Feature Request: Allow grouping rooms when you only have two rooms
If you only have 2 rooms, you can’t put them into a group.
If you can’t put them into a group you can’t set an alarm to play from both of them at once.
The minimum of 3 rooms makes sense in all other contexts as it adds no benefit when ad-hoc grouping of them is only one tap away from Now Playing, and you can tell a voice assistant to play on all speakers. However in the alarm context it means you can’t do something that should be possible.
The limitation on room grouping is obviously an arbitrary setting, simply remove the restriction please so we can play an alarm in our two rooms.
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You can group two rooms already. You’re just not presented with the ‘group all’ button unless there are three or more rooms.
Ah, but what you’re really asking for is not a grouping function, it is the ability to group rooms for alarms, which is a bit different.
I have seen the other topics on this matter, I don’t care about having separate groupings for alarm scenarios—I want one group, which I can assign for alarms.
You’re correct that what you are describing would solve my problem, but it’s a request that has come up a number of times and has been ignored so far. My suggestion would require less engineering effort on Sonos’ part as presumably the limitation on grouping if you have fewer than 3 rooms is implemented somewhere in code as:
if (rooms < 3) { disable groups button }
(pseudo-code obviously). The limitation I assume is not there because of any technical limitations, but merely because there is no need for it in most scenarios. I believe the engineers did not consider the alarm scenario when disabling groups for 2 room setups. All I would request is that they remove the limitation.
As Bruce already said, there is no room grouping limitation that says you can’t group less than three rooms. There is just the “Group All” button missing as it could be confusing.
Whilst your pseudo-code example could be used to say “if rooms = 2 { enable group both } elseif { etc } there’s nothing wrong with just leaving out group all until there are more than two rooms
When you have fewer than three rooms the groups button is simply disabled:
I’m talking about named groups, not ad-hoc groups from the now playing screen.
But why would you need a named group when for you it is only possible to have one group: room 1 + room 2 - or in your case TV Sonos + Kitchen Sonos? As I understand it you can't set an alarm for groups - named or otherwise.
But why would you need a named group when for you it is only possible to have one group: room 1 + room 2 - or in your case TV Sonos + Kitchen Sonos? As I understand it you can't set an alarm for groups - named or otherwise.
I see. That’s where I’ve gone wrong, I assumed you could set alarms for groups, I don’t have any groups so I didn’t understand that.
Anyway I think I’ve solved my problem. The Apple “Home” app allows me to set alarms that play on multiple devices if I configure a “home hub”. I happen to have an old iPad kicking around, and Lo and behold, setting it as a home hub does indeed allow me to set up an alarm that plays on multiple Sonos speakers via Airplay. Amusing that through Sonos’ own developed third party integration this is possibly but not through their first party app...
