Mute sound when receiving a call

  • 20 February 2018
  • 13 replies
  • 6625 views

Userlevel 2
Dear Sonos developers,

I know one of the selling points of the Sonos system is that it doesn’t pause music when a call is received so this is a feature implemented on purpose. However, this “feature” is extra annoying in my opinion and, judging by other comments on this forum, to great many other Sonos users.

Please add an option to pause music when a call is received like every other god damn iOS application (I would guess Android would be doing the same thing). On iOS 10 and above this is done using CXCallObserver that is part of the CallKit. Easy to do so, just give us the option, please!!!

It’s super frustrating when I listen to pumping techno, get a work related call, and all I can do is run out to another room! Meanwhile it sounds like I’m at a club instead of doing work! Unacceptable Sonos!

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13 replies

Userlevel 7
Badge +21
Why do people have to be so rude and unpleasant when posting?

As for the second post on this thread I'm not sure I see the relevance?

As for muting in not sure Sonos app would even know a call had come in. Sounds like a lot of work for a feature I've never seen requested before. Can be a show stopper for many.
Userlevel 2
It’s very frustrating when this feature has been requested by many people for at least a year. It’s a de facto standard behaviour, at least on iOS, that music, video, games, etc stop when a call is received and there’s a good reason for this. Apps can be easily notified by iOS when a call is received, rejected, or ended and the apps can react to those events by pausing the music and restarting it at the end of the call. As I mentioned, this is done using CXCallObserver - Apple made it super easy with a few lines of code.

I understand that Sonos presents this as one of the advantages of wifi based speaker system in comparison to Bluetooth - music doesn’t stop when you get a call and you don’t get beeps and dings when receiving emails or messages. Sounds great until you get the first call and you realise the phone takes over the screen presenting you with the standard call taking functions and you can either ignore the call or answer and immediately ask the person to hold as you rush to switch to the Sonos app to turn the music down before coming back to the caller. That’s fine when it’s your friend calling but not great in other scenarios.

It looks like streaming through Apple TV using AirPlay behaves correctly and removes the need for the Sonos app but requires the TV in addition to Apple TV to be on. It’s a workaround but ideally, I’d just stream directly to the speakers.
It is indeed de facto standard behaviour for apps running sound processing on the mobile device. In this case, however, what's running on the mobile device isn't a sound processing app, it's merely a 'remote control' app that telling the software on the speakers where to get the source and play it. There's no actual sound processing going on on the mobile device.

Perhaps a minor distinction, but one that adds additional complexity to the implementation of what you're requesting.
This is not a straight forward feature to implement because the controllers do not know their current location. If a Group of rooms is playing, which room should Mute when a call arrives? Perhaps a particular room could be declared as the room to Mute, but this would not work well if the listener moves around. What happens if the phone is moved during a call? What happens during a party? Should all of the Grouped rooms shut down for every call or should the user go to a quiet area and take the call without disrupting the party?

With the exception of music "stored on this device" (phones and pads), the controllers don't store or play music. Once the controller gives the SONOS system list of tracks, possibly from an online service, the players fetch their own tracks and the device hosting the controller can be shut down.
Go get the Yonomi app. It's a third party app that can access and control your sonos system through an api through wifi.. You can setup routines so that certain actions in your smart home, or on your phone can trigger actions in Sonos. So you can easily have Sonos mute/pause/whatever whenever you receive or place a call.

Of course, it won't work if your phone isn't connected to your home wifi network.
This is a ridiculous request. One of the reasons for using Sonos vs some crappy Bluetooth or Airplay speaker is precisely because it DOESN’T have this annoying “feature”. Thankfully, this will never be implemented by Sonos.
I wouldn't say it's ridiculous, I found it somewhat useful. The problem is that I didn't always have the phone on wifi, so it would fail often. As well, the phone doesn't know what sonos zone it's physically in, so it wasn't 'dynamic' in that regard. I either picked all sonos or the room I usually take phone calls in.

I wouldn't be bothered if Sonos implemented this feature, I just probably wouldn't use it. I'm fine with muting the speakers by hard button when a call comes in.
“Alexa, pause!”.
Dear Sonos developers,

I know one of the selling points of the Sonos system is that it doesn’t pause music when a call is received so this is a feature implemented on purpose. However, this “feature” is extra annoying in my opinion and, judging by other comments on this forum, to great many other Sonos users.

Please add an option to pause music when a call is received like every other god damn iOS application (I would guess Android would be doing the same thing). On iOS 10 and above this is done using CXCallObserver that is part of the CallKit. Easy to do so, just give us the option, please!!!

It’s super frustrating when I listen to pumping techno, get a work related call, and all I can do is run out to another room! Meanwhile it sounds like I’m at a club instead of doing work! Unacceptable Sonos!


So its Sonos’ responsibility to turn down the volume when your bosses call so they don’t know you’re goofing off instead of working?
So its Sonos’ responsibility to turn down the volume when your bosses call so they don’t know you’re goofing off instead of working?

Of course not. It's a feature. It's not Sonos's responsibility to wake you up by alarm either, but yet that's an existing popular feature.

Maybe you were referring to the tone of the original OP. That I agree with.
Yeah. Edited my post to include his quote.
Agreed, I would like this feature. Add it as an option in the room settings? That way I as a user can choose which rooms would mute for any calls. Nice to have extras would include options for contacts only and possibly a “party mode” which would disable all those settings while a party is ongoing.
Userlevel 2
I’d start with just the option to mute everything but hey, muting individual rooms would be ideal