Grouping two rooms to use from Spotify

  • 15 October 2023
  • 16 replies
  • 1676 views
L
Userlevel 1
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Hi,

I am new to the Sonos ecosystem and got my second speaker today. I have an era 300 in my living room and the move in my bedroom. I exclusively use the Spotify app to play music. 

 

What I would like to do:

When playing music, I would like to either play in one of the rooms or both at that same time. 

 

The issue I'm facing:

when I tried to group the speakers, the option was greyed out and says you need 3+ rooms to do so. I saw in some posts a reference to automatic "everywhere" group, but that is not visible in Spotify. 

There was a workaround posted on one thread where you can use the three dots option next to the speaker in Spotify and it redirects you to the Sonos app's grouping feature where you can create a group with two speaker. Unfortunately, when you do this, the original single speaker that was visible will be replaced in Spotify with the new group (this means I can no longer only select that speaker). 

Each time I need to play everywhere I can go through these steps, and undo it when I want to use the single speaker, but that feels tedious. 

 

Is there a way to group two rooms that I'm missing?

 

I'm also curious why there is a 3+ requirement, feels like grouping two is a legitimate need. 

 

Thanks

 

 

16 replies

Airgetlam

I can’t answer all your questions, but there’s some data you should be aware of. First, Sonos can’t be responsible for what shows up in Spotify’s controller. Sonos doesn’t have access to the Spotify codebase. Similarly, Spotify is responsible for how they have implemented the Sonos ‘SMAPI’ in the Sonos controller. I’d assume Sonos does some QA on it, but Spotify is responsible for how it was implemented. 

Second, I think you’re confusing the use of the ‘all’ rooms function in the Sonos controller. It only appears when there are three rooms or more, it does not appear when there are two rooms only. In that case, you just select the two rooms to group, the ‘all’ button would be redundant. 

As to your Spotify specific questions, not being a subscriber, I’ll leave that for others to respond to. 

Bruce
106rallye
Userlevel 7
Badge +17

Take a look here: https://support.sonos.com/en-us/article/group-and-ungroup-rooms?language=en_US

When you only have two “rooms” you do not have to name groups because you can only have one group, so the named grouping option is greyed out. The button I’ve circled above will do everything you want.

You should also be able to play to more than one speaker from the Spotify app.

L
Userlevel 1
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Thanks for the reply @106rallye. Unfortunately, this is not a viable solution as I exclusively use the Spotify app, and don't use the Sonos app for playing music (i.e. using the play controls). I can jump from Spotify to Sonos app each time I need to do this, but that a lot of extra steps and I change rooms I play in all the time. 

L
Userlevel 1
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@Airgetlam I missed your reply. Thanks for the info. 

 

The way I am looking at it, Sonos exposes speakers via some API Spotify and others use. 

1) This API exposes all individual speakers without any issue. I can play via Spotify using any of the individual speakers. 

2) Exposes Sonos speaker groups without any issue. Based on other posts, seems like if you create a Sonos group, Spotify can play on that without any issue. 

However, since Sonos doesn't allow creation of groups with only two rooms, Spotify is not able to show me an options to play on two speakers. 

Maybe Spotify is not using the correct APIs, and there is a way for other apps to play on two rooms with Sonos devices? My understanding reading the other posts online was that there is no such API and this is an issue faced by a lot of folks not directly using the Sonos app to play their music. 

Feels like Sonos decided to now allow creating groups with two rooms, coz it can be redundant in their app, however when it comes to external integration this seems to create some confusion and UX issues for customers. 

 

 

Airgetlam

I don’t agree with your conclusion that Sonos doesn’t allow the creation of two grouped rooms. It’s something I’ve done regularly. The only restriction they provide is that they don’t show the ‘group all’ function when there are just two available rooms. All you would need to do is select the two rooms with the check mark. This has always been the case, Sonos didn’t just decide to allow this. 

Again, I’m not familiar with the Spotify player, and the way it interacts with Sonos directly. Sometimes, you just need to use the tools that are available. But if you have concerns inside the Spotify app, you should be talking to Spotify’s customer service, and posting in their forums. Sonos has no control over what features they’ve chosen to implement. 

Bruce
L
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@Airgetlam maybe I misunderstood you. I don't see a way to group two rooms. Under System, Groups menu item is greyed out for me. When I tap it, I get a message "this feature is available on systems with three or more rooms". Therefore, I have no place where I can select the check marks for the two rooms. If I can create a group with two rooms, all my problems will be resolved as that group will show up in the Spotify app. 

 

Am I going about creating the group in the wrong way?

Airgetlam

Again, I have no idea about how the Spotify app works, but if you read the link provided by @106rallye , it covers how to group two rooms in the Sonos controller, which has worked the same way from the original release of the Sonos controller. 

Bruce
L
Userlevel 1
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Agree this is not an issue for anyone using the Sonos app to play music. In the end, it seems like grouping two rooms is special cased (since the group feature says you need 3+ rooms), which makes sense within the Sonos app (since you can we easily select the other room in the controller), but this has created a weird scenario for external apps that integrate. I guess Spotify needs to handle this special casing on their side without since Sonos doesn't provide a way to generically expose this via groups. Thanks for all your help. 

106rallye
Userlevel 7
Badge +17

I do not have my system nearby at the moment, but you are sure you cannot select the two speakers in the Spotify app?

D

I have the same issue, it is a hassle having to go to the Sonos app everytime I want to play to both rooms.

Airgetlam

Contact Spotify, who controls that software. They have access to the full Sonos API and their own codebase for their app. Sonos has no ability to access the Spotify app  codebase in any way. 
 

Bruce
106rallye
Userlevel 7
Badge +17

It looks like when you select two Sonos speakers in the Spotify app the app redirects you to the Sonos app. You then should be able to group speakers in the way described in the link I gave above.

P

i have also facing the same kind of issue on my client’s site but i used this spotify++ ipa!!

Airgetlam

You used a beer?

Bruce
D
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I just posted about the same issue the OP had. It really seems like Sonos should allow you to save or name a group of speakers in two rooms. 

With one tap, I can select “Kitchen” 

With one tap, I can select “TV room” 

With one tap, I cannot select both.

The functionality exists to play music in both rooms, but there is no possible way to group/name in a way that allows you to play in both rooms with one tap. I really don’t understand it. Shouldn’t I be able to create a “room” or a “group” and name it “Downstairs” and then when I select that group, it plays from both rooms? 

I understand that I can go into the “group” square icon thingy and select the room when I want to play music, but it’s really strange you cannot save that as a grouping and must manually do it each time. Am I missing something? 

106rallye
Userlevel 7
Badge +17

Maybe Sonos could change the “square icon thingy” to a “group all” in case you only have two speakers. Because “group all” is the only possibility then anyway.

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