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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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Thankyou for that correction. It means a lot to me, and has added to everyone's understanding. I shall endeavour to be more careful in the future. Many thanks.
Hey Smija, Stuart_W, jgatie,
I agree that full management of every aspect of SONOS isn't trivial, but I don't see why you'd want to do all of that via Alexa.
I already use Alexa with Spotify -- what's so complicated about doing the same and just adding the room name?
https://www.spotify.com/us/amazonalexa
Alex, play The Beatles in The Kitchen.
RB
I agree that full management of every aspect of SONOS isn't trivial, but I don't see why you'd want to do all of that via Alexa.
I already use Alexa with Spotify -- what's so complicated about doing the same and just adding the room name?
https://www.spotify.com/us/amazonalexa
Alex, play The Beatles in The Kitchen.
RB
I agree that full management of every aspect of SONOS isn't trivial, but I don't see why you'd want to do all of that via Alexa.
I already use Alexa with Spotify -- what's so complicated about doing the same and just adding the room name?
https://www.spotify.com/us/amazonalexa
Alex, play The Beatles in The Kitchen.
RB
Because that functionality doesn't exist yet, that's why. Whatever you can currently do for an Echo to play means nothing to a 3rd party device's API. Do you think going from playing on itself, to controlling many 3rd party devices from a single Echo is trivial? It's like the difference between two tin cans and a string, and a telephone switchboard., or playing a solo instrument and conducting an orchestra.
I "ECHO" your sentiments!!!!
Sonos is notorious with their inability to follow through with their promises and to give what their consumers want, or need. I have 12 Sonos speakers and six echoes split between two houses. We have been requesting an outdoor Sonos speaker for over seven years. (Que the Sonos crickets) Chromecast is looking better and better as a more practical option for my next home.
I "ECHO" your sentiments!!!!
Sonos is notorious with their inability to follow through with their promises and to give what their consumers want, or need. I have 12 Sonos speakers and six echoes split between two houses. We have been requesting an outdoor Sonos speaker for over seven years. (Que the Sonos crickets) Chromecast is looking better and better as a more practical option for my next home.
Could you name one promise Sonos has made to consumers and failed to follow through?
Pretty sure Sonos never said they were going to make outdoor speakers. I don't see how that's a promise broken.
As for the required work to get the integration done, I think you also have to consider that a thought must be put into which design will work best and allow for future enhancements. You also have to consider which parts of the integration will be done on the Sonos or Amazon side, and which design will port over to Google or Apple better. It's not just a matter of doing the work, but figuring out what work to do.
Just look at the "in the kitchen" part of the command. Alexa doesn't know what speakers are in the kitchen. Does it need to? Should Alexa be upgraded so that you can specify what speakers or other devices are located in the kitchen? Or should that part of the command just be passed to Sonos? And what if the zone was labeled just 'kitchen', not 'the kitchen'? Should Alexa strip out 'the' or add 'the' as needed? Should 'the' simply be ignored? Should the command just fail and make the customer get an exact match? Will customers get annoyed with having to say 'in the kitchen' when they are talking to their kitchen echo to play music on their kitchen speakers? Shouldn't that just be assumed?
As for the required work to get the integration done, I think you also have to consider that a thought must be put into which design will work best and allow for future enhancements. You also have to consider which parts of the integration will be done on the Sonos or Amazon side, and which design will port over to Google or Apple better. It's not just a matter of doing the work, but figuring out what work to do.
Just look at the "in the kitchen" part of the command. Alexa doesn't know what speakers are in the kitchen. Does it need to? Should Alexa be upgraded so that you can specify what speakers or other devices are located in the kitchen? Or should that part of the command just be passed to Sonos? And what if the zone was labeled just 'kitchen', not 'the kitchen'? Should Alexa strip out 'the' or add 'the' as needed? Should 'the' simply be ignored? Should the command just fail and make the customer get an exact match? Will customers get annoyed with having to say 'in the kitchen' when they are talking to their kitchen echo to play music on their kitchen speakers? Shouldn't that just be assumed?
To continue the theme . . .
Should an Echo be assigned to a particular Sonos Room, something which does not exist in the Echo ecosystem now? Should this be optional or forced? What about portable Alexa devices such as tablets? These shouldn't be assigned to a single Sonos (or should they? Or could they?). What about Grouping? Should the Kitechen Echo know about the Living Room Echo? What about if the Living Room and Kitchen are Grouped? Which "assigned" Echo controls each (or do they both? Can they both, given the limits imposed by the possibly "forced" assignment above?).
