Grouping Idea for SONOS

  • 2 October 2016
  • 9 replies
  • 472 views

When one room is actively playing music and i walk into a room which is not, i would like to have a way to click a button on an inactive speaker in the room to group the inactive room with the active room with out opening a controller. Could be three clicks of the play/pause or if commands could differ for an inactive speaker, then double clicking play/pause when the speaker is not playing.

This topic has been closed for further comments. You can use the search bar to find a similar topic, or create a new one by clicking Create Topic at the top of the page.

9 replies

Voice control sounds great, but still there could be an alternative for those who dont have or dont want alexa or google home.
Or you can wait until voice control is released next year and just say "Alexa, group the living room with the kitchen and play 'Cooking to the Groove' playlist", instead of having to tie your fingers into knots hitting yet another arcane button push combo. I'm too old to remember what the latest "Play the Twister game on the Volume/Mute buttons" functions are.
I suggest that active speakers/groups are selected sequentially when clicking on the inactive speaker.
That's the play/pause button, already used for resuming/stopping play on that speaker (or the group of which it's a member).


Yes, I was a bit unclear there. By "clicking" I mean some sort of combo to activate the feature. For example a "triple clicking the play/pause" or "Long pressing the play/pause" or "Play/pause and Volume up at the same time".
I suggest that active speakers/groups are selected sequentially when clicking on the inactive speaker.
That's the play/pause button, already used for resuming/stopping play on that speaker (or the group of which it's a member).
Just had the same idea ☺

I suggest that active speakers/groups are selected sequentially when clicking on the inactive speaker.

For me personally, i most often only have one other speaker playing, that i want a quick way to group with.

But if there would be two speakers playing different music, i would need to click at most two times to group with the correct speaker.

I would say, start with a simple solution, perhaps you have a beta program? The improve it if necessary.
This kind of 'follow me" functionality has long been debated. The devil is in the detail of any sensible implementation.

If pulling a phone from a pocket is so hard, perhaps one needs to wait for Alexa to be able to respond to suitable voice instructions.


voice control would also address the 'how to skip a song while in the shower' issue but the pulling the phone from the pocket solution only works if the phone is in the pocket and not across the house where it normaly is... if grouping feature was worked into a smart watch app, i usually have that on me
What if there are 2 or 3 other groups running. How would you determine which one to join?
I am not sure that there is a perfect answer for this though i would argue that doesn't mean don't do it. some options would be to add in an ability to indicate room adjacency in the controller which would allow sonos to add the room to the nearest group; or just add to the most recent group. i would suggest to disable the feature if 2-3 groups are running concurrency... personally my house is too small for that.
This kind of 'follow me" functionality has long been debated. The devil is in the detail of any sensible implementation.

If pulling a phone from a pocket is so hard, perhaps one needs to wait for Alexa to be able to respond to suitable voice instructions.
Userlevel 7
Badge +22
What if there are 2 or 3 other groups running. How would you determine which one to join?