Chromecast functionality

@Mar_Gut_Ort .  Your profile mentions only a Move.  Do you have any other Sonos device?

No, just move. 

Then as @Unmechanized said, you haven't been using Chromecast at all to play Spotify.

You aren't getting Netflix audio out of the Move because there is no connection between the Chromecast/TV and the Move.  A possibility would be to use the Move in Bluetooth mode and connect it to a mobile device on which you are playing Netflix.  Again, this has absolutely nothing to do with Chromecast.

If your TV has an option to output audio via Bluetooth then you might be able to use that. 

What are the other means? How can a Sonos 1 work with a projector to output audio? It already works with the Bose Soundlink II. 

Projectors are irrelevant to this discussion.  Sonos staff have commented on numerous threads that Sonos HT systems are designed for use with TVs not projectors, and a wired connection for audio.  That applies whether you are an Android or an iOS user. 

And a Sonos One is not a Sonos AV product.  It is not designed for a projector or a TV.

Ouch… but helpful, nonetheless!

I hadn’t realized that Tidal has a casting system similar to spotify (not Chromecast, but similar enough to start audio in the native player and then transition it to the Sonos system - even has grouping!). I will certainly make use of this!

I didn’t test GPM because I transitioned to YTM before I bought my Sonos system. So the lack of support in YTM, and this massive thread on lack of Chromecast support, led me to believe that it was a more prolific issue.

FWIW, I tested XM as well and you still cannot cast to Sonos from the app on Android. 

As someone new to Sonos, let me attempt to summarize for everyone like me hammering this thread:

• Chromecast is not supported by SONOS, however!
• Some music apps on Android support some sort of proprietary casting which solves the problem only on those platforms. Examples: Spotify, Tidal, Amazon (and apparently Google Play Music before it was EOL)
• Other music apps do NOT have a solution yet for the lack of chromecast support. Examples: YouTube Music, XM Radio
• Anyone trying to extract audio from a video stream and send it to SONOS is an entirely different and more complex use-case - for this, a Beam is the answer. Or, what I’ve done, is connect a Chromecast HDMI device to an HDMI splitter and audio de-embedder. This device takes HDMI signal to two displays in my house and extracts audio into a SONOS port. The same could be done for a cable box, etc. If you have a permanent projector setup outside and architectural speakers connected to SONOS, this is a good option for you. Just note that you will also need a HDMI-to-Ethernet baluns to send video over long runs! As a mobile solution, buy a projector with ARC and pair with a Beam, or with Bluetooth audio out to a Move as suggested by @John B.

Appreciate all the help here guys. I’m glad there are some solutions for transitioning audio from native apps on Android, but I still believe that Chromecast support would bridge the gap in capability more universally. With YTM now as the home to all of my music (and the sub including YouTube Premium) it’s hard to transition away from that and thus, I’m still sort of SOL…

Do I still think SONOS should provide communication about Chromecast? Yes! And maybe a good opportunity to educate people on the Android apps that have similar functionality today!

Hi @Unmechanized .  That seems to me a fair and comprehensive summary- thanks.

All things being equal, nobody could disagree that to have Chromecast support would be better than not having it.  But I’m not sure everything is equal.  I can only assume Sonos don’t see it as high enough priority. 

I do think you have to bear in mind the nature of the Sonos system too.  It was designed to play music files in a multiroom environment, with an app that is a remote control not a music player.  Technologies that are based on streaming from a device to a single speaker don’t sit easily with this.  Sonos never supported Airplay 1, and apart from the specific use case of the Move, shows no interest in Bluetooth.  The Sonos app is still at the heart of the system.

By all accounts the YTM integration into Sonos leaves much to be desired, but is largely down to what Google have chosen to include using the Sonos open API.  And yes there are many services that cannot be played using the native app, but at least a huge range is available in the Sonos app.

As to Sonos sharing their intentions with their customers, that isn’t going to happen.  I don’t think it is down to contempt for their users, they just have a philosophy of not confirming or denying anything.  Everything is regarded as potentially commercially sensitive.  And if they came out and said ‘yes we are working on Chromecast integration’, then failure to deny the next speculation would be interpreted as endorsing it.  The line is ‘deny mothing, confirm nothing’.  I have found it frustrating at times, but that’s the way it is.

If Sonos announce Chromecast support tomorrow I shall be happy for you, but indifferent for myself.

Sonos needs to stop the discrimination of Android users, in favor of IOS users.

It is very reprehensible that there has been functionality like Airplay to Sonos available for IOS users for years now, while Sonos has not taken advantage of the possibility of adding Google-cast or Chromecast functionality (available through Android) to the Sonos system, even though that option has been available to them for as long as Airplay was available through IOS.

Basically IOS users can cast anything (audio) from any app or file on their device, using the OS interface, to any airplay compatible Sonos speaker and from there to any room. Meanwhile, Android users only have the options that are available through the interface of the Sonos App or the few apps that support direct cast, like Spotify or Audible. 

Similarly, tuning of Sonos speakers is only available on IOS.

What else are Android users missing out on?

Sonos, being an open platform should rather prioritize the open operating system (Android), than the walled off IOS.

Discrimination?  Do you have inside information and proof that Sonos is intentionally not allowing funcitonality on Android?  It couldn’t be that Google is charging more for license, has different hardware requirements, or Google isn’t allowing Sonos to have chromecast for whatever reason?  You sure it’s just that Sonos thinks little of android users?

Sonos has explained the reason for that repeatedly.   I would rather Sonos just sell their own mic-enabled device for tuning rather that develop  tuning for all the hardware flavors of android.

An understanding of why certain features are on iOS but not android?  I’m not suggesting that customers need to know all these details, but assuming the reason is discrimination when facts suggest otherwise.

Did you know that you can play files stored on your android phone with Sonos, but you can’t with iOS?  That’s not as big of deal with airplay, but was certainly not popular before airplay was widely used.  And people made the same assumptions you’re doing now, that Sonos just doesn’t like their Apple customers, ignoring the fact that iOS changes made the feature unmanageable.

From what I’ve seen, Sonos prioritizes based on volume of customers who could use the feature and feasibility to actually develop the feature.  And of course, they need to make a profit somewhere too.

Not having Chromecast on Sonos is a pain. And having a terrible Google Assistant experience on Sonos speakers doesn’t make things better unfortunately. (Sonos, why can’t I shuffle music using voice commands?!)

I highly doubt that Google is refusing Sonos access to Chromecast. Many different speaker brands use Chromecast, from budget to premium. And the hardware on Sonos’ latest speakers certainly allows for it.

I first thought that Sonos didn’t want Chromecast on their devices due to Chromecast being a competitor in multiroom playback. But then, having AirPlay 2 but not Chromecast doesn’t  make much sense to me either.

Then Sonos started this court case against Google (and Amazon). This didn’t stop Google from adding the ability to set a Sonos device as the default speaker for e.g. a Nest Mini and adding Voice Match to Sonos devices though.

You can play anything from an iOS device to a Sonos speaker, yet Android users don’t have this option. This is unfair towards Android users and bothers me as well, despite being an iOS user.

I also agree about Sonos being an open platform and should thus be open to Android users in particular.

The Google Assistant on Sonos is plagued with problems, from not shuffling music to not responding at all. People have been complaining about these issues from day 1, including the lack of Chromecast support.

And of course people are frustrated by all this - all these problems have been around since the launch of GA on Sonos, and more than a year later, none of them have ever been resolved.