It doesn't take long to see that the logistics of a mere thought experiment make for a difficult design path, never mind the actual engineering involved. And for those who say "I don't want it to do all those things!", there are just as many (if not more, probably with a great deal of overlap with the "I don't want it to do all those things!" set, lol) that really do want those things, and would call it a half-assed implementation if it doesn't.
By the way, I've been waiting to use the phrase "Echo ecosystem" for a while. Finally got to slip it in. 😉
Should an Echo be assigned to a particular Sonos Room, something which does not exist in the Echo ecosystem now? Should this be optional or forced? What about portable Alexa devices such as tablets? These shouldn't be assigned to a single Sonos (or should they? Or could they?). What about Grouping? Should the Kitechen Echo know about the Living Room Echo? What about if the Living Room and Kitchen are Grouped? Which "assigned" Echo controls each (or do they both? Can they both, given the limits imposed by the possibly "forced" assignment above?).
It doesn't take long to see that the logistics of a mere thought experiment make for a difficult design path, never mind the actual engineering involved. And for those who say "I don't want it to do all those things!", there are just as many (if not more, probably with a great deal of overlap with the "I don't want it to do all those things!" set, lol) that really do want those things, and would call it a half-assed implementation if it doesn't.
By the way, I've been waiting to use the phrase "Echo ecosystem" for a while. Finally got to slip it in. 😉
And just because I like talking about it, all of these questions need to be decided by both Sonos and Amazon management, who like don't agree on all the questions. So you have negotiations and use of leverage everywhere.
Should an Echo be assigned to a particular Sonos Room, something which does not exist in the Echo ecosystem now?
And this is an even bigger question than you think. Because if you can tie a sonos zone to a particular issues, the question suddenly applies to other smart stuff in your home. They've open up a new box of issues. If you don't have to say 'in the kitchen' for a speaker, why do I have to say 'kitchen light' and not just 'light'? Perhaps Amazon sees the desire to move in that direction for all things, but isn't ready at this time. Therefore the design for Sonos has to be flexible so that it can adapt to that functionality when the time comes.
Should an Echo be assigned to a particular Sonos Room, something which does not exist in the Echo ecosystem now?
And this is an even bigger question than you think. Because if you can tie a sonos zone to a particular issues, the question suddenly applies to other smart stuff in your home. They've open up a new box of issues. If you don't have to say 'in the kitchen' for a speaker, why do I have to say 'kitchen light' and not just 'light'? Perhaps Amazon sees the desire to move in that direction for all things, but isn't ready at this time. Therefore the design for Sonos has to be flexible so that it can adapt to that functionality when the time comes.
I don't know but based on the way Alexa handles smart home devices I would speculate that there will not be any assignment of a given echo to a particular Sonos speaker. Room names, speaker names, and Echo names are likely to remain simple labels as far as the logic goes. Any Echo will be able to operate any Sonos speaker by name and will not know or care if it is in the same room or not.
I am curious to see how this will apply to grouped speakers. I'm guessing a command to any speaker in the group will apply to the whole group unless it is a volume command? Or maybe the integration will allow defined groups with unique names so a group volume command can be distinguished from an individual speaker volume command?
I am curious to see how this will apply to grouped speakers. I'm guessing a command to any speaker in the group will apply to the whole group unless it is a volume command? Or maybe the integration will allow defined groups with unique names so a group volume command can be distinguished from an individual speaker volume command?
Agreed. That does mean that echo can't mute or pause sonos when it's listen for a command, since it doesn't know which speaker to pause. And, this little detail would likely go over very well with Echo's customers. I personally have 5 echos and about 20 or so smart lights. It would be darn nice if Echo had some location awareness. This also would be a big plus to their calling/intercom feature. If I want to speak to my daughter on the echo in her room, I don't want my son picking it up in his room.
I am curious to see how this will apply to grouped speakers. I'm guessing a command to any speaker in the group will apply to the whole group unless it is a volume command? Or maybe the integration will allow defined groups with unique names so a group volume command can be distinguished from an individual speaker volume command?
I would guess, yes to the first and no to the 2nd. Although there should be an option to turn down the volume of the whole group as well.
I can say "Alexa, turn off hallway" and the Hue lights in the group Hallway will turn off. So I could see a similar functionally for Sonos being "Alexa, pause livingroom" to pause whatever is playing on the Sonos devices I've grouped together as Livingroom.
