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I have set up a Sonos surround system (Playbase + 2 Sonos Ones) with Google Assistant.  I would like the Google Assistant to respond out of the RIGHT Sonos One surround, but at this time I believe it is not possible.

I have tested and tried every combination of setting up the speakers without success.  When the Sonos Ones are not paired as surrounds to the Playbase, it is simple to add GA to either of them.  When they are paired as surrounds, the assistant can only present in one of them--which is understandable as the system recognizes the three speakers as one unit.  The default speaker Google Assistant is added to is the LEFT Sonos surround.  There does not appear to be a way to change this.

I originally thought it may be defaulting to a certain speaker due to a naming preference--like it a naming appearing first alphabetially.  This is not the case--I tried every combination of unpairing and renaming the devices and testing.  I thought perhaps it was a case of a preference for certain speaker by its serial number.  This is also not true--I tried physically switching the speakers as well in the process of testing and renaming.  The Google Assistant app appears to recognize both speakers individually during the process to add Google Assistant to Sonos--both speakers are listed and are able to be selected by the app during the setup.  However, I can only successfully select the speaker listed first (which likely respresents the left surround--they both have the same name when paired to the playbase) to get it to add properly.  If I select the second speaker in the GA app it will not successfully add and will return an error.  This seems to be a problem with the Sonos app not allowing an option to choose the right surround speaker as an option for adding GA.

Does anyone know anything else about this?  Is there anyway to add GA to the RIGHT surround speaker? 

This seems like a very simple feature to add, and was likely simply overlooked by Sonos. 

Sonos techs, could this please be added as an option in a future update??

Yes, I’m in a similar situation! Sonos software team please help! This sounds like a software bug to me.


I just physically swapped my speakers around after setting them up! :)


@Lefty777 Thank you for bringing this question to the Sonos Community. I have talked with a few customers also wanting this feature with their surrounds. I will happily add your voice in the request to our engineering team. It is not a current functionality as the right speaker in a rear surround only receives information, while the left in the rear can talk to your Playbase, and tell the right what to do. This means any voice commands to a right rear would not work so it defaults to the left speaker in a surround setup.


I just physically swapped my speakers around after setting them up! :)

But then the surround sound is coming from the wrong direction right?


Yes but to be honest I don’t realise most of the time.  It’s a compromise rather than a perfect solution.


I’m having the same issue. Very frustrating but saved me a bucket load of time seeing if I could work around the issue. Thanks to the others explaining that you can’t work around. Sonos engineers please fix!


I have the same problem wherein i have arc + somos one working in sorround arrangement and GA is available thru arc only ….. would like to choose on the speaker for GA….. please help