This is been raised before with no luck (most recent post I found was for Aug 2017), but I’m hoping something has changed since then. Apologies if this has already been resolved, or addressed more recently.
I’m hoping to use my Echo dots to play/control music through my three Samsung R1 speakers. As of now, you can play through all speakers via WiFi using the Samsung app or play through one speaker connected to one Echo Dot via bluetooth, which would allow voice control. But in August 2017, Amazon announced they were working to expand Alexa control options for multiroom systems. Among other things, they were releasing APIs and working with major manufacturers:
“The new Connected Speaker APIs enable device makers with connected audio systems to control music playback using Alexa. A user can then use any Alexa-enabled device – for example an Echo Dot – to play music throughout their home on their connected audio systems. Amazon confirmed it is already working with leading brands on this offering, including Sonos, Bose, Samsung, and Sound United.”
Sonos was all over this and has already integrated Alexa voice control functionality, I believe. Has there been any movement that anyone is aware of either by Samsung or by third party developers to build a skill for the R1s? I’m starting to regret not just going with Sonos to begin with, or buying full size Echos with good speakers instead of the dots.
Hey, did you ever find a solution to this? I also have a set of R1 units across the house. I’m very upset these do not have an AUX in port- what a waste!
It appears possible to connect an Echo Dot via bluetooth to the R1, and the multiroom does work now in that scenario. My issue with that is just all the interference of 3 bluetooth signals sending music over top of all the SmartThings device signals.
But I don’t see my alternative. I’ve tried playing the R1 unofficial API and have tried adding a USB soundcard input through the Service port- but I can’t seem to get it to recognize the option. It seems perhaps the software on the R1 treats SoundConnect the same as AUX, so I even when I try to switch to AUX over the API it doesn’t complete.
Anyway, just curious what direction you went. In the future here I’m just sticking with regular speakers that have an input. Such a shame to waste some good ones like the R1 once the Multiroom app no longer works.
I connected a Bluetooth transmitter to my dot instead of using the Bluetooth of the dot. This way I can use the R1 as a multi room speaker with the dot.
Does anyone have any updates regarding this topic? I have (9) Samsung R1 speakers, 1 Samsung soundbar with sub and 1 Samsung shape wireless audio hub (WAM250), all of which are useless with Alexa. The MultiRoom app is awesome, no complaints there but I really want to be able to play music in predefined groups via Alexa. I can’t seem to find anything newer than this thread.
I may as well kick the corpse as well…
I too have been trying to get my R1’s to play nice with Smart Things without luck. I had hoped the new app version would connect but still nothing. It’s odd that competitors’ products connect flawlessly but Samsung’s own speakers are left out in the cold. I would think, worst case, it would only require a firmware upgrade if anything. How about some support for your customers Samsung, before you lose them all.
To get the R1 to work with SmartThings you must use the Samsung Multiroom phone App that connects with the speakers. Once it pairs with Multiroom (WiFi) go back to the SmartThings app and add a New device with “Scan nearby” and it should find and add the speaker. Good luck.
Trying to get an Alexa skill is what I’m looking for.
Scott, sorry if I sound a bit dense here, but could you elaborate on how you got SmartThings to “see” the R1s?
I regularly use the Multiroom app to play both .MP3s and streams through the R1s (although it has been crashing with Amazon music). Multiroom has no problem connecting to any/all of the speakers. I tried the “scan nearby” in SmartThings and they were not found. I even tried scanning while actually playing an .MP3 through Multiroom (from the same phone) and SmartThings still found nothing. Any clarifications you could provide would be appreciated as the only suggestion I can get from Samsung is to check the list of compatible devices.
Did you use Bluetooth to connect your speakers to Multiroom? I used WiFi and wonder if that is why mine show up. It takes a while for ‘scan nearby’ to find them. like a minute or two.
Everything is on WiFi, and I triple checked that the phone and all speakers were on the same network at the time. The SmartThings “scan nearby” function runs until it times out (I don’t cancel it) with the “Available devices” list showing “No devices found”.
I guess I was hoping you discovered some trick to it, but it seems as though you are doing the same thing I am only with better results.
I have a v3 hub. What do you have? Also, using Android here. This doesn’t make sense! I have added 5 of them days and weeks apart with no issues. I am not even near the hub.
I had 2 R3 and 2 R1 and reverse engineered the App API to the speakers and made my own custome action for Alexa. It allows them to group and ungroup but didn’t implement playing because it means integrating with Spotify. Samsung can do this in no time but they gave up on these speakers so I gave up on them.
Got rid of my speakers and went all in to Sonos. I recommend the same for you.
