I have downloaded 10.2 and configured my Sonos system for Google Assistant. I have 4 Sonos Amps and 5 Sonos Beams+Ones+SUBs. I have 9 Home Hubs and 6 Minis.
Some early observations for which I would appreciate feedback/confirmation from Sonos Support:
* Only rooms that have a Sonos Beam or Ones can be directly paired with Google Assistant. My Sonos Amps do not appear to be controlled by GA (e.g. using a Home Hub or Mini as a "microphone" for a Sonos Amp).
* Related, none of my Sonos speakers appear as targets within Google Home to which you could map "default speaker". For example, map a Home Hub to a Sonos room as the default speaker.
* I have configured Google Music (for which I have a premium subscription) as the default service. But every time I ask Google to "Play [artist or song]", the Sonos responds saying "I can't do that here but you can ask me to play it on one of your other devices."
* In Google Home, there is a Sonos TV Control for each Sonos room including the Amps. This must be manually adopted to my home, then assigned a room in the Google Home app. However, it's not clear to me what the TV control does given that it isn't a speaker (e.g. perhaps permit voice control of the Sonos Beam/Amp's HDMI-CEC via Google Assistant?).
* It appears that you cannot cast to a Sonos system (e.g. open YouTube and select Cast or use similar control on Android phone). This may be why I cannot map my Sonos rooms as "default speakers"
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I'm able to voice control from Google Home Hub to Sonos Play:1 pair, but they don't show up in list of Default speakers, which is EXTREMELY disappointing. Have to say something like: "Hey Google, play my flow from Deezer on Office Sonos". Annoying.
Some early observations for which I would appreciate feedback/confirmation from Sonos Support:
* Only rooms that have a Sonos Beam or Ones can be directly paired with Google Assistant. My Sonos Amps do not appear to be controlled by GA (e.g. using a Home Hub or Mini as a "microphone" for a Sonos Amp).
You should be able to use a Mini or Home hub to send music to your Amp by specifying the Amp room name. Try "Hey Google, play XXX on (Amp room name)".
* Related, none of my Sonos speakers appear as targets within Google Home to which you could map "default speaker". For example, map a Home Hub to a Sonos room as the default speaker.
I do not think this is possible at this time. It came later with Alexa, probably the case here.
* I have configured Google Music (for which I have a premium subscription) as the default service. But every time I ask Google to "Play [artist or song]", the Sonos responds saying "I can't do that here but you can ask me to play it on one of your other devices."
Make sure your Google Home GPM account is the same as your Sonos GPM account.
* In Google Home, there is a Sonos TV Control for each Sonos room including the Amps. This must be manually adopted to my home, then assigned a room in the Google Home app. However, it's not clear to me what the TV control does given that it isn't a speaker (e.g. perhaps permit voice control of the Sonos Beam/Amp's HDMI-CEC via Google Assistant?).
Can't help here, I don't have a Beam/Amp. Sorry.
* It appears that you cannot cast to a Sonos system (e.g. open YouTube and select Cast or use similar control on Android phone). This may be why I cannot map my Sonos rooms as "default speakers"
Correct, casting is not possible at this time. Whether Chromecast capability is coming is not known.
I haven't been home to view the update yet, but I would make sure that Google and Sonos are both setup with the same music service account. If they are, I would try removing and re-enabling the account on Sonos, then try the command again.
Your luck is better than mine. Here is a sample:
"Hey Google, play Tom Petty"
Reply: "I can't do that here but you can ask me to play it on one of your other devices."
"Hey Google, play Tom Petty in the Office"
Reply: "I can't do that here but you can ask me to play it on one of your other devices."
"Hey Google, play Tom Petty on the Office Sonos"
Reply: "I can't do that here but you can ask me to play it on one of your other devices."
"Hey Google, play Tom Petty on Google Play"
Reply: "I can't do that here but you can ask me to play it on one of your other devices."
