Has anyone got an official answer from SONOS about AMAZON ECHO Integration?

Why would Amazon want to integrate their wireless streaming speaker with a competing wireless streaming speaker?

We're certainly here Ranjy, though as a general rule we don't speak to future releases or feature enhancements. We don't share a road map or timeline for development, so for specific requests like Amazon Echo integration, there isn't much to share.

We absolutely appreciate feedback and suggestions, and I'll be sure to pass your interest on to our development team. There aren't currently any available plans to share regarding Amazon Echo integration, and as Jgatie suggested, it would certainly require a lot of cooperation from Amazon to accomplish. We'll be sure to let everyone know if there's any news to share as it becomes available.

Thanks for asking and let us know if we can help with any other questions.

jgatie said: "Why would Amazon want to integrate their wireless streaming speaker with a competing wireless streaming speaker?"

My Echo sounds fine, as far as it goes. It's similar to my son's Jambox speaker in quality. Of course, Sonos easily surpasses the Echo in terms of volume and sound quality, etc.

But Echo is much more than a wireless speaker... it's a voice control interface. Its 7 microphone array is excellent at picking up voice commands from just about anywhere in a good sized room. And the processing of voice commands is speedy... no noticeable lag at all.

Amazon recently released the Alexa Skills Kit (ASK) for public use and have been urging 3rd party developers to create "skills" (think apps). Amazon has also thrown its support behind existing companies that could add the Alexa entity to current hardware/software solutions independent of the actual "Echo" device.

It seems to me that Sonos would benefit significantly by adding voice control.

That could be accomplished by developing their own voice interface, but that looks to be the longest way to this goal.

Sonos could also implement the Alexa Skills Kit to build a voice interface for the existing Sonos controller app. That would require some sort of microphone to be integrated. Perhaps they'd use the the mic on a smart phone or on a tablet.

Or Sonos could enable their controller app to communicate with the actual Echo device. This seems to be a smart choice because the Echo already excels at "hearing" and interpreting spoken commands and already incorporates a robust implementation of Alexa.

What's not to like?

Looks like they have at least played with it for fun : http://mattwel.ch/voice-control-for-the-sonos-with-an-echo/

Looks like they have at least played with it for fun : http://mattwel.ch/voice-control-for-the-sonos-with-an-echo/

What do you mean by "they"? That link is to a independent programmer's page, not anything to do with Sonos, nor Amazon.

Matt actually works for Sonos now. 😉 Guess they liked all his Sonos mashups.

Matt actually works for Sonos now. 😉 Guess they liked all his Sonos mashups.

Seriously? I didn't know.

Matt actually works for Sonos now. 😉 Guess they liked all his Sonos mashups.

Seriously? I didn't know.

Seriously: http://mattwel.ch/im-joining-the-band-at-sonos/

Should be interesting to see where Sonos takes this connected home stuff.

I hope Sonos andf Amazon seriously consider this; a partnering with Amazon (they are different products with an area of overlap in streaming music/radio stations) would be awesome. Sonos could continue to own the higher end sound, while leveraging Amazon for voice control, gain access to Prime music, and probably find other ways to partner. Amazon could develop an Echo mini (my thought for a new product) that is basically a wireless device with microphone to extend Echo's voice recognition to other areas of my house (I really don't need to buy another Echo with the Sonos devices I already have - just extend its range for voice recognition).

Has anyone had any luck doing this? Just got an echo and trying to get it to control Sonos is a must, I used the speaker itself over my Sonos this evening because it was so convenient, I would consider selling all my devices if I wasn't so attached to the ecosystem...