Limitations of Alexa on ARC Vs an Amazon Alexa Device?

Is a great explanation Ken, many thanks.

Mind for a product the price tag of the Arc, It is not really trying to compete with the Echo device. If it cannot do and act like a full fat Alexa device then it sort of defeats having it embedded in the first place. It sort of defeats itself out of the blocks. To try the Sonos VC is certainly interesting in it’s own right.

I see the solution now being as you describe, to pair the junior device to use the Arc as it’s default speaker and gain full functionality. Then play with SVC. But you mention that the two cannot co-exist? It means that that Alexa can or cannot use the Arc as the default O/P device?

But at least the limitations and options become clearer which is a great help.

@attacama40,

Apologies if it wasn’t quite clear in my post, but just say Alexa and SVC do happily work alongside each other, it’s only the Google Assistant that operates standalone (on a Sonos device), but you can have both SVC and Alexa installed on the Arc and both will work fine. To use Alexa use the wake work ‘Alexa’ and to use SVC use the wake words ‘Hey Sonos’. 

No I think my mistake Ken, guilt of reading too late at night. Ironically this morning an article landed in my inbox that focused on SVC. I then re-read your message and it was clear. And indeed this is the perfect world for me.

We have a small proliferation of Alexa devices, bought originally on impulse(s) but now very much integrated and used in many rooms …. rather like Sonos itself. So to be able integrate to Sonos is a bridge we have failed to cross but now seems achievable …. the light touch that Alexa devices have interactable to decent music devices is just the job, especially on the ARC unit.

The playback (music wise) of ALexa to date has been very ‘meh’ to be honest, but it’s other now day-to-day Q&A stuff is very good in fairness. 

I’m going to invest some time into SVC and hope it will be a lot better than Alexa in this area. What has happended in reality (in our back yard) is that family members who very much like the easy of approach that ALexa offers, have then struggled to apply that to the otherwise very much adopted Sonos world we have here in all rooms. But none of them find the integration an enjoyable experience so they just play stuff on Alexa devices! Obviously far inferior but easy! And Easy has been winning over inferior …. to date. Now hopefully that may change.

I bought a later gen Play 5 and was surprised to find it did not have Alexa built in. My assumption, my mistake for not checking. Can I do the same linking exercise between an Echo Dot and the Play 5? That would be very nice.

Also Ken (at the risk of overloading you) … are you aware of any link or article that outlines SVC usage and key commands that you could recommend?

First, great explanations from @Ken_Griffiths .

You can indeed use an Echo device to bring full Alexa functionality to any Sonos device that lacks built in Alexa.  I have three Echo Dots individually set up with Sonos Play:5s - in the Living Room, Dining Room and Master Bedroom.

I actually prefer this arrangement to built in Alexa.  The main thing for me is the ability to site the Echo Dot where it is best for hearing commands, and the speaker where I want the music to come from!

I don’t think it is reasonable to expect a Sonos device to be a fully-functioned Echo Device, Google Assistant Device, and Siri-capable device.  Not least because I suspect Amazon, Google and Apple hold back some features.

SVC is a relatively recent development and some further evolution is to be expected.

It is possible to use the line-out to line-in from echo devices to a Play:5 (but I don’t recommend that personally speaking) and an echo device ‘default speaker’ feature can only work with Sonos devices with Alexa built-in (so not a Play:5). However what does work really well is Alexa ‘enabled’ Groups in the Amazon App and I encourage you to study the capabilities of these groups further, as they can be used as default output for all music playback when requesting that on an echo device …and those groups can even group and ungroup Sonos rooms automatically ‘on the fly’. 
 

For information about SVC on Sonos, see these support links to get you started:

Setup Sonos Voice Control

SVC Syntax

MSP’s and SVC 

Setting Default Service for SVC

Hope that assists. 👍

I disagree that using Alexa voice control on a Sonos device is no useful, or defeated, because you can’t do everything you can do on an echo dot.  Although I haven’t seen any studies in a while, it used to be clear that people overwhelming used voice assistants for music.  It stands to reason that general information, timers, smart home control where also common.  These are all things that Sonos speakers can do.  Drop In and other things Sonos can’t do may very well not matter much at all to a user.  That’s pretty much the case for me.

I actually use this same plan as well, but not exactly because I think Sonos devices don’t have enough Alexa functionality for me.  For one, I prefer the Echo Show over Dots.  They cost a little more, but I like the fact that I get some visual feedback and responses to my questions.  I like the fact that they can show the time, weather, etc, when I don’t ask questions.  Secondly, I don’t like shouting across the room to a Sonos speaker when I can have an echo sitting right next to where I would normally be.  The ideal speaker location and mic location are often not the same in a particular room.