Alarms, reminders, scheduled news and sleep timers: where to set, see and cancel them

Four different things

Alarms

Where to find them

• Automations at the bottom → the Apple Home & advanced row → Alarms (subtitle "Wake up on Sonos — pick the room, music and volume."; the count shows on the right once you have alarms). The page is titled Alarms & reminders (just Alarms in 1.0.10 and earlier).
• The Alarms tile in Home → Quick Execution: with no alarms it opens New alarm; otherwise it opens the alarms page.
• The alarm cards under Quick Execution → All: More at the top right opens the alarms page; long-press a card for Disable alarm, Enable alarm or Delete alarm.
• Alarms set in the Sonos app show up here too, because the list comes from the speakers themselves. The top of the page shows "Current scope: <room>"; pull down to refresh.

Create an alarm

Turn on, off, delete

• Each row on the alarms page shows "room · time", Enabled or Disabled, the repeat rule, sound, duration and volume, with two buttons: Disable / Enable and Delete.
• Delete on the alarms page deletes immediately, with no confirmation. Deleting from a Home card via long-press asks first.

What needs the same Wi-Fi, what needs the bridge

• Creating, switching and deleting chime alarms in the app: phone and Sonos on the same Wi-Fi, no bridge.
• Setting a chime alarm by voice (for example "set an alarm for seven"): a Sonos account sign-in is enough; no bridge, and you don't need to be home. Alarms created this way are always enabled.
• Using a Sonos favorite as the sound: needs the home bridge online.

Voice reminders

• In Assistant, say or type something like "remind me to eat in 5 minutes" or "remind me to call at 8 pm". At that time it is announced in the room. Reminders fire once and can be up to 7 days ahead.
• Anything with "every day" or "wake me" is treated as an alarm, not a reminder.
• No bridge needed: the server makes the announcement on time.
• To check or cancel, ask the assistant too, for example "what reminders do I have?" or "cancel that reminder".
• Claude or ChatGPT connected to ZoneFoundry can set, list and cancel reminders too (name the room); they only list reminders created through AI.

Scheduled news

• Go to Assistant → News → Custom presets → Add news preset, or long-press an existing preset → Edit. The Scheduled news tile on Home → Quick Execution opens the same page (it switches to the Assistant tab first).
• Fill in Display label, Category, Stories and Target room (or Use default), then pick one under Trigger: Manual (tap to play); Scheduled (auto), then choose Repeat (Once only / Every day / Weekdays / Weekends / Custom) and a time; or After alarm, then choose the Linked alarm and Wait after alarm ends (minutes).
• Once saved it syncs to the server and runs on time, no bridge needed.
• Alternatively, set Play after alarm → News on an alarm.
• To see them: the Scheduled news tile on Quick Execution shows the first plan's name, and Quick Execution → All has a Scheduled news row whose Manage button goes back to the News page.

Sleep timer

• Where: the Sleep timer button under the full-screen player, or Sleep timer in its ⋯ menu; the Sleep timer tile on Home → Quick Execution (it shows Not set, or an end time such as "Until 23:30"); the Stop in 30 min Control Center button; asking the assistant "stop playing in 30 minutes" (Sonos account sign-in needed); and scenes can include one too.
• Options: Stop in 15 minutes · 30 minutes · 45 minutes · 1 hour · 2 hours, and last, Cancel sleep timer.
• It applies to the selected room, and its whole group stops together. On the same Wi-Fi the phone sets it on the speaker directly; elsewhere it goes through the server and the Sonos cloud (Sonos account sign-in needed).
• To cancel, open the same panel again and tap Cancel sleep timer. That's the most reliable way.

More on the player, the queue and the sleep timer: The player and the queue.

The Reminders & timers section

• From 1.0.11, the Alarms & reminders page has a Reminders & timers section below the Sonos alarm list.
• Each row shows the type, time and room, a short summary and a Pending tag, with a Cancel button; soonest first.

Wellness reminders

• Automations → Apple Home & advanced → Wellness reminders ("Sit-stand, hydration, breaks — announced on your speakers.").
• Four switches, all off by default: Hourly hydration reminder · Stand up every 30 minutes · Eye rest · Bedtime wind-down. Under Custom wellness reminders you can change the text, the interval (at least 15 minutes) and the active hours (8:00 to 22:00 by default; 18:00 to 22:00 for the bedtime one).
• It's announced in whichever room is playing at the time.
• Timing isn't exact: these run on iOS background refresh, and iOS decides when. For on-the-dot timing use a voice reminder or an alarm. They're separate from voice reminders. To stop them, turn the switches off on this page.

FAQ

Can I see alarms I set in the Sonos app?

Yes. The alarms page reads the alarm list from the speakers themselves.

The alarms page says "No Sonos alarms yet", but I have some?

With the home bridge, the list only shows alarms for the room in Current scope, so pick another room on Home and look again. Away from home without a bridge the alarms can't be read; open the page again on your home Wi-Fi.

Can I wake up to a song I like?

A Sonos favorite as the alarm sound needs the home bridge online. Without one, use Sonos chime and add a Sonos playlist or news under Play after alarm.

What's the difference between a reminder and an alarm?

A reminder is a single spoken announcement, once, up to 7 days ahead. An alarm is a Sonos alarm that can repeat daily and rings until stopped.

Wellness reminders aren't on time?

iOS decides when wellness reminders run, so they aren't guaranteed to be on time. Use a voice reminder or an alarm when timing matters.