I miss the REAL mute button!

I'm new to Sonos so don't know the exact behavior how it was before. But for me, the actual issue is not 'muting' a single speaker, I can live with using the volume buttons for muting a specific speaker if required.

The actual issue for me is that 'play' will start playing on all speakers. Here is the scenario that I don't think is too special. I've 3 speakers all grouped since I like listening to the same music during the day in all rooms. Speakers are in bathroom, sleeping room and kitchen. Now my wife gets up an hour before me in the morning. When she wants to start the radio in bathroom using the play button, music will automatically start in the sleeping room and in the kitchen and thus wake up me as well as most likely the kids that are close to the kitchen.

So we have to remember to turn down the volume on all speakers before we go to bed or she has to ungroup the speakers on her phone before starting the music in the bathroom. Both not really convenient. Instead I would expect the Play button only start that speaker in the according room, and other speakers to join using their play buttons. Was this the behavior before the 'play button behavior change'?

Set up a silent alarm n each room for the middle of the morning. That will break the group - Volume will need increasing.

Hmm, but after breaking the group you can't continue listening in the kitchen then but instead need your phone again.

I set an alarm every weekday which starts the radio in the kitchen for when I get down for breakfast. Why not do that?

Other than that you probably need the arrival of voice control.

Either that or train the Mrs better. Just sayin'!

Why not set an alarm in the bathroom to go off at the time your wife normally gets up? This will break the group and have the music already playing the program she wants at the volume she wants. You would need to add the bathroom back to the group later in the day if you want to include it in your whole house listening but you will be well rested at that point so the small extra effort will not be such an issue.

Thank you guys, I'm afraid you overestimate wife's willingness of understanding what breaking groups and combining them again means just to be able to continue listening to the same music in the kitchen.

I still think it'll be more convenient if Sonos can offer to activate (and de-activate) each speaker separately instead of trying to workaround this. My understanding is that this was the case before the Play button behavior changed.

Not really. The mute button used to mute the individual player not start and stop it. It also had the advantage of remembering the previous play level so it would return to that level when unmuted. It also would display as muted on any controller so you could tell the player was muted and not paused. You could also adjust the volume of a group that included the muted player without inadvertently unmuting the player you wanted to stay muted.

It was a nicely thought out feature but unfortunately would not have helped your situation.

Ah, thanks for the info, then my assumption of how it was before has apparently been wrong.

Personally, I'd find it most logical if the first 'Play / Pause' on any speaker in a group would start the stream on that specific speaker. Any further 'Play / Pause' on other speakers would join the stream (or 'unmute' them). Same the other way round, 'Play / Pause' on the last playing speaker in the group would stop the stream. Not sure if I'm missing any edge cases here.

I understand what you are looking for but I'm not sure there is a wide demand for it. For most people when speakers are grouped they want to start or stop the group and when they want individual control they just take the speaker out of the group. People who want one button actions for more complex scenarios usually accomplish it using third party automation products.

Personally I like the way the local start/stop function works and would have been happy with the change if it simply moved the legacy mute functionality over to "volume minus long press". Unfortunately when the change was made the legacy mute features were scrapped and the new mute simply turned the player down without remembering volume state, preserving mute status during group volume changes, or properly displaying muted status on controllers. Sonos never gave any good reason for not moving the legacy mute functionality when they switched it to the minus down button... maybe the guy who wrote that code was no longer with the company or maybe it was just laziness, but it will always be remembered as the first big stumble for Sonos who up to that point had a near spotless record of customer satisfaction. Of course all that looks pretty minor now compared to the current problems associated with the recent changes to the queue but it was the first big letdown from Sonos and the insensitive way it was handled still stings a little.

There is a chance that voice control integration might include some features that will help your situation at some point but for now the only option is to change your habits or employ a third party product that will change player groupings by time of day so you avoid those early morning surprises.