Easily switch the music from one room to another

  • 24 October 2012
  • 41 replies
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Userlevel 2
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I have different rooms equiped with wall-mounted Play 3 devices. I would appreciate for an easy way to switch the music from one room to another. This is particularly useful if I spent some time building a playlist or selecting a radio station and that I don't want to have to go through search to find that station again. At the moment, my two options seems to be: 1- Stop the music in Room 1, then start music in Room 2 (need to rebuilt my playlist or search the radio station) 2- Group Room 2 to Room 1, and then ungroup Room 1 from Room 2. Both of those options are inelegant. If I could have some kind of "Sent to" function (or drag and drop a room on another one) that would be great.

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41 replies

The controllers allow you group and ungroup within the one action. This is effectively a "send".
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Can you explain a little more? The way I see it, I need to: - Click Group - Click the new room to ADD - Click done - Click Group - Uncheck the old room - Click done That's 6 clicks to accomplish somethinh that could take just 2 clicks (you put a "send to" next to the group button of each room, and when clicked, you offer the other rooms). 2 clicks, much better than 6.... (and I can't imagine that it is a hard feature to implement on the developper's side).
You do not need to click 'Group' and 'Done' twice, it can all be done on one screen. To move from Room A to Room B, do the following: - Click Group - Uncheck Room A - Check Room B - Click Done
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Haaa.. Thanks, you saved me 2 clicks 🙂. But my idea would save two more clicks.
Yes but it is limited, and is another thing cluttering up the UI. Currently they have a single action which will: * silence one room from a group * add another room onto a room or group * throw the music, from a single room or group, to a different room or group
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Single action.. but 4 clicks. 2 clicks is better for someone who uses it often. Granted we don't want to clutter the UI.. but I think there is a way to make this clean.
Userlevel 2
I'd love this and also thought of it the other day. I'm often moving from one room to another and I want to take the music with me. Currently I have to group and then ungroup which is fiddly. I should be able to 'throw' what's playing on one Sonos to another. e.g. I wake up to music in my bedroom I then want to transfer what's playing to the ktichen where I'm having breakfast. I'm sure this is a common action for many that deserves its own interaction. 

Swipe somewhere on the now-playing screen or long press on the room name -> produces pop-up window with list of other zones,  pick one and it transfers what's playing to that new zone. 
I'd really like this as well.  It strikes me as cumbersome to need to group to add an extra room, then ungroup to remove the room I started in.

A common use case for me is to start playing something in the kitchen while I'm cooking, then want to transfer it to the dining room to eat.  I'd like it if there was a "Send To" button, that would bring up all of your available zones and you click on one, and that's it, it stops playing where you are and starts playing where you're going to.

It would be nice as an extension to that to have a config value that would allow you to set a time for the music to "fade out" of the room you're leaving, so it doesn't abruptly stop as you leave.
A “SEND TO” button would be also a nice feature for me. And it would be nice, if you can implement this.

And the idea from Paul, whit a fade out and fade in feature would make it perfect!
This is for me a must have! A Move to, Send to whatever button.
I too really want this feature. In the new app, you wouldn't need to clutter the UI either. On the rooms screen, simply drag and drop the music from one room to the other. If you were concerned about accidental usage, it could be a long press and drag.

I want to recommend Sonos to my father, but he's not particularly computer savvy, telling him to drag and drop his music from one room to the other is far more intuitive than 'group' as he immediately says 'I don't want to group it, I want to move it' and so on...
Can someone tell me if SONOS are going to develop this idea. I need this option.....send to....works for me...surely an easy update !!
Userlevel 7
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Can someone tell me if SONOS are going to develop this idea. I need this option.....send to....works for me...surely an easy update !!

I doubt it.

It's trivially easy to do what you want now with the current functionality.
Userlevel 1
Actually it isn't trivially easy. It's clunky and non intuitive. How many people figure this out on their own? I bet nearly 100% of people are stopping music in one room and then having to go through all the motions again to start it in another. I have 5 zones in my house and Sonos needs an easy-to-follow, intuitive feature to simply change rooms. Grouping and ungrouping is the wrong answer.
Userlevel 7
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I think the tutorial that pops up with new software version even explained it.
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someone made an ios widget to automatically do the switch

https://m.reddit.com/r/sonos/comments/4t156m/music_shift_migrate_music_from_one_zone_to_another/
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Also - going direct under support link at top - using application - how to group rooms leads you to this page

https://sonos.custhelp.com/app/answers/detail/a_id/4002?_ga=1.201402897.1089879580.1438526041

which actually even describes exactly how to switch rooms.
Actually it isn't trivially easy. It's clunky and non intuitive. How many people figure this out on their own? I bet nearly 100% of people are stopping music in one room and then having to go through all the motions again to start it in another. I have 5 zones in my house and Sonos needs an easy-to-follow, intuitive feature to simply change rooms. Grouping and ungrouping is the wrong answer.

Not once, from day one, was I confused by switching room. Hit Group on the music you want, turn on the rooms you want music in, turn off the ones you don't, hit done. Not clunky and non-intuitive at all, and much more powerful than sending it to a single room because you can do all new grouping from a single screen.

With a "Send to" button, how exactly would I take music from the Den and Living Room and send it to the Den, Kitchen, and Bathroom with a "Send to" button? Would I have to "Send to" three times? Would there be the possibility to "Send to" multiple rooms, with an X to turn on and off the rooms I want the music in? If so, that sounds awfully familiar . . .
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No I have never had any doubt or confusion how to switch rooms either from day 1. Seems pretty intuitive - whichever rooms are checked are ones that will play the music.
Also @mintchap.

Why do you describe it as "grouping and ungrouping". It doesn't take two Grouping sessions to switch rooms. 1 Group button, un-X the room the music is in, X the room you want it in, Done. No need to group then ungroup".
Userlevel 7
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Actually it isn't trivially easy. It's clunky and non intuitive. How many people figure this out on their own? I bet nearly 100% of people are stopping music in one room and then having to go through all the motions again to start it in another. I have 5 zones in my house and Sonos needs an easy-to-follow, intuitive feature to simply change rooms. Grouping and ungrouping is the wrong answer.

Here's a video. It's so quick I did it twice in case you missed it:
http://youtu.be/tEZxx_BfqAA?hd=1
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I see this message today about 5 years after
and it still seems very complicate or impossible to do for me
SONOS User Interface is a mess totaly not user friendly
I would love to be able to swap station from my Android app exactly as the need was clearly described by fdsljfsa
I see the group feature but was totaly unable to hear on station 2 the The Radio set on Station 1
For me the only thing a bit intuitive on the mobile app is On Off and volume control !
A shame for SONOS Software designer
For that I will never recommand SONOS to anybody !
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Also @mintchap.

Why do you describe it as "grouping and ungrouping". It doesn't take two Grouping sessions to switch rooms. 1 Group button, un-X the room the music is in, X the room you want it in, Done. No need to group then ungroup".


If you do that you loose the original source of the Target station
It is not the SWAP I need and mentionned by fdsljfsa
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When listening to station there is room description at bottom. Younclick slext any rooms you want to be playing that.
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Thank you Rock Star
First : this is abolutely not Easy to Catch
Two : If by chance I win to do it I'm loosing the original source : this is not a SWAP between two source
Why do I want a SWAP between the source of Two Station ?
Because everything is so tricky and complicate to find with SONOS that if I loose the source a a Station I've again to spend a few minutes to set it back as it was !
So many people says that SONOS is Really not intuitive and every update they make it worse
They never ear about ergonomic designer !