Hold Play/Pause to start a Favorite Station or Playlist

  • 16 October 2013
  • 13 replies
  • 2011 views

Userlevel 2
In response to @avela13 on Twitter: http://twitter.com/avela13/status/390484096830291969 @Sonos would it be possible to add a feature where you could assign a playlist or favorite to play/mute button when pressed and held down?

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13 replies

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I agree with this. Got my first Sonos product today and already love it but wish I had a button that I could press to just start playing my favorite radio station withough having to get my phone and go into the app.
Userlevel 7
Badge +22
I like the idea - be able to tag a Sonos favorite for a device to be able to autoplay.

May be able to kinda do a workaround now to make it work.

What if you set an alarm for the speaker every morning at 4am to play the station/playlist you want at 0 volume for 15 minutes.  After 15 minutes wouldn't it stop playing but still be queued up so that if you hit the play/pause button it would start up.  That way overnight every night it would reset the speaker to that default playlist/station.
Userlevel 7
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That worked!  I just tried it.  I did it with a playlist.  Set to come on at 0 volume and stop after 15 minutes.  It paused the playlist.  So now hitting the play/pause resumes it.

I went ahead and set my bathroom speaker to play a Pandora station at 4am each day at 0 volume for 15 minutes.  So now my bathroom speaker each day will reset to Pandora overnight and I can hit play in morning if I want to hear music without using controller.

Until someone plays something to that speaker using controller it will now default to Pandora.  And if someone does play something to it using controller it will re-default back overnight.
The current play/pause function of double-tap to skip to next track in queue should be expanded to automatically play the first "Sonos Favorite" and then skip through the list one by one.  This would replicate the functionality of having a button 1-12 for favorite stations like the competitive Bose product has.  Of course if you are playing a queue/playlist rather than favorites it would go to the next track.   I only have radio stations in my favorites.
I recenty purchased a Bose Soundtouch 10 instead of a sonos speaker because I really want to be able to start a specific radio station, on demand with a button on my kitchen speaker. My Soundtouch has since then bricked and I am thinking about replacing it with a Play 1. But not being able to start my favorite radio with the push of a button is preventing me atm.

How about starting a default station/playlist/track with a long-press? How about it Sonos?
Userlevel 7
Badge +22
You're prepared to forego all of the benefits and advantages that Sonos offers because one highly niche request that has 4 requests in 3 years?

If I were you I'd focus more on what Sonos can do rather than what it can't. What about when voice control comes eh?
Yes, I actually did just that when I purchased a Bose Soundtouch 10 instead of a Sonos Play 1.The Bose turned out to be a piece of junk when it comes to firmware stability, but that's a different topic.

As for voice control. My Sonos has no voice support, yet.
I live in Sweden. A small market with a lot of dialects. Not the first market that comes to mind when thinking about adding voice support to hardware. I can't even import an Amazon Alexa device event if I wanted to. I've tried.
Yes, I actually did just that when I purchased a Bose Soundtouch 10 instead of a Sonos Play 1.The Bose turned out to be a piece of junk when it comes to firmware stability, but that's a different topic.

As for voice control. My Sonos has no voice support, yet.
I live in Sweden. A small market with a lot of dialects. Not the first market that comes to mind when thinking about adding voice support to hardware. I can't even import an Amazon Alexa device event if I wanted to. I've tried.


Did Sonos ever implement this function (being able to select and play favourites via the hardware buttons)? It's the exact same reason that holds me back from going all in on Sonos. My wife and kids (and I) often times really just need to play a specific song, radio station or playstation without all the hasles of having to 1) find a device with the Sonos app, 2) unlock the device, 3) find and open the Sonos app 4) wait for it to be operational (a few seconds, typically) 5) find and select the desired favorite, 6) maybe even choose what speaker(s) to play it on. It's just not optimal, especially for kids and for occasions where you simply don't have your device in your pocket. Bose, Audio Pro and others seem to understand those perfectly normal use cases. So, where does Sonos stand now in this department?
Userlevel 7
Badge +19
Hi there, Thomas1977. If you press and hold the play button, that speaker will group with any room that is currently playing audio. Press and hold the play button again to switch and group to another room (if another room is playing audio).
Hi there, Thomas1977. If you press and hold the play button, that speaker will group with any room that is currently playing audio. Press and hold the play button again to switch and group to another room (if another room is playing audio).

Maybe I'm missing the point... but how does this relate to being able to select and play a favourite via hardware buttons on a given Sonos device?
Userlevel 7
Badge +19
Maybe I'm missing the point... but how does this relate to being able to select and play a favourite via hardware buttons on a given Sonos device?
This topic is about holding Play/Pause to start a favorite station or playlist. The update is that pressing and holding the Play/Pause button has since been made a different command built into Sonos.

That said, I'm curious as to how we could implement a feature like adding a favorite and initiating playback from a hardware button press. What if there are multiple favorites in a household? Should users designate a favorite for *every* player in their house? What if favorites overlap with music services (Spotify and Amazon Music)? The idea behind questions like this is to get more specific feedback, that way we have more "colors" to paint out a use case.

Could be a good start for a new discussion on the need for better ways to add to Favorites. 😃
Userlevel 7
Badge +26
Good idea, Keith.

Also, another suggestion, and it may not be something you're interested in, but if you were using a Sonos One or Sonos Beam with voice control built in through Alexa (and later Google Assistant), you could use one of their services to simply ask for that song. Instead of pressing any buttons or using the app, you'd just say "Alexa, play Dancing Queen" and Alexa would use one of your music services to play the sweet, sweet sounds of ABBA.
Laugh. Ryan, you slay me.