"Hey Google, play Tom Petty on Google Play Music"
Reply: "I can't do that here but you can ask me to play it on one of your other devices."
"Hey Google, play Tom Petty on Google Play Music on the Office Sonos"
Reply: "I looked for Tom Petty on Google Play Music on the Office on Google Play Music but it either isn't available or can't be played now"
"Hey Google, play Tom Petty"
Reply: "I can't do that here but you can ask me to play it on one of your other devices."
"Hey Google, play Tom Petty in the Office"
Reply: "I can't do that here but you can ask me to play it on one of your other devices."
"Hey Google, play Tom Petty on the Office Sonos"
Reply: "I can't do that here but you can ask me to play it on one of your other devices."
"Hey Google, play Tom Petty on Google Play"
Reply: "I can't do that here but you can ask me to play it on one of your other devices."
"Hey Google, play Tom Petty on Google Play Music"
Reply: "I can't do that here but you can ask me to play it on one of your other devices."
"Hey Google, play Tom Petty on Google Play Music on the Office Sonos"
Reply: "I looked for Tom Petty on Google Play Music on the Office on Google Play Music but it either isn't available or can't be played now"
You should be able to use a Mini or Home hub to send music to your Amp by specifying the Amp room name. Try "Hey Google, play XXX on (Amp room name)".
She says, "I'm afraid I can't do that yet"
* I have configured Google Music (for which I have a premium subscription) as the default service. But every time I ask Google to "Play [artist or song]", the Sonos responds saying "I can't do that here but you can ask me to play it on one of your other devices."Make sure your Google Home GPM account is the same as your Sonos GPM account.
It is.
Try these tips. Often it is due to devices sharing the same names. If all else fails remove and readd Google Assistant.
Help and tips for Google Assistant on Sonos
Help and tips for Google Assistant on Sonos
So, even though I can start music playing from the Home Hub to the Play:1's, the current song doesn't display on the Hub. Sigh. That's no better than the Amazon Show. A year and a half spent by Sonos to get this done right, and it's just a huge disappointment.
Back to controlling Chromecast Audio from the Hub, which is just a fantastic little setup. I sure wish Sonos had simply implemented Chromecast (along with all the other casting services already in place), and left the voice stuff to the inexpensive Google and Amazon devices.
Back to controlling Chromecast Audio from the Hub, which is just a fantastic little setup. I sure wish Sonos had simply implemented Chromecast (along with all the other casting services already in place), and left the voice stuff to the inexpensive Google and Amazon devices.
One clarification, the failure appears to be associated with having a Google Home Hub in the same room as a Sonos Beam.
If I ask a Google Home Hub in a room without a Beam or Ones to play [artist] on a [Sonos room or group of rooms], that command works with both Beam+Ones or Amps. Also, visual controls appear on the Home Hub.
Where it consistently fails for me is when the Home Hub is in the same room as either a Sonos One or Beam. In that case, the Sonos Beam answers as described above.
Also, I cannot control a Sonos room from a Google Mini even when there is not Beam or Ones in that room. ("I can't do that yet").
P.S. my Sonos rooms didn't appear in my Google Home earlier today but now do. However, the appear as smart home devices with a settings icon. They still cannot be selected as default speakers.
If I ask a Google Home Hub in a room without a Beam or Ones to play [artist] on a [Sonos room or group of rooms], that command works with both Beam+Ones or Amps. Also, visual controls appear on the Home Hub.
Where it consistently fails for me is when the Home Hub is in the same room as either a Sonos One or Beam. In that case, the Sonos Beam answers as described above.
Also, I cannot control a Sonos room from a Google Mini even when there is not Beam or Ones in that room. ("I can't do that yet").
P.S. my Sonos rooms didn't appear in my Google Home earlier today but now do. However, the appear as smart home devices with a settings icon. They still cannot be selected as default speakers.
* Related, none of my Sonos speakers appear as targets within Google Home to which you could map "default speaker". For example, map a Home Hub to a Sonos room as the default speaker.
