Contributor I

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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.

Show previous replies

Smilja

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.

»And the world is like an apple whirling silently in space, Like the circles that you find in the windmills of your mind.« (›Windmills Of Your Mind‹ [1967]. Music by Michel Legrand ; English lyrics written by Alan & Marilyn Bergman)

T

Tom-Dallas

Lyricist I

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'

chicks

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.

R

RoystonFord

Lyricist II

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.

chicks

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.

Sigh. It's not an Alexa skill, it's using a brand new API that took Amazon and its partners a year to develop. All the press releases I've read today specifically mention the use of Dot or Echo. Sonos has demonstrated the capability using Dot. Methinks you're a bit paranoid.

chicks

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.

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.

jgatie

Challenge launched. Challenge accepted.

Not that it will stop the silly speculation, but that's a definitive answer if I ever heard one. Now back to our normal programming. Next up, "Will Sonos Be Recording My Bedroon Antics and Play Sade on Queue?" - and is that a bad thing?