Many users wonder how to play music simultaneously on both Alexa Echo and Sonos speakers. You might have tried grouping your devices in the Alexa app, hoping to achieve seamless audio across your home. However, you may have noticed that music only plays on one speaker, leaving you puzzled. Let’s clarify how Alexa and Sonos work together when it comes to playing music and multi-room audio.
The Limitation: Alexa and Sonos Multi-Room Protocols
Currently, directly playing music on both Alexa Echo and Sonos devices at the same time through a single voice command isn’t supported. This limitation stems from the fact that both Amazon Alexa and Sonos have their own distinct multi-room audio protocols and ecosystems. Each company has developed its technology to manage and synchronize audio playback within their own product lines. Sonos uses its robust, proprietary system known for high-fidelity audio streaming across Sonos speakers. Amazon, on the other hand, uses its own multi-room music system for Echo devices and compatible speakers.
Because these systems are designed to operate independently, there isn’t a native, straightforward way to bridge them for simultaneous playback across both brands. While both ecosystems are popular and feature-rich, they are fundamentally separate in their approach to multi-room audio.
Sonos Grouping: Your Alexa Multi-Room Workaround
While direct simultaneous playback across Alexa and Sonos isn’t possible, Sonos offers a grouping feature within its app that provides a workaround for multi-room listening when using Alexa. If you have multiple Sonos speakers in your home, you can use the Sonos app to create temporary groups of speakers. This allows you to synchronize audio playback across selected Sonos devices.
Here’s how it works with Alexa:
- Group Speakers in the Sonos App: Use the Sonos app to group your desired Sonos speakers. For example, you might group your “Living Room” Sonos speaker with your “Kitchen” Sonos speaker. These groups are ad-hoc and not permanently named within the Sonos system for Alexa control.
- Control via Alexa: Once grouped in the Sonos app, you can then use Alexa voice commands to control music playback on these grouped Sonos speakers. If you’ve grouped “Room A” and “Room B” in the Sonos app, and you say “Alexa, play music in Room A,” the music will play on both “Room A” and “Room B” Sonos speakers.
It’s important to understand that Alexa isn’t directly grouping the speakers. Instead, Alexa is instructing the already grouped Sonos speakers to play music. The grouping itself is managed and set up entirely within the Sonos ecosystem. Alexa is simply controlling the playback on a Sonos group you’ve manually created.
Stereo Pairing vs. Grouping: Clarification
It’s also helpful to distinguish between Sonos speaker grouping and stereo pairing. Stereo pairing, also done within the Sonos app, involves combining two identical Sonos speakers in the same room to function as a single stereo pair (left and right channels). This is different from grouping speakers in multiple rooms for multi-room audio.
If you have a stereo pair of Sonos One speakers in a room named “Family Room” in your Sonos app, and you issue a voice command like “Alexa, play music in the Family Room,” the music will play on both speakers in your Sonos stereo pair. In this case, the stereo pair is treated as a single “room” within the Sonos ecosystem, and Alexa can target this “room” for music playback.
Important Note: If you are using an Alexa device (like an Echo Dot) to control music and want it to play on your Sonos speakers, and not on the Echo device itself, you need to specify the Sonos speaker or Sonos room name in your voice command. For example, “Alexa, play music on Living Room Sonos” or “Alexa, play music on Family Room”. Otherwise, the music will default to playing on the Alexa device itself.
Conclusion
While you cannot directly play music simultaneously on both Alexa Echo and Sonos One devices using Alexa’s native multi-room features, Sonos’s grouping functionality provides a useful workaround. By grouping your Sonos speakers in the Sonos app, you can then use Alexa to control music playback across those Sonos groups. Understanding these limitations and workarounds allows you to effectively use both Alexa and Sonos to enjoy music throughout your home, even if direct simultaneous playback across both systems isn’t currently possible.
