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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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Best answer by Ryan S 31 August 2017, 23:52

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

Thank you, Ryan, for your post. I am excited and anxiously awaiting an announcement.
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.
Huh, hadn't thought of that. I'd assume he means all areas where Amazon has Echo/Alexa supported, as opposed to locations where it isn't. But then again, I'd also assume he's not Amazon, and can't speak officially about where Amazon is active, except by what he's told by them (by some circuitous route).
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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"
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Huh, hadn't thought of that. I'd assume he means all areas where Amazon has Echo/Alexa supported, as opposed to locations where it isn't. But then again, I'd also assume he's not Amazon, and can't speak officially about where Amazon is active, except by what he's told by them (by some circuitous route).

That's something we haven't officially announced yet, as far as I'm aware, but Bruce said it well. Figure you'll be safe as long as Alexa is listening in your location, it should be able to control Sonos. You'll find out more when the news goes out.

Glad you're excited too!
You're supposed to tell us when that news will go out.... 🙂
You're supposed to tell us when that news will go out.... :)

October 4th...

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.