Yeap. Yyyyeap yeap yeap.
As it turns out, you can only use this "integration" in whichever way you have it set up in your Sonos controller. If you have more than one Sonos speaker and/or Sonos speaker groups, great. If you (like me) have 1 Sonos speaker and then a home stereo with Chromecast, and then a bunch of Google Home speakers, you're basically ******.
I've waited for SO long for this just to be able to play the same music I play on my living room stereo on my Sonos Play:1 in the kitchen... so long.
Today I heard the update was coming, I took it and set everything up and then boom! Nothing. I now can tell Google to play music in the kitchen (saving me the press of 1 button).
I am pissed enough that now I decided to sell this awesomely sounding speaker in exchange for one that allows me that one simple thing: play the same music I'm playing over the network to which the Sonos is connected and royally ignoring.
I'm through with Sonos.
As it turns out, you can only use this "integration" in whichever way you have it set up in your Sonos controller. If you have more than one Sonos speaker and/or Sonos speaker groups, great. If you (like me) have 1 Sonos speaker and then a home stereo with Chromecast, and then a bunch of Google Home speakers, you're basically f*****.
You were never going to be able to play Sonos speakers in sync with Google home speakers. It's the same with Amazon. You can't sync Sonos with echos. These different systems use their own proprietary multi-room protocols.
I can understand why you would assume this would be a feature, but ultimately it was an incorrect assumption...or some ignorant sales guy lied to you. Also understandable to be upset, and understandable to not be interested in Sonos if you've already invested in Google Homes everywhere, but not exactly Sonos fault.
You were never going to be able to play Sonos speakers in sync with Google home speakers. It's the same with Amazon. You can't sync Sonos with echos. These different systems use their own proprietary multi-room protocols.
View: Marshall multi room speakers
Sonos could. They just don't want to.
My point was slightly different: the purpose of default speaker mapping isn't to synchronize music across Google Cast and Sonos devices. Rather, it is to simplify your voice commands.
For example, I have two Google Minis in the garage, where they are excellent microphones but lousy speakers. I also have two passive speakers connected to a Sonos Amp. So, what I want to do is map requests for music playback on those two Minis to the Sonos Amp. So, I could then play music in the garage without having to say "in the garage".
For example, I have two Google Minis in the garage, where they are excellent microphones but lousy speakers. I also have two passive speakers connected to a Sonos Amp. So, what I want to do is map requests for music playback on those two Minis to the Sonos Amp. So, I could then play music in the garage without having to say "in the garage".
Not a good comparison really. Those state that you play audio through "Chromecast built-in, Spotify connect, airplay or Bluetooth, or go wired with a 3.5mm jack or RCA cord". They don't stream on their own the way Sonos does, you must stream from another source and send it to the speaker. I'm not sure exactly how the multiroom works for this setup, but I wouldn't be surprised if it only works with chromecast or airplay. The scope of these products and Sonos is very different.
But it does look like the marshall speakers fits what you're looking for much better.
But it does look like the marshall speakers fits what you're looking for much better.
For example, I have two Google Minis in the garage, where they are excellent microphones but lousy speakers. I also have two passive speakers connected to a Sonos Amp. So, what I want to do is map requests for music playback on those two Minis to the Sonos Amp. So, I could then play music in the garage without having to say "in the garage".
That feature didn't come to the Alexa integration until a few months ago. I believe it will come to GA integration as well, much sooner, probably still some months off I'd guess.
+1 for the “default speaker” feature. Google Home already shows the Sonos in the same room as the assistant device. It’s puzzling why it doesn’t allow you to select it as the default speaker like Alexa does.
That should not matter as long as each of the devices in the same room are not similarly named to the room, or each other, so as to cause confusion to the GA.
If I ask a Google Home Hub in a room without a Beam or Ones to play [artist] on a [Sonos room or group of rooms], that command works with both Beam+Ones or Amps. Also, visual controls appear on the Home Hub.
