/amp


Not really, if you love ❤️ the sound of "Echoes", if you want better sound, go get an Echo Dot and buy "Sonoes"


Hey Cazualchatter It's not about the sound I am more concerned about here. There are many better brands traditionally which are far more suppiror in sound quality that would have been my 1st choice if it was just sound quality. Smart speakers concept wifi, online services, app and posibltiy of Alexa integration made me thinking about sonos. But after reading this article I am thinking this twice on sonos as every one else (other manufacturers) has already cought up with all feathers wifi, apps, online services even Bluetooth etc.. few year back. A war like this between sonos and amazon concerns me choosing sonos going forward especially when Amazon it self competing in this space of tech with an attitude of doesn't want to loose this from what I read and they can completely pull the plug out on sonos alexa integration to cut the compitition. Very interesting times and I wish sonos will get this under their sleeve and get the grips on this Intergration sooner rather than later.
Sigh.
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This is what I heard from Sonos technical support on 31st August 2017 -

"Thank you for contacting Sonos regarding Alexa Integration.

Great to hear you're as excited as we are. I can confirm we're partnered with Amazon and have confirmed we will have Alexa support by the end of the year. At this stage we have no further information to share."
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Sigh.
Same sound I made when you predicted in this community that Sonos would announce Echo integration at the end of August.
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For those concerned about eventual Sonos-Alexa compatibility in regions outside the countries in which Echo gear is sold, my experience suggests there is little to be worried about. I use Echo Dots in both Canada and Brasil. They are not sold in either country. I have yet to come across anything that is supposed to work with Echo that does not. Amazon has even recently begun allowing Canadian locations in the Alexa configuration, which means Canadians can use their home location for weather etc. And my Brasil Spotify account plays just fine using Alexa in both Brasil and Canada, along with other Alexa-friendly apps and services for which I have subscriptions in Brasil and Canada. All my Sonos services work fine, too, including Brasil-based Tidal, Deezer and Spotify paid subs used in both Brasil and Canada. The only service that is problematic for me is my paid Slacker account, which is geolocked to Canada and the US. A DNS unblocking service makes that available to me through Sonos in Brasil.
I have yet to come across anything that is supposed to work with Echo that does not.
Have you set up the Echo from a Brazil located Wifi connection? I suspect that will not be possible unless Amazon extends Echo/Alexa to that geography.
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I have yet to come across anything that is supposed to work with Echo that does not.
Have you set up the Echo from a Brazil located Wifi connection? I suspect that will not be possible unless Amazon extends Echo/Alexa to that geography.


I have. Three different Echo dots on three different occasions. No problems. Also, Echos are not sold or officially sanctioned for use in Canada. No problems setting up with wifi there, either. I have a Canadian Amazon account, not a U.S. account. The only hiccup is having to sideload the Alexa app on my Android phones because it is not available through the Brasil or Canadian Google app stores. I was able to get the Alexa app for my iPad through normal channels.
Why did you not have to do the antics described here: https://beebom.com/how-to-set-up-and-use-amazon-echo-outside-us/
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https://www.google.co.uk/amp/s/www.techhive.com/article/3221386/speakers/libratone-zipp-and-zipp-mini-speakers-are-getting-alexa-support.amp.html

Any chance the play 5 v2 might use this near field microphone option?
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Why did you not have to do the antics described here: https://beebom.com/how-to-set-up-and-use-amazon-echo-outside-us/
The only "antic" other than the app problem I've already mentioned was assigning a US postal code. For me, this affects only weather reports, easily gotten around by saying "what's the weather in a Salvador, Brasil" instead of "what's the weather". Hardly a huge problem. However, as of a couple of weeks ago Alexa began allowing Canadian locations. I now use those. My time zones in both Canada and Brazil exist in Alexa, so, the article is incorrect. In fact, 11 global geographic regions exist in the Alexa time zone setup, with cities and time zones in each (Asia, Africa, Antarctic, Europe, Australia etc.) For Brasil, I simply picked Salvador as the time zone. If I so desired, I could have picked Fíji standard time, where I am certain Echos are not sold and are uncommon. As for the rest of what is described in the article, I have already indicated that I have a Brasil Spotify account that works, and the article makes it clear that any Spotify account should work. I subscribe in Brasil because Spotify here costs about half of what it does in Canada and the US. (Same for Tidal, by the way, and Deezer Elite is also considerably cheaper.) I may have missed something in the article, but I performed no special browser tricks or anything similar to conigure Alexa. In fact, I have never used a browser with Alexa. It seems the article you cite is incorrect and/or out of date. You are referring to something written six months ago. Alexa/Echo evolves rapidly and new features introduced almost weekly.
Ok, perhaps so, thanks for the clarifications.
My concern isn't about services peculiar to local geographies not being available - like weather or Uber which is understandable - but about a general inability to use a device like a Dot, if bought in the US for example, to use for Sonos voice control once it is released. My understanding was that even to do that, it would need a non Indian IP address or ID to get it going. If that has changed, it is good to know.

PS: and I would use voice to command music play from my NAS as well from Apple Music/Google Play, both of which are available in India for subscription. At about USD 2 per month!
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Ok, perhaps so, thanks for the clarifications.
My concern isn't about services peculiar to local geographies not being available - like weather or Uber which is understandable - but about a general inability to use a device like a Dot, if bought in the US for example, to use for Sonos voice control once it is released. My understanding was that even to do that, it would need a non Indian IP address or ID to get it going. If that has changed, it is good to know.


I think the biggest concern would be having an Amazon account, although as far as I can determine the country in which that account is based is irrelevant. My Alexa accont is linked with my Canadian Amazon account. Having said that, there may be a workaround of which I am unaware because I haven't had to use it. After experimenting for eight months I'm certain IP addresses don't matter. From time to time I set a VPN in my router to odd locations (Argentina is a favourite) and this has also never affected my use of the Dots. Just out of curiosity after reading your message I set my Brasil network VPN to a location in India and I still had full access to Alexa configuration in apps and my Echo Dots worked normally. Most of the time there is no VPN involved in my network, so it is either a Brasil or Canada IP, depending on where I am. I have homes in both countries, each of them with three Echo Dots. I set up Dots in Brasil, where I spend most of my time, before using them in Canada. They were all purchased in the US.