The Sonos One and Sonos Beam are getting a useful new Alexa function
If you have more than one Amazon Echo, Announcements is one of the most useful functions. It allows you to record a message and then broadcast it to every smart speaker in your network.
Not only is this a brilliant way to prank people without even having to leave the room, it also has several legitimate functions. Send public service announcements to a small office, get the kids to come down to dinner, what have you.
Related: Which Amazon Echo should you buy?
But this is one function that has been broadly confined to Amazon’s own brand of Echo speakers. If you had another smartspeaker that uses the company’s Alexa software, the function simply wouldn’t work.
That’s no longer the case if you have the excellent Sonos One or Sonos Beam smart speakers.
Tell the kids it's time for dinner or make your own "public service announcement with guitar" to the whole house. #Alexa Announcements roll out today on #Sonos devices: https://t.co/gturl3Dzp3 pic.twitter.com/I0giSlXfRu
— Sonos (@Sonos) August 9, 2018
The function works exactly the same way it does with the existing Echo family. Just say “Alexa announce” and then record your announcement to be played back across your network of devices. The phrases “Alexa, tell everyone” and “Alexa, broadcast” also work if you want to mix things up a bit.
As it’s not read out by Alexa, you can be creative as you like: record a song, put on a comical accent, or say it in Esperanto. The limit is your creativity and your housemates’ patience.
Related: Best Alexa skills
Once you’ve finished recording, you’ll hear a short chime, and then your message will be delivered throughout the house. Individual devices can opt out of this either temporarily or permanently by setting them to ‘do not disturb’ mode, or disabling the feature entirely in the Alexa app.
What will you use Alexa’s announcement feature for? Let us know on Twitter with a message to @TrustedReviews
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Editorial independence
Editorial independence means being able to give an unbiased verdict about a product or company, with the avoidance of conflicts of interest. To ensure this is possible, every member of the editorial staff follows a clear code of conduct.
Professional conduct
We also expect our journalists to follow clear ethical standards in their work. Our staff members must strive for honesty and accuracy in everything they do. We follow the IPSO Editors’ code of practice to underpin these standards.