Avid Contributor I

Chromecast functionality

Forum|Forum|7 years ago
May 25, 2019
164 replies
76568 views

Why is Sonos lacking the Chromecast functionality, which basically every 100€ WiFi speaker has. It makes it impossible to use YouTube music ( you have to open the Sonos controller and control it from there instead of just pressing the cast button) and it makes using the Google Assistant unnecessarily cumbersome. You have to specify the speaker after a voice command instead of being able to simply set Sonos as a default speaker. That not enough, it also makes it impossible to cast all audio to Sonos. Sonos always talks about being open and support all platforms, yet after waiting a year longer than Airplay 2 users (which got supported as soon as the service got released), we get a shitty, half-assed service lacking basic functionality. Sonos basically incentivizes people to switch to Google Home Max et al, to use get the full capability from the services.

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Nollind

Prominent Collaborator I

If you have a Sonos speaker (ie Beam) hooked up to your TV then you should theoretically be able to hook up a Google Chromecast (which is still available to buy) to your TV and stream the music to it, relaying it through the TV to the speaker and then sending it to other speakers throughout the house.

I’m achieving the same thing with a turntable right now which is hooked up to my TV, relaying the audio to my Sonos Beam and then sending it to other speakers in my house.

So no need for a more expensive Sonos Play:5 or Sonos Amp at all.

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curieuxmurray

Lyricist I

Yeah, well, I just got in Sono with Ikea's Symfonisk... To be honest, I'm not close to buying extra hardware or doing complex setup for the sake of a functionality I have with less expensive speakers.

The Symfonisk sounds incredible, it's just weird we can connect to the Assistant but not as a Cast device when AirPlay2 is ok out of the box. We'll just have to wait and hope for Cast!

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Foofoo

Lyricist I

God damn it. I wish I saw this thread before I invested in Sonos.

It’s frustrating as hell that I cannot cast anything to my Sonos. My dingie little Sony speaker can be cast and airplay. What sort of joke is Sonos playing on us?

It’s basically a useless ecosystem when you’re forced into the Sonos app which relies on integration services.

Yes, Sonos fanboys please down vote this post I’ve seen how you’ve all attacked legit feedback from owners who are not happy with the way Sonos is prioritizing their software development. This is a software product prioritization. Chromecast is as open as it can be. It is not Apple AirPlay.

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murph999

Lyricist I

God damn it. I wish I saw this thread before I invested in Sonos.

It’s frustrating as hell that I cannot cast anything to my Sonos. My dingie little Sony speaker can be cast and airplay. What sort of joke is Sonos playing on us?

It’s basically a useless ecosystem when you’re forced into the Sonos app which relies on integration services.

Yes, Sonos fanboys please down vote this post I’ve seen how you’ve all attacked legit feedback from owners who are not happy with the way Sonos is prioritizing their software development. This is a software product prioritization. Chromecast is as open as it can be. It is not Apple AirPlay.

@Foofoo: I completely agree. I have 2 Play:3s, a Soundbar, and 2 Play:1s. But I listen to podcasts, etc. on my Google Home Minis because Sonos is so freakin' inconvenient. I'm ready to dump the Sonos gear.

D

Doslo

Lyricist I

Couldn’t you achieve this and emulate the functionality by adding and attaching a Chromecast Audio device to the input audio of a Sonos Play:5 speaker or Sonos Amp?

If you don’t already have one of these Sonos units though, it would obviously be an expensive addition buying one just to add Chromecast Audio functionality.

I bought Play:5 because of this imagination.

Unfortunately, I found it is not a good idea. The line-in functionality will be disabled after the Play:5 is connected as a surrounding.

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Brian in Oz

Lyricist I

Agreed. I waited forever to buy Sonos need on the premise it was adding Google. And then we only get a partial add. I would have gladly bought the Google speakers instead. I want to be able to walk into my house and cast whatever I've been listening to on headphones to my speakers. Can't do it. Sucks for podcast continuity. Don't buy this product.

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ICEFIR

Contributor I

This is my first Sonos system and probably will be my last one....
The fact that you cannot cast audio via any mean (Bluetooth/Wireless) makes it an one trick pony, and an inconvenience one as well.
Yeah sure it sounds fine, but if it cannot play the music I want (Some of them isn't available on all kinds of media services, others are not in regular audio format, like videos or streams etc), then it's practically useless.
Guess I'll have to look into other solutions.

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CarlRJ

Contributor II

Seems like there are a number of people in this thread getting angry at Sonos because they themselves spent hundreds of dollars without doing any research to see if the speakers they were about to buy met their needs, instead making a lot of assumptions. Do you often spend large quantities of money without asking questions or doing any research on what you're buying first? This anger is misdirected.

I

ICEFIR

Contributor I

Seems like there are a number of people in this thread getting angry at Sonos because they themselves spent hundreds of dollars without doing any research to see if the speakers they were about to buy met their needs, instead making a lot of assumptions. Do you often spend large quantities of money without asking questions or doing any research on what you're buying first? This anger is misdirected.

You are not suppose to expect some expensive equipment to be missing the most basic functionalities, for this price range at this age of the time - expecially when the product claim to be wireless.

I should also probably remarked its not until the product is in my hand for a few days I've noticed its really inconvenient to use. I was really impressed with sonos one at first, as you know, this is a good product, for what it was designed for. However its turns out the design flaw was huge. Cannot return it because its I bought it in a bundle, amd this is sort of a side gift/reward.

If you excuse the inconvinece of your product as user fault, then clearly you have some marketing research issues.

Expecially this can be easily implimeneted into a system 🙂 A line in, or proper bluetooth receiver would solve all the problems above, yet its missing it.

The only way i can going forward is to get a sonos connect or amp, then add a raspberry pi, get hdmi input card, plug my dec into it to get RCA/Optical audio signal out.

Wihch I can easily do these, in fact. I have all these equipments avaliable at my hand except fot the amp or connect.

which, well, sorry, I am just not going to do it. I am not going to fix the silly decision they've made. Going for a Google Max will be a far wise idea.

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freshtripe

Lyricist I

I have to agree that the Sonos One is the most disappointing tech I have ever purchased.

I bought it early doors on the promise of Google Assistant compatibility. After 12+ months of Airplay failing to work 70% of the time and using the more reliable (but very un-user-friendly Sonos app) a half-hearted implementation of GA arrives...

The microphone fails to pick up commands more often than not, I regularly get the message from my Sonos One that my Sonos One is not available (?!) and obviously chromecast does not work.

My £30 Google Home performs way, way better than this, if only it sounded as good... Google Max here I come.

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