A lot of people don't realize what they are doing and as a result why it is taking so long... Sonos and Amazon are defining a new way to connect speakers to players. Instead of the player going direct to the speakers via cable, bluetooth, or wireless, they are now adding it at the OS level to communicate with all available speakers allowing us to be able to switch locations seamlessly for all apps on its platform, making it easier for all to play on Sonos by making it a platform feature instead of something app devs have to build themselves.
Short version: When this is done, all Alexa and Google home apps will be able to play to Sonos. No more selecting music sources off a list of 5.
That said, CAN WE PLEASE HURRY?! And how can I get on the beta? I just equipped my entire house thinking it was done, and not in beta still.... whoops...
Short version: When this is done, all Alexa and Google home apps will be able to play to Sonos. No more selecting music sources off a list of 5.
That said, CAN WE PLEASE HURRY?! And how can I get on the beta? I just equipped my entire house thinking it was done, and not in beta still.... whoops...
Agreed. That does mean that echo can't mute or pause sonos when it's listen for a command, since it doesn't know which speaker to pause. And, this little detail would likely go over very well with Echo's customers. I personally have 5 echos and about 20 or so smart lights. It would be darn nice if Echo had some location awareness. This also would be a big plus to their calling/intercom feature. If I want to speak to my daughter on the echo in her room, I don't want my son picking it up in his room.
I would think mute and pause would work in conjunction with the Sonos speaker name... "Alexa, Mute Kitchen" etc.
You can call directly to a specific room using an Echo... "Alexa, call the Living Room" etc. Not sure what more you are looking for there. I assume you will need your Echo names to be unique from your Sonos names when the integration is released.
Perhaps we are getting carried away with the Alexa buzz, and we should, they have their adverts coming on aggressively everywhere. From most of the posts I have read here, I suspect it might just be more beneficial for SONOS to build in their own voice recognition system on top of their existing development framework. Easier to scale and richer functionalities for us users in the long term. As many have pointed out, integration with ECHO will require decision to be made by both managements. This in itself may take longer to conclude than the actual integration work itself. If I were SONOS, I will prefer to exercise some patience in order to have autonomy in design and implementation and support, ensuring an ECHO integration to cater for SONOS customers that wish to buy ECHO for other uses that are not music based, such as calling and messaging. In my view, this is likely to deliver a tightly integrated voice recognition system unto SONOS for optimum quality of service and better user friendliness.
Sonos is not going to build their own voice control system. That has already been established. They are going to leverage others like Echo, Google, and Apple.
[quote=yemiad1]Perhaps we are getting carried away with the Alexa buzz, and we should, they have their adverts coming on aggressively everywhere. From most of the posts I have read here, I suspect it might just be more beneficial for SONOS to build in their own voice recognition system...
Well yes there is a lot of buzz around Alexa just like there was a lot of buzz around the IPhone and other Apple products when they were the first with the most in any given product category. Echo has around 70% of the market for voice-controlled speakers. Yeah, that share may go down with the relatively recent introduction of products by Apple and Google but for at least the next couple of years Alexa is the market. The Alexa buzz should be a key market driver for Sonos and I'm sure it is, but they don't seem to see any need to keep their customer base updated on progress with integration and updating us on the ETA for it. Could it be that arrival in 2017 is slipping into 2018? It doesn't indicate respect for their customers; have they reincarnated Steve Jobs or just his attitude towards the people who keep them in business?
Well yes there is a lot of buzz around Alexa just like there was a lot of buzz around the IPhone and other Apple products when they were the first with the most in any given product category. Echo has around 70% of the market for voice-controlled speakers. Yeah, that share may go down with the relatively recent introduction of products by Apple and Google but for at least the next couple of years Alexa is the market. The Alexa buzz should be a key market driver for Sonos and I'm sure it is, but they don't seem to see any need to keep their customer base updated on progress with integration and updating us on the ETA for it. Could it be that arrival in 2017 is slipping into 2018? It doesn't indicate respect for their customers; have they reincarnated Steve Jobs or just his attitude towards the people who keep them in business?
Sonos has never given release dates or detailed progress reports. They release according to testing goals met, not calendar days passed. It has nothing to do with respecting their customers, unless one counts not misleading their customers with estimated release dates that may or may not be hit depending on how the testing goes.
If you want release dates, go buy Denon. They gave release dates for a Windows UWP app, Google casting, and Alexa integration. Of course they missed all three dates, and have yet to deliver on any of these promised items. But hey, they gave dates, so they must respect their customers! ;)
As to updates, there have been several in this and other threads. The Sonos/Alexa integration is currently the top priority, it is being worked on, and it is on schedule for the announced release in 2017.
