Alarm speaker grouping

  • 19 August 2019
  • 29 replies
  • 1330 views

Userlevel 2
I can see that this has been requested in the past but then the posts seem to die a death with no sign of the feature being implemented in the app so...again...why can't we set an alarm to play on a specific group of speakers rather than only having the option to "include grouped rooms"?

Use case: I have speakers in a bedroom, kitchen and living room. In the evening I often want to listen to music in the kitchen or bedroom while someone is watching TV in the living room so I ungroup my speakers. In the morning I want my alarm to play a radio station or play list on all speakers throughout the house. As it stands, unless I remember to re-group my speakers before going to sleep for the night the alarm will only play in the bedroom. Why can't I have a set of ticket boxes to select exactly what speakers to play the alarm on?

The only possible reason to not have this feature that I can think of is that it could cause confusion or frustration if an alarm interrupts a speaker that is already playing. For that case, why not have an additional Yes/No box to indicate whether I want my alarm to override a speaker if it's already playing or to ignore the active speaker and only sound on those that don't already have something playing?

Thankfully I have found a workaround to implement this feature myself by using a third party home automation hub but all this does is suggest that the feature can definitely be easily implemented as it's been achieved via reverse engineering and for Sonos not include it in their own app is just either poor design or laziness.

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29 replies

Userlevel 1
Exactly what I need and expect from a alarm signal in a multiroom system like Sonos. At the moment I have to set up the same alarm signal in multiple rooms. When I wake up first step is to group the manually or it sounds like I’m waking up in a cathedral... 🤦🏼‍♂️
So +1 from me!
Userlevel 1
Same here. I have speakers in my bed room and kitchen, and play ambient music in the bedroom at night. In the morning, I have an alarm set to start music in the morning, and I have to manually add the kitchen speaker after it starts. Why can’t I just include two rooms in my alarm?
Userlevel 1

I just ran into this issue (again) when setting wake up alarms using SiriusXM as a source.  I have been used to the PITA of setting up multiple alarms for several rooms in the morning to achieve the desired result for years now, but I just decided to change the music source to SiriusXM and ran into a huge roadblock: SiriusXM only allows 1 stream per account so when the next room starts up, it shuts off the previous room.  Nice!  what a “feature”.  Now of course I CAN play Sirius in every room in the house as long as they are grouped together and only using one stream.  Boy wouldn’t that be nice?  Of course here we are years later and there is still no way to group rooms together and then start the music.  And just to cut off the apologists: I have written my fair share of code over the years so no, there’s no way I’m going to believe an action that takes 3 or so clicks on a smart phone app is that difficult to code or implement in an alarm.

Also since I’m on the subject of alarms how about a few more features:

Please stop burying the alarm setting in the mobile apps!  On desktop, there is a very convenient “Alarms”  tab at the bottom, not three clicks away at the bottom of the “System” settings page.

Add the ability to ramp music up over the course of a variable time period:
I want the alarm to come on at say 1% volume.  Then over the course of a settable time period (say 10 minutes) ramp the music up slowly, more or less linearly (to keep the math simple) to 25% volume.

Also the ability to set up a multi-stage alarm:
The bedroom comes on at lets say 6 am.  5 minutes later, the bathroom is added to the group.  10 minutes later the kitchen is added to the group.  5 minutes later the office is added to the group.  After an hour, the music is turned off and all players are removed from the group.

As an alternate to you guys coding all that, just allow the function of adding and removing players to a group in the integration services like IFTTT.

OK, I’ve said my peace again after waiting several years although I fully don’t expect ANY of this will happen, but at least I tried.

Userlevel 5
Badge +5

Given that Sonos has completely buried the alarm feature, I suspect it’s dead and will not see any more feature updates. They seem to want to discourage its use.

Userlevel 1

On the latest mobile app version you can access alarms in the top left cover corner of the “rooms” tab, the icon even changes if you have alarms on or not  

 

That being said, I would trade that in an instant to be able to group rooms with an alarm...

 

Userlevel 1

Huh.  I just looked on both iOS and Android and I don’t have the alarm bell in the upper right yet.  By the way I chuckled when i saw 93x and GO 96: I live in the Twin Cities too. ;-)

Userlevel 5
Badge +5

The alarm shortcut in the Rooms page is a test that Sonos is doing, only a small number of users have it. 

Userlevel 1

The alarm shortcut in the Rooms page is a test that Sonos is doing, only a small number of users have it. 

I had no idea! How do you know that?

Userlevel 5
Badge +5

https://en.community.sonos.com/controllers-software-228995/alarms-hidden-in-system-settings-with-10-4-6829754/index3.html#post16363541

  

On the 10.4.1 Android app there is now a bell symbol top left of the rooms screen which takes you directly to alarms.


We're testing this out with some Sonos controllers, but it's not available on all systems updated to 10.4.1 at this time. Some people will see it show up on their controllers over time as well. Based on use and performance, it may be added to all controllers in the future.

