Contributor I

Answered

Why is it not possible to play directly from my Android phone anymore

Forum|Forum|3 years ago
May 28, 2023
51 replies
5961 views

I can not play from My Android Phone anymore- why ...?

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Best answer by jgatie

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Airgetlam

I wouldn’t hold my breath. I’d assume Sonos tried to work with Apple, several years ago when Apple shut off this feature that Sonos was working, to no avail. Those of us who use iOS have been without this ‘feature’ since August of 2019. It was also forced by a change to the iOS operating system, evidently nothing that Sonos could do.

Bruce

melvimbe

Now the only option to play music from your device is to upload it to a cloud storage service that supports Sonos, such as iBroadcast, Apple Music, Deezer, Plex, and YouTube Music.

It’s one option, not the only option. Refer to the original announcement thread, linked in this thread, for other options.

Danny

M

Manu84

Enthusiast I

Agree, I use iPhone, there isn’t a more comfortable app than the native Apple Music app using Airplay, the Apple Music interface in the Sonos app is horrible, pretty slow, I try to search something and appear very few results, and the Apple Music browsing tab is limited to my library and the stations.
Don’t come out that AirPlay will be deleted too because I’m gonna swoon, bought my Sonos Roam for $250 this is getting unreliable, and unreliable even more

La discapacidad visual no es ningún impedimento, a disfrutar Bros

106rallye

Apple provides the UI and other features for the Sonos app……

Ken_Griffiths

Agree, I use iPhone, there isn’t a more comfortable app than the native Apple Music app using Airplay, the Apple Music interface in the Sonos app is horrible, pretty slow, I try to search something and appear very few results, and the Apple Music browsing tab is limited to my library and the stations.
Don’t come out that AirPlay will be deleted too because I’m gonna swoon, bought my Sonos Roam for $250 this is getting unreliable, and unreliable even more

I think the Sonos App Apple Music search interface and results screen are fine - it’s no worse than the Apple Music App and there’s a tab to search the user local uploaded iCloud library too.

It looks pretty good to me on the iPad (See below example search result for Genesis)…

R

RJSUK

Enthusiast II

This drives me nuts! Why would I ever again buy Sonos products when they remove essential features like this? I don’t subscribe to a music streaming service, and the Sonos devices I have (Arc and Sonos Ones) don’t have bluetooth. The only solutions offered are to subscribe to streaming or invest in NAS - so spend more money to replace the storage my phone does just fine. Effectively Sonos has just decided to deny me access to my music. Thanks!

It's bonkers. The usual suspects bang on about it being Google's fault but when you tell them that an independent music player app can cast music to Sonos speakers, they bang on about the Sonos app being a remote control, not a music player. Excuses, excuses…

Anyway, the app in question is Hi-Fi Cast. It's available for free, but you can pay about £6 to purchase it. It works a treat and you get none of the lagging nonsense regularly encountered in the Sonos app. I'm out of town at the moment but when I'm home and connected to my network, all of the speakers shown in the attached screenshot from the app are available to cast to.

jgatie

It’s not “Excuses, excuses…”, it’s facts. I respectfully request you attack the argument and not the person, @RJSUK. Stop handwaving and make a cogent rebuttal. Quit attacking people as “apologists” or “usual suspects” and instead, tell us how Sonos is supposed to get around Google’s rules?

R

RJSUK

Enthusiast II

It’s not “Excuses, excuses…”, it’s facts. I respectfully request you attack the argument and not the person, @RJSUK. Stop handwaving and make a cogent rebuttal. Quit attacking people as “apologists” or “usual suspects” and instead, tell us how Sonos is supposed to get around Google’s rules?

Dude, I'm not attacking anyone, just imparting knowledge that there is an independent app that can do what Sonos claims they cannot do anymore, that some Sonos users my find helpful. There is obviously a subset of community members who identify with the term "usual suspects". If there wasn't, my use of the term wouldn't offend anyone! ;-)

Moving on, here's a screenshot from the Hi-Fi Cast app now that I'm home and connected to my network. As well as my Sonos speakers, it can also connect with my Bose SoundTouch 20 speaker! If I want to playback on Sonos speakers in multiple rooms, I can go into the Sonos app and set it up from there, AFTER I've started casting from the Hi-Fi Cast app.

However when connected to multiple rooms, the track time counter in the Hi-Fi Cast app reverts to 0.00 seconds and stays there for each track, but I can skip backwards and forwards between tracks. Conversely, the track time counter works in the Sonos app but I cannot skip forwards, just restart the track currently playing. Basically, it's not perfect if you want multiple room playback but it is for one room playback.

I only need this function because the amount of music I own exceeds the Sonos library limit and if I want all of my music to be accessible, I need to use a device in conjunction with the hard drive I have plugged into my router (which I find to be an altogether much easier option than running a NAS).

Finally (and off topic in this thread), I've noticed that Classic search now includes the results for Sonos Radio straight after the results for my local library, even though I've never used the service! I find it very arrogant that Sonos do not allow customers to remove it, like it does with all other services.

Ken_Griffiths

If I’m using an Android (tablet), then I sometimes use a Bluetooth connection, either to a Roam, Era or Move2 speaker and play the downloaded/locally-stored tracks to any/every Sonos speaker using Poweramp from the Google PlayStore - I’ve tried HiFi cast too, but it’s not the best player IMHO. Poweramp has a few useful EQ presets, although I mostly leave things flat nowadays and just let (auto)/Truplay do it’s thing.

Of course the Sonos App itself, is just a ‘remote’ for the Sonos speakers, rather than a music player, so I understand why it does not do these things.

I’m quite happy to use a Bluetooth connection anyway and I do like the way that Sonos have implemented that connection as an audio source for playback on any Sonos device in the same HH, via grouping.

All said and done though, there’s always services like iBroadcast, Emby, Plex, aswell as the Sonos local library (SMB) access anyway (to name but a few services) that can help provide further options with playing locally held music on Sonos devices. I even have a way to ‘cast’ to Sonos using the Nvidia Shield and a Sonos HT product linked to the TV - so playing locally held music is not really a huge issue, personally speaking and I have no issues playing music that’s held on an Android tablet.

ratty

Hi-Fi Cast is a DLNA/UPnP media app (server/renderer/control point) similar to BubbleUPnP. Like all such apps they’ll cast to Sonos players as UPnP renderers, though this is unofficial and playback support is sometimes a bit hit and miss.

Again, this is utterly different from the Sonos Controller app, which is simply a remote control, and cannot (now, thanks to Google) also function as a server to dispense local files.

I really can’t understand why it’s so difficult to understand the distinction.

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