I’ve recently installed a Ring Doorbell 3, which is the model without the standalone chime. I realise we can buy a chime for this, but I thought it might be a good idea to try and use my girlfriend’s SONOS One smart speakers for this. I have tried to add the SONOS devices using the Alexa app, but they still don’t appear under Announcement Devices (I select Cameras > Front Door > Announcement Devices).
At first, I thought this was because the SONOS devices were signed in using my girlfriend’s Amazon account and not mine, plus we were having issues using smart plugs across the two accounts, even though we’re in the same Amazon/Alexa household. I tried signing one of the SONOS speakers into my Amazon account, but I’m still unable to find the doorbell.
The last thing I tried was to create a routine called “Doorbell Press”. When the doorbell is pressed, it is supposed to play a piece of music on the SONOS; that music is from a sound effects album and is essentially a doorbell chime. However, even that isn’t working and I’ve noticed I can’t make the SONOS play any music from my Alexa app.
I have read that people have done this using a NAS drive and playing a doorbell MP3 from that, but surely that’s a sledgehammer to crack a nut? I have no real need for a NAS at the moment.
Can anyone please suggest a way I may be able to get the doorbell to ring on the SONOS devices? Ideally, I’d like it to ring on both of them but at the moment just one would be an achievement!
Also, does anyone know what I can do about us both having separate Amazon accounts? I’d rather the SONOS devices stay signed in as my girlfriend, but it doesn’t seem to like controlling the smart plugs I have which are connected using my Amazon account. It will do it, but it thinks they’re from a different household.
Instead of using Alexa, have u tried using ST? Your ring device and Sonos need to be on ST. Once that is done you can setup an automation to “Notify someone” on Sonos when the ring button is pressed or motion is detected.
I have the Ring doorbell 3, but don’t have any Alexa device. Did you tried through the Ring app? In the Ring app it seems straightforward to add Alexa devices as a chime.
I don’t have any speaker in Smartthins but just tried turning a lamp on when doorbell is pressed and it works.
Hi, thanks for your reply. Presumably ‘ST’ means SmartThings? Can this still be used in conjunction with Alexa? I’m quite new to this, but since we’ve started to use Alexa for everything now, there must be a way to add this skill. I’ll have a job convincing my girlfriend to change to something else after 5 years of Alexa!
Yes, I think that would work here too. I actually think the issue might be the source of the audio for the doorbell. As I’m typing this, I’m actually thinking that maybe I should get Alexa to say something and see if that works…
Yes, ST is Smartthings. Since this is a Smartthings forum, I assumed you had a hub. To use your Sonos directly from Alexa create a routine as follows.
When Ring motion or press,
Add action - Use custom action and just type in a command to Alexa. "Alexa play doorbell on Sonos speaker. " It has to be the name you gave your speaker in Alexa when you added the device.
Basically the same command you would say to Alexa to play whatever you like on your speakers.
It will ask you to choose a device to play it from. Pick any device. It doesn’t matter since the Alexa command should override this choice.
I tested it and it worked for me, so give it a try.
