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Returned Sonos one for google chromecast audio haven't looked back.

Forum|Forum|8 years ago
November 30, 2017
28 replies
17479 views

First let me say I have been a sonos user and supporter since my first system in 2006. I originally started with on amped box and then got another. I used these over 10 years without fail. I have allot of home automation in my house and waited patiently for sonos to get alexa support. I went out and immediately purchased the sonos one on release day and couldn't wait to use my existing alexa's. Then disappointment settled in quickly. Not only was the alexa integration not what I expected the ONE was beyond disappointing. We replaced the alexa in our bedroom with the one. After trying and multiple removed/re-add the entire ONE to get it working time and time again, the wife said it's got to go.

So with great disappointment I went to the store to return my one. I grabbed a play 1 for $50 less and figured we will just go back to using our phone. Then I heard about the google home integration with a google cast in the input of my amps. So yesterday I purchased two google mini's and to google cast for both my amps.....

WOW exactly what I expected voice controlled sonos to be like. We defaulted our outside amped zone to play on the inside play one from the input when detected and the other to play in our living room. We added this to google home in the desired virtual rooms for the mini's. Google letting you set a cast device as default audio is already leaps and bounds above alexa. I won't get started on the home integration except we are 100% happy with google home vs alexa.

I realize I could have gotten dots and gotten close to this behavior but buying a voice control box for amps in the ceiling didn't make sense and alexa grouping to rooms is way behind google especially for audio.

What I gained

Native "play" support no need to say play to this or play to that. Just automatically plays to the corresponding sonos assigned to that google room.

Can group through google home and play group easily add and remove with voice.

volume and playback control is natural. Google seems to remember better what I am doing and volume etc work spot on. (for this I turned my sonos volumes too 100% and let the chromecast control the audio up and down.)

Granted we still have to use our phone to play on patio (not a worry since it's winter) but another amp or a play 5 in place of the play 1 will fix this.

So my take away is alexa is pretty closed off and google is in some ways as well. Sonos needs to stick to what they do well and that's speakers.

PLEASE ADD AN AUDIO INPUT TO PLAY:1 / PLAY:ONE let amazon and google handle the home automation. The sonos ONE completely ruined my wife on alexa altogether for it's many shortcomings. (ask it to play music it does nothing...)

Popping sound

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Show previous replies

Paulw123

Virtuoso

Yeah the sonos speakers appear along side all GCA in the one list of casting targets. You can't group sonos targets.
Hopefully google home will also pick up these sonos targets sometime next year.

K

Kumar

Is it some version of Google cast or a version of Sonos' play to Sonos?

All I know is that it is built into the regular GPM app that one gets from the Play Store to any Android phone. And works just the way GPM works with the CCA puck, but without needing the puck. So effectively, as if the Sonos speakers are cast enabled. But not for Google Home/Mini, which is the mystery - why not for that as well?

Paulw123

Virtuoso

My guess is that sonos decided not to expand on "play to sonos" after GPM from any android device in 2013 (my Samsung tablet works great) to keep customers in the sonos eco-system which means you can only buy more sonos stuff, expensive connects etc.
The advent of Alexa changed all that, maybe sonos chief stepping down helped as well, and now sonos is opening up.......slowly.
New customers are buying sonos ones which is great for new growth.

K

Kumar

My guess is that sonos decided not to expand on "play to sonos" after GPM from any android device in 2013 (my Samsung tablet works great) to keep customers in the sonos eco-system which means you can only buy more sonos stuff, expensive connects etc.

How so? For one, the "play to Sonos" works on Androids of today as well. And two, what it does is removes the need for a Chromecast puck that Google makes, not for Sonos hardware.

Today, anyone that wants to use the Google Mini with ANY third party speaker has to also buy the CC puck from Google. But since Sonos users have been given a way to not need the puck if they have Android devices, not allowing them the same benefit while using Google Home/ Mini is more likely a Google decision, not Sonos. Hopefully, that will be revisited soon by one/both.
PS: In fact, I wonder if by "enabling Google Assistant" that Sonos says it will do soon, this allowing of Google Home/Mini to work with Sonos without a CCA puck is all that needs to be done. And if so, since "play to Sonos" works automatically and well in any place in the world where GPM service is available, will Google Assistant as well? Because this last bit seems to be a major challenge for Sonos where the Alexa integration is concerned; Alexa is also released now by Amazon in Canada, India and Japan, but there is no knowing when it will work on Sonos the way it does in US/UK/Germany, the only countries where Alexa was available when Sonos released Alexa integration.

R

Robert_19

Contributor III

I have a sonos system in my home. My wife hated using it because she found the app confusing. I already had a Sonos Connect with a line in. I purchased a google chrome cast and mini speaker. She can now do everything she needs with voice commands, basically play/stop music, and volume control. It is a sweet set up, considering it’s a work around waiting for google to play nice with Sonos one.

Paulw123

Virtuoso

Google have just enabled FREE uk landline and mobile phone calls this week. Bit of fun having handsfree conversations ;O)
Just ask it to "call" a number, if it recognises your voice it will use your contacts, so you can say "call xxx" (xxx=contact name)

melvimbe

I know this is 3 months old, but I found it interesting, and it looks like a question never got answered. So, why is it an android phone can cast to a Sonos speaker, but the Google Home Mini cannot?

I haven't really played around with this, but I noticed in Paul's link that the android phone casting requires that the Sonos app also be installed. Why? I would guess that it's needed because casting actually isn't done directly to Sonos speakers, but to the Sonos app, which then passes the command on to the speakers. If that's the case, that would explain why you can cast to Sonos on android, but not through the mini.

I don't quite understand why the sonos app is needed. Perhaps the communication protocol between the 'cast' and Sonos is different and the developers opted to make the exchange on your phone rather than add coding to the sonos devices themselves. Perhaps, if it was a direct cast, it would be a 'push', streaming through your phone, rather than a 'pull', allowing Sonos to go get the audio itself.

As far as the setup of using a chromecast audio dongle as a way of using google home voice control with Sonos, I'm not too crazy about it since it requires the Sonos zone to be on the line in. to work. It doesn't really give you the full control that you ideally want. Granted, the Amazon implementation doesn't either, and has other flaws. In the end, there is much work to be done.

Voice control development is still in infancy. Unlikely other new tech from the past, I think customers have a much better idea of what can be done with and where this will go...causing a lot of impatience. Other techs, such digital audio itself, wasn't so easy for customer to know where it was going. Thus, they were content to take their time getting there.

Danny

N

nuckbro

Lyricist I

Sonos Alexa voice control is awful. Well, in Australia at least. Even with 2 Sonos Ones, and having had a modem change, and factory resets, Alexa voice control is still only intermittently useful. You either need to be very specific, or patient, waiting for Alexa to process commands. My dream is that Sonos come through with support for Google Home, which isn't perfect, but leaps ahead of what Alexa can offer. I've taken to using IFTTT as a workaround to use OK Google commands on my phone, to get the Sonos to do what I want.

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