Sonos makes a range of excellent smart speakers, many of which come with Alexa built-in. This means that you’re able to talk to Alexa through your Sonos speaker in the same way that you would with an Amazon Echo device. You can ask Alexa to play music, but also use other Alexa features too, such as smart home control or asking for the weather.
Not allSonos deviceshave Alexa capabilities built into them, however. You’ll find Alexa in the Sonos One, Roam, Move,Era 100and Era 300 speakers, as well as within the Beam, Beam second-generation and Arc soundbars. If you don’t have one of the Sonos speakers with Alexa built in, you’re able to still use Alexa to control your Sonos speaker, but you’ll need to use a separate Alexa device, such as one ofAmazon’s Echo devicesor a Fire tablet to issue the voice commands. You can also use any of the Sonos speakers featuring built-in Alexa to control other Sonos speakers that don’t come with Alexa.
If your Sonos speaker doesn’t come with Alexa built in, then here’s what you need to know about how to pair Sonos speakers with Alexa.
How to update the Sonos app
Before you connect Alexa to Sonos, you’ll need to be sure that the Sonos app is up-to-date. You can set the app to update automatically, but if this setting isn’t turned on, you can manually check for updates to ensure that you’re running the latest version of the app.
How to connect Alexa to Sonos
After you’ve installed the latest software, you can add Alexa as a voice assistant in the Sonos app.
How to set up the Sonos skill on the Alexa app
The instructions above will get your Sonos account and Amazon accounts linked up, but you’ll also need to enable the Sonos skill in the Alexa app to get the most out of Alexa on Sonos and play music with your voice. To enable the Sonos skill in the Alexa app:
How Alexa works on Sonos
Using Alexa on the Sonos One, Era 100, Era 300,Roam, Move, Beam,Beam 2and Arc is similar to the experience onAmazon Echo, with the voice assistant baked into the speaker. The experience isn’t quite as seamless as with an Amazon device, and there are a few features missing, such asAlexa calling.
However, you’ll still be able to use your Sonos One, Beam, Beam 2, Arc, Roam, and Move to control anysmart home devicesthat are compatible with Alexa, as well as ask Alexa to perform various tasks, including delivering a weather update, answering a question, or ordering you anUberride home. For many features, you’ll need to make sure you have all the skills enabled in the Alexa app, as you would for Amazon Echo.
You’ll also be able to use your Sonos One, Era 100, Era 300, Beam, Arc, Roam or Move to send music and other audio tracks to your other Sonos speakers that don’t have Amazon Alexa built in. For example, say “Alexa, play Drake in the living room” and music by Drake will start to play on the Sonos speaker you have previously designated “living room.” You canread our Sonos tips and tricksto find out how to change a room name. Music will play from your default music service, which you may change in the Alexa app. It’s also possible to play or shuffle Sonos playlists you’ve manually created.
For Sonos speakers without Alexa built-in, includingthe Sonos One SL, Roam SL,Play:1,Play:3,Play:5,Sonos Five,Playbase,PlaybarandRay, you won’t have them talking back to you as you would with Amazon Echo or the Sonos Beam, One, Era 100, Era 300, Arc, Roam and Move. Instead, Alexa effectively becomes the Sonos controller; the Sonos speaker itself does not become a voice assistant.
For those after Google Assistant rather than Alexa, you can learnhow to set up Google Assistant on your Sonos system, but keep in mind that Google Assistant isn’t available on the Era 100 or Era 300 speakers.