You can only target a single Sonos Room at the moment, but you can go onto Group that room with others, either beforehand, or afterwards.
Where it consistently fails for me is when the Home Hub is in the same room as either a Sonos One or Beam. In that case, the Sonos Beam answers as described above.
Its presumably down to whichever device hears your utterances... it’s usually the nearest device or the one towards which the utterance is directed.
Also, I cannot control a Sonos room from a Google Mini even when there is not Beam or Ones in that room. ("I can't do that yet").
You should be able to do this, that’s from the things I have read about these new features.
P.S. my Sonos rooms didn't appear in my Google Home earlier today but now do. However, the appear as smart home devices with a settings icon. They still cannot be selected as default speakers.
i don’t think there is the option yet to set Sonos devices as a Google Home device default speaker. Maybe this will be available in a future updated version.
After several hours of investigation, I think I have made progress:
I found that I could play music on my Sonos system using Google Assistant but only issuing the voice command to Google Home Hubs. If a Google Home Hub is in the same room as a Sonos speaker with a microphone, I must first mute the Sonos mike. Else, GA will answer on the Sonos Beam (as it should) but then the command to play fails. If I use the same command in a room with a Google Mini and no Sonos microphones, the command fails. So there’s a difference between voice commands initiated by Home Hubs v Minis too.
Un-pairing Google Assistant with all Sonos rooms works similar to muting the Sonos microphone. You must specify the room name in the voice command on the Hub. And the Mini doesn’t work.
Interestingly, GA on Sonos has no issues recognizing the command to “stop” playing music on the Sonos device after it has been started by the Hub. Visual controls only appear on the Hub if the voice command was recognized by the Hub (while the Sonos microphone was muted).
The root cause of my issues playing Google Music appears to be the languages that you speak. Our home is multi-lingual. It appears that you need to have English (United States) as your first language preference. I suspect that Google is assigning a country (and assuming GA or Google Play Music availability) based on your specified language. However, there is no explanation to the user as to why that’s the issue (e.g "Sorry wrong rcountry/language]").
I still can’t explain why the Hub handles this differently than the Mini. But, Google Play Music appears to be working as expected now.
I found that I could play music on my Sonos system using Google Assistant but only issuing the voice command to Google Home Hubs. If a Google Home Hub is in the same room as a Sonos speaker with a microphone, I must first mute the Sonos mike. Else, GA will answer on the Sonos Beam (as it should) but then the command to play fails. If I use the same command in a room with a Google Mini and no Sonos microphones, the command fails. So there’s a difference between voice commands initiated by Home Hubs v Minis too.
Un-pairing Google Assistant with all Sonos rooms works similar to muting the Sonos microphone. You must specify the room name in the voice command on the Hub. And the Mini doesn’t work.
Interestingly, GA on Sonos has no issues recognizing the command to “stop” playing music on the Sonos device after it has been started by the Hub. Visual controls only appear on the Hub if the voice command was recognized by the Hub (while the Sonos microphone was muted).
The root cause of my issues playing Google Music appears to be the languages that you speak. Our home is multi-lingual. It appears that you need to have English (United States) as your first language preference. I suspect that Google is assigning a country (and assuming GA or Google Play Music availability) based on your specified language. However, there is no explanation to the user as to why that’s the issue (e.g "Sorry wrong rcountry/language]").
I still can’t explain why the Hub handles this differently than the Mini. But, Google Play Music appears to be working as expected now.
For me setting a Sonos speaker as a "default speaker" for a Google assistant device is what I am really waiting for. I have no speaker enabled Sonos devices, voice commands to play music on my Sonos speakers works fine (as long as I add where to play it, naming the speaker), but yeah the true convenience feature of this integration is not having to say where to play it at all. I will keep waiting...
This would solve my problem too. By being able to set up my Sonos Play:1 to be the "default speaker" for my Google Mini, then I can group the Google Mini in my Home Group while having the music I'm casting come out through Sonos.