If you want release dates, go buy Denon. They gave release dates for a Windows UWP app, Google casting, and Alexa integration. Of course they missed all three dates, and have yet to deliver on any of these promised items. But hey, they gave dates, so they must respect their customers! ;)
As to updates, there have been several in this and other threads. The Sonos/Alexa integration is currently the top priority, it is being worked on, and it is on schedule for the announced release in 2017.
August 2, 2017 - how's it going, Sonos?
Read the post above yours. The latest update is that it is being worked on and is on schedule for release in 2017.
This was announced over a year ago. In today’s day and age I have no interest in having a relationship with a company that can’t deliver an offering in a calendar year and does not communicate with its customers if that announcement is delayed for whatever reason. Add this type of behavior in with the looming threat from HomePod and I would not be surprised to see Sonos reduced to “BlackBerry-like” status very soon.
Harvey, do you know how long Amazon was working on the Echo before they released it? Are you upset with Apple for coming out with Homepod well over a year after Amazon and Google had their own versions out? Do you have actual stats or inside information that shows how long it takes to do an integration like this, or did you just decide that 1 year should be more than enough? Did you factor in the size of Sonos (and Amazon's) development staff for this project, and how increasing the staff budget could increase the price? You do realize that Sonos integration isn't delayed at all, since they did not promise it at any specific time in 2017, right? Have you concerned the possibility that Amazon could be the reason the integration isn't out yet? Have you considered the possibility that there are marketing reasons to hold off the integration till closer to the Christmas shopping season (as Apple seems to be doing)?
I really wish the integration was here as well. However, I don't think that means we can assume all the relevant facts of the situation, putting higher expectations on Sonos than other companies, and just claim they're being lazy. As well, if you want high quality sound and voice control, there really is no other choice but to wait. Come Christmas there will be choices.
I really wish the integration was here as well. However, I don't think that means we can assume all the relevant facts of the situation, putting higher expectations on Sonos than other companies, and just claim they're being lazy. As well, if you want high quality sound and voice control, there really is no other choice but to wait. Come Christmas there will be choices.
I really wish the integration was here as well. However, I don't think that means we can assume all the relevant facts of the situation, putting higher expectations on Sonos than other companies, and just claim they're being lazy. As well, if you want high quality sound and voice control, there really is no other choice but to wait. Come Christmas there will be choices.
All of that could very well be true. Sonos did a lot more, however, than just say "Hey this is something we are thinking about delivering in 2017." They had a joint announcement with Amazon and demo video of how the solution would work. The standard I would hold ALL companies to for something like that would be 6 months. Anytime after that I would expect some sort of communication explaining the timeline for actual delivery. I am a huge Sonos fan and I want them to succeed. This is really a do-or-die moment for them with the unexpected rise of voice assistants, so It's the lack of transparency and mismanagement of expectations that leads me to believe that they just don't understand what's at stake here.
Sigh
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I really wish the integration was here as well. However, I don't think that means we can assume all the relevant facts of the situation, putting higher expectations on Sonos than other companies, and just claim they're being lazy. As well, if you want high quality sound and voice control, there really is no other choice but to wait. Come Christmas there will be choices.
All of that could very well be true. Sonos did a lot more, however, than just say "Hey this is something we are thinking about delivering in 2017." They had a joint announcement with Amazon and demo video of how the solution would work. The standard I would hold ALL companies to for something like that would be 6 months. Anytime after that I would expect some sort of communication explaining the timeline for actual delivery. I am a huge Sonos fan and I want them to succeed. This is really a do-or-die moment for them with the unexpected rise of voice assistants, so It's the lack of transparency and mismanagement of expectations that leads me to believe that they just don't understand what's at stake here.
Sonos won't release it until it works as they envisage. You'd be the first to complain if it didn't achieve at least a minimum level of functionality.
Don't you think Sonos would rather have it available now?
All of that could very well be true. Sonos did a lot more, however, than just say "Hey this is something we are thinking about delivering in 2017."
In March 2016 then Sonos CEO said the company would be focusing on voice control and streaming. So they've been working on this much longer than a year. That Sonos CEO is gone and the new one said they would move faster than in the past. I'm not sure this is what he had in mind. ?
Personally I give them the benefit of the doubt in that they are moving as fast as they can. But I'm not using any Echo devices now so easy for me to wait.
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