SONOS ALEXA Integration?

Hey Smija, Stuart_W

I probably shouldn't have started my post with "Yeah..." 🙂.

As I said, I love my amazing 8-zone SONOS system. And I can't wait for Alexa integration.

I am in fact a technician (with many, many years, etc.) and I am somewhat familiar with the Alexa and other APIs -- there's no need for audio engineering skills since, thankfully, SONOS has already implemented that (better than anyone else).

But as far as integration goes, this should be a weekend project. Out of the box, Alexa supports voice control for selecting music, playlists, etc. Where do you think the complexity comes from? (Genuinely interested in your perspective -- let's move out of the flame mode I started).

Yeah...

I'd bet this isn't anything to do with a technical or development issue (it's not that complicated).
Yeah... I'd bet you know this because you are a technician with many, many years of experience in multi-room audio engineering.

The irony here is that the Echo can't recognise the Sonos mesh and so I have to use a mobile hotspot device for Alexa to work. I just hope the integration Sonos has in mind will allow it to connect directly to their own mesh network which is fundamental to my internet access (albeit it's probably an unusual setup).


You could probably just plug a Wifi A/P or an old router to the ETH port of your play 5 to extend the (non-mesh) wifi network from your satellite broadband directly to your Echo.

Hmm. I can see the sense, especially as the Play 5 is the most centrally located Sonos kit, whereas the satellite cable comes in via a remote corner, feeding into their passive (no wi-fi) modem/router thingy. I guess i had just been used to the mesh getting wi-fi to all other parts of the house without resorting to a conventional wi-fi router and several repeaters.

There must be other users who distribute wi-fi via Sonos hardware, so it would be nice if it were visible to Echo and especially the Alexa app on an device already getting wi-fi from the Sonos hotspot.

:8 Thank you for that intelligent and vital addition to this thread.

Regarding bluetooth, I don't think it's that uncommon for products to leave out certain technologies if using that technology doesn't show the product at it's best. Sonos can't demonstrate it's sound quality over bluetooth, and I can understand why they don't want customers concluding that Sonos doesn't have better sound because they are using bluetooth. Many customers won't know that bluetooth is the limiting factor, not the quality of the speakers.

A good example of this, I think, was Apple's decision several years ago, not to include Adobe Flash in their browser, even though it was commonly used at the time. They felt that the tech wasn't good, and wanted to push for HTML 5 instead.

I'd say a company has to decide between giving customers what they want, giving them what they actually need, and pushing customers to using the product at it's best experience.

I do think Sonos would opt to include bluetooth if they ever came up with a product designed to be used away from your home network, where streaming music directly isn't an easy option. That's a bit of a departure for Sonos though, so I wouldn't expect that anytime soon.

The irony here is that the Echo can't recognise the Sonos mesh and so I have to use a mobile hotspot device for Alexa to work. I just hope the integration Sonos has in mind will allow it to connect directly to their own mesh network which is fundamental to my internet access (albeit it's probably an unusual setup).


You could probably just plug a Wifi A/P or an old router to the ETH port of your play 5 to extend the (non-mesh) wifi network from your satellite broadband directly to your Echo.

I'm pretty sure that 2 play 1s will beat homepod. The sterio seperation and clarity of play 1s is brilliant. The build against obsolescence is where Sonos will win. After care is second to none. Massive Sonos fan and likewise I bet for majority of Sonos owners

I can't wait for integration either. We just picked up an Alexa and we have a sonos, but the Alexa is already playing more music in my house just because it's so much easier for my wife to just ask it to play something. It drives me nuts because teh Sonos Play 5 is sitting right next to it, quiet, but she just wants the song to play.

https://www.tomsguide.com/us/control-sonos-speakers-with-alexa,news-24892.html

There is also an FAQ from Sonos which I find easier to understand :

https://sonos.custhelp.com/app/answers/detail/a_id/4158/kw/alexa

Thanks, we just got the alexa a few days ago and while missing some bass it sounds better than I expected it to.

I'll try the Dot suggestion with my play:5. I didn't realize there was an auto setting to pickup line-in activity.

The way most voice control functions today, the device listens for its wake word, then it records the audio that follows, sends it up to the appropriate cloud, where it's translated into a command and sent back down. Without an Internet connection, the assistant is just going to tell you that their service isn't available. This page has a good rundown of how Alexa works.

Once an alarm or timer has been set, it'll still go off without the internet, but the voice control to turn it off wouldn't work.

TravelingWriter,

May I ask you to do a test with your Echo/Alexa device? Unplug the external (internet) connection from it, leaving it as just a provider for your local wifi, with no external connection. Then try doing anything with the Amazon device. I'm relatively certain that anything will fail, except for maybe connecting to it with Bluetooth. There's no "smarts" inside that device, just a trigger to recognize it's own name, and then call out to the cloud for processing the command given after the name.

Please let me know what your test reveals, I'd be interested if my assumptions were incorrect..

You know alexa works with bluetooth right?

I.think you need to check things before posting

Alexa doesn't work at all without an internet connection. Sonos does, at least for local libraries. The fact Alexa/Echo uses Bluetooth does not mean it does not use the internet. It requires an IP (aka "an internet connection"). It has to connect to WiFi (aka "an internet connection") and finally, all voice control functions are processed in the cloud (aka "an internet connection").

It really seems you are the one who should check things before posting.

Actually.... neither *needs* the "internet". All they need is wireless signal (aka WiFi; or 802.11 wireless lan). I was in a situation recently where I was without "internet" but then I just made a local area network with some ethernet cables I had lying around, plugged them into my wireless router and walla, Sonos music was blasting through my house, though I had no internet access. I did the same thing to get my Phillips Hue bulbs up and running.

Many of Alexa's services rely much more on actual internet cloud services like being able to search wikipedia or check your google calendar; but I bet it could still talk to you, set timers, and control devices on your local area network, without "internet".

Apologies for the redirect! WiFi are often thought of at the same thing; I like to correct that misunderstanding where I can. All things aside, I am very excited for the day I can lazily shout at my echo Dots to play whatever artist, genre, playlist, etc. As long as it happens eventually, I can wait.

I can't wait for integration either. We just picked up an Alexa and we have a sonos, but the Alexa is already playing more music in my house just because it's so much easier for my wife to just ask it to play something. It drives me nuts because teh Sonos Play 5 is sitting right next to it, quiet, but she just wants the song to play.

https://www.tomsguide.com/us/control-sonos-speakers-with-alexa,news-24892.html

There is also an FAQ from Sonos which I find easier to understand :

https://sonos.custhelp.com/app/answers/detail/a_id/4158/kw/alexa

I can't wait for integration either. We just picked up an Alexa and we have a sonos, but the Alexa is already playing more music in my house just because it's so much easier for my wife to just ask it to play something. It drives me nuts because teh Sonos Play 5 is sitting right next to it, quiet, but she just wants the song to play.

I just don't get this asking it to play something! I have hundreds of albums and thousands of tracks, so how on earth can I recall some music choice I wish to hear by remembering it and therefore asking for it to be played? Surely we'll just finish up lazily asking for a genre to be played or specific albums to artists which happen to spring to mind!