Like others said, this feature came out later for Alexa; so I'm hoping we see it soon on Google.
It's however frustrating to have to keep waiting for those of us who thought as soon as they released this integration all problems would be solved.
It looks like the Sonos / GA integration is fundamentally different from Chromecast. All my Chromecast devices can be connected to from any GA device via the local WiFi, whereas the Sonos speakers are connected in the cloud.
Amazon solved this with Alexa Cast, which also connects via the cloud (prove this by connecting to your Sonos speakers from the Amazon Music app on your phone with only a 4G connection).
Will Google come up with something similar to Alexa Cast? If Sonos speakers don't become first-class Chromecast devices, I'm not sure they can become default speakers, without some new Google protocol. Or, Google will need to make cloud-connected speakers default-able, which is something they are likely looking to do. Either way, I'm afraid it's up to Google to enable this, and they have a ton of other things on their plate, so...
Pure speculation on my part...
Amazon solved this with Alexa Cast, which also connects via the cloud (prove this by connecting to your Sonos speakers from the Amazon Music app on your phone with only a 4G connection).
Will Google come up with something similar to Alexa Cast? If Sonos speakers don't become first-class Chromecast devices, I'm not sure they can become default speakers, without some new Google protocol. Or, Google will need to make cloud-connected speakers default-able, which is something they are likely looking to do. Either way, I'm afraid it's up to Google to enable this, and they have a ton of other things on their plate, so...
Pure speculation on my part...
The easiest solution would be to un-restrict the Sonos speaker's functionality in the home network. It is all in all a "sound outlet" connected to a home WiFi network, but only allows certain devices or apps to cast to it.
Chromecast, on the other hand, works as an open outlet to which one can cast music so long as one is in the same network.
So long as Sonos capriciously wants its customers to use their products with their app and/or only paired with other Sonos speakers, they'll never free these speakers to be used as a network speaker.
What puzzles me is that there are examples in which this "capriciousness" is abandoned. A Play:5 can be hooked up to a Chromecast Audio dongle and work as we intend. Alexa is now allowed to group Sonos and non-Sonos speakers. Maybe more examples out there? I don't know.
One thing I'm surely not gonna do is dump my whole set up and exchange it for all Sonos just to hear the same music through the house. I rather just sell the 1 "difficult child" speaker I have in the house.
Shame because in terms of sound, the Play:1 is in-cre-di-ble
What puzzles me is that there are examples in which this "capriciousness" is abandoned. A Play:5 can be hooked up to a Chromecast Audio dongle and work as we intend. Alexa is now allowed to group Sonos and non-Sonos speakers. Maybe more examples out there? I don't know.
The bolded is not true. You cannot group Sonos speakers with non-Sonos speakers using Alexa.
So long as Sonos capriciously wants its customers to use their products with their app and/or only paired with other Sonos speakers, they'll never free these speakers to be used as a network speaker.
Not at all true. Sonos speakers work with Alexa Cast, Spotify Connect, AirPlay 2, and Sonos' own open Direct Control protocol. Also with whatever protocol Google Play Music uses. ChromeCast is the only missing piece. With Google abandoning the ChromeCast Audio, I wonder whether they're working on something similar to Alexa Cast.
The bolded is not true. You cannot group Sonos speakers with non-Sonos speakers using Alexa.
I must be reading this wrong then..
https://support.sonos.com/s/article/3169?language=en_US
You're right, yes.
Maybe I should have leaned towards pointing out Sonos being designed as a stand-alone product rather than playing nice with a Google ecosystem.
What I said holds true to me (and others) but not everyone.
I don't use Spotify, Alexa or any Apple products; so my only way to use Sonos is through its app.
The overall point I was trying to make is that I would very much like it if Sonos allowed people like me to use their speakers as we see fit rather than being forced to use it individually with an app I have no use for other than just for it.
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