 

Userlevel 7
Badge +8

Yup 15-years, and still waiting for this feature!

Userlevel 1

I just received a new One SL today, to do exactly what the original poster wants to, I did not think to check up on the ability to group speakers for an alarm, I simply assumed that this feature was available.

How on earth is something like this not in the app?  Or for that matter, why can’t I save grouped rooms, so I can quickly switch between where the music plays, without having to tick each an every speaker on and off.

Its mindboggling that an app that has had so many years to mature are missing such simple features. :(

Userlevel 1
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Exactly what I need too,

please sonos develop the possibility the select which room are included in the allarm.

please add the possiblity to add a room in an active group at a specific time

I set up Yonomi this morning and it will group speakers in an alarm. It's a little fiddly to set up, but not difficult. It's not the ideal situation as a Sonos solution would be best, but it seems to work

 

Userlevel 2
Badge +1

I came here to request this feature to, so adding my +1.

Having to remember to manually check/adjust room groupings before going to bed when an automated recurring alarm will run in the morning is not at all realistic or practical!

I want the radio to play throughout the house when my alarm goes off, which doesn’t seem to be a niche need?

Is this one on a feature request backlog somewhere? :)

Still nothing in their new app apparently.

We have all been waiting for this feature for years. It is ridiculous that I need to group all my speakers again every morning to hear my radio everywhere. 

Sonos could you please listen to your customers needs and deliver this feature or at least let us know if you intend to develop it at some point ?

Userlevel 2
Badge +1

Yeah nothing in the new app, though you can now create and save groups, so you’d think you’d be able to select one of these saved groups for an alarm!

Yeah nothing in the new app, though you can now create and save groups, so you’d think you’d be able to select one of these saved groups for an alarm!

Maybe a chance for an upcoming update now that there is this possibility…

I guess none of Sonos engineers are using the alarms (or Sonos products...) because this is so frustrating and it has been asked for so many years :sweat:  there are only unconvenient workarounds right now.

Badge +20

Yeah nothing in the new app, though you can now create and save groups, so you’d think you’d be able to select one of these saved groups for an alarm!

 

Absolutely

 

and then drop the group when the alarm ends or is stopped by a user.

I have the same alarm on three Sonos speakers, all playing the same radio stream and as they are not grouped ever so slightly annoyingly out of sync.

Can’t believe this hasn’t been prioritised, it seems like a massive oversight.

 

Please implement soon Sonos.

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After upgrading hardware so I could update to S2, I too am disappointed that this obvious feature is not in S2.

 

I made different groups:

downstairs: livingroom + kitchen

upstairs: bedroom + bathroom

morning: kitchen + bedroom + bathroom

 

@Sonos I need to be able to add a 07:00 am alarm to the group ‘morning’. So I can listen to morning radio shows in the areas I use in the morning.

 

In the evening I want to listen to music in the group ‘downstairs’. That ungroups kitchen from bedroom.
 

So in the morning, the alarm is set to bedroom, (cause I cannot add a group to an alarm!) and there is no music in the kitchen.

 

@Sonos you now have all the ingredients. Please fix this!

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I’ll throw in my 2 cents as I too have wanted this feature for years.  

I have many Sonos components throughout my house, outside on patios, in garage workshop, etc.   In the morning I have an alarm to start background music through out my house;  in my office, the garage workshop, and outside patio.   Can you set individual component volumes 4A Grouped Alarm?  Of course not!  Looking at past threads this has been asked for 6+ years... My office background volume should be low 10-15%, the outside patio volume needs to be a little louder 25-30% to be heard due to the nature of being outside, my garage workshop uses a Connect to an old Sony Amp so it needs fixed volume.  I just added two Sonos One SL's to my network, one for the kitchen and one for the Pantry.  I want to add these to the group alarm for background music but those speakers are so efficient they need a volume level similar to my office 10% or .    AND then I hate if you accidentally ungroup your background speakers the next day the alarm only works in a limited number of rooms.  I like the idea others have suggested to recreate the group as part of the alarm definition! 

I have three Amazon Echo speakers dotted around the house and they are very useful as a daily alarm as they can be grouped so Spotify plays everywhere each morning, for a duration of my choosing. Better still, I can add other things to the morning routine, so I get news, weather, etc, before the music starts playing.

We enjoy the feature so much we thought about upgrading from Echo speakers to Sonos throughout the house in order to experience the better sound quality. Thought I’d check first to see if similar alarm functionality is available, and I’m amazed to find that it isn’t. Sadly, that alone rules out a Sonos purchase for us as the daily alarm in multiple rooms is a must-have feature.

Another +1 requesting this feature. No idea why it isn’t already available, seems like a no-brainer.

Userlevel 2
Badge +3

At the risk of being a “me too” …. ME TOO! Really don’t want to have to be thinking about which 3rd party app can help me, group, ungroup, mute, set a volume etc. Just want to be able to control the SonoS from the one app please.

please.  bought the newer hardware and gave away the older stuff, hoping s2 would support this..  please.