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BBC Sounds - Google Assistant

  • 14 December 2021
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Hi,

Now that BBC sounds is on Sonos, does anyone know how to change the Google Assistant default from TuneIn to BBC Sounds? My Google Home Mini uses BBC Sounds. There’s still some BBC stations that aren’t are on TuneIn like Radio 1 Relax and Radio 1 Dance 

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Best answer by James L. 20 December 2021, 10:30

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15 replies

I am having issues with access to BBC radio programmes as sonos defaults to TuneIn as opposed to BBC sounds. Anyone else made this work?

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Yeah there is an ifttt workaround. 

 

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This still isn't fixed, Google Assistant still tries to play BBC Radio stations on Sonos devices via TuneIn. Now that BBC Sounds is no longer in Preview/Beta, who/how do we get this fixed? Is this down to Google, Sonos or the BBC? I don't really want to setup an IFTTT workaround, I'd rather it just works!

I've raised a support call with BBC Sounds which so far is just pointing me back to basic troubleshooting and at the moment they don't list it as a known problem.

I’d check out this post:

 

 

Playing BBC radio stations on Sonos using google assistant just stopped working for me today. It seems this has been disabled by the BBC as it previously worked great all the time (ie worked up until last night) streaming from TuneIn but now that’s stopped. When I open the TuneIn app and try playing BBC radio 6 it I says not available in my region - I’m in Northern Ireland in the UK! When I ask google assistant to play radio 6 from bbc sounds it doesn’t know what I mean, always says “ok, playing bbc radio 6 from TuneIn” then …. Nothing. It’s the thing I listen to most and they’ve just f**king crippled it!!!! Ugh, way to go BBC, nice and user friendly, NOT.

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Have you read this message?

UK listeners need to listen through BBC sounds.

The problem is that, using Google Assistant via voice and saying "Play BBC Radio 4" (my Google Nest Mini is set up to play all audio via my Sonos SL) still tries to play the radio station via TuneIn...and we've already established that BBC radio isn't on TuneIn any more, so the request fails. I tried saying "Play BBC Radio 4 on BBC Sounds", and that still tried to complete the request with TuneIn, and failed. This is likely to be down to a basic inconsistency in services, and I'm sure it'll clear itself up at some point. But it's irritating nonetheless! 

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Hi @Greg1988,

 

It doesn’t appear that BBC Sounds is able to be added as a default music/radio service on non-Google hardware yet. 

BBC Sounds is still in preview, so it’s possible that this feature may not launch until the service goes fully live, but it’s also possible that the BBC may not enable it at all.

I suggest reaching out to the BBC Sounds team for confirmation.

Yeah there is an ifttt workaround. 

 

This worked for me, thank you. I just had to find a command that wasn’t already being used by Google Assistant 👍

This worked for me too, I’ve now set it to “Start Radio 2 on Kitchen”. It’s actually more responsive than it used to be now too 😂

Ridiculous that you have to write your own commands now, but at least it’s a free and (fairly) easy workaround. Thank you for flagging this up.

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Hi @James L.,

 

Thank you, I’ll keep an eye out incase anything changes when fully released

These screenshots show what I inputted for IFTTT, if anyone’s struggling to link it. Choose Google Assistant for the first part and Sonos for the second, and make sure you’re obviously signed in with the correct Google account if you have multiple!

 

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I'm still new to sonos, but not sure why bbc needs to be set as default? Is there not a command that will let you play on BBC? 

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Yeah there is an ifttt workaround. 

 

This worked for me, thank you. I just had to find a command that wasn’t already being used by Google Assistant 👍

Yeah there is an ifttt workaround. 

 

This worked for me, thank you. I just had to find a command that wasn’t already being used by Google Assistant 👍

This worked for me too, I’ve now set it to “Start Radio 2 on Kitchen”. It’s actually more responsive than it used to be now too 😂

Ridiculous that you have to write your own commands now, but at least it’s a free and (fairly) easy workaround. Thank you for flagging this up.

This doesn’t work for me for Google Assistant.

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On the Google Home Mini, when you ask for Radio 1 it plays from BBC sounds not TuneIn. You can also play new BBC station, eg BBC Dance/BBC Calm with commands on Google Home Mini