Answered

Google Assistant Alarm too Quiet on Sonos One

  • 23 February 2020
  • 35 replies
  • 2511 views

Userlevel 2

Hi, I’ve recently bought a Sonos One, and I have been using the Google Assistant to set my alarm for the morning as part of a routine command. It sets the alarm, but it is waaay to quiet for the alarm to actually work and wake me up. Is there a way to set the alarm volume (from the google home) independtly, or at least make it louder?

icon

Best answer by Anonymous 24 February 2020, 21:57

View original

35 replies

Hi Nick, I understand that you can setup a routine with Google Home, but the volume control you are asking about is not a supported feature with Google Home and Sonos. I would be happy to add your voice to our other customers who have been requesting this feature and forward this on to our engineers.

Also having this same issue.  Been searching for a while and haven't found much as far as answers go

Same issue on the Beam.  The alarm is very quiet and if other things are going on can easily be missed.   I use a Goggle Nest in the bedroom and I have no problem hearing that alarm.

I’m having the same issue on my Sonos One with Google Assistant. The volume of the alarm is too quiet making it useless as an alarm. Hoping for a quick resolution to this issue as it is important for my use of Sonos One with Google Assistant.

Same complaint here! Using Sonos Arc, alarm is useless as it is too soft!

Was looking forward to getting a Sonos Beam to replace the Google Home in my bedroom, but the Beam won’t be able to take over the duty of waking us up in the morning. This is such a shame and an unexpected deal breaker!

How can this whole alarm business - including fading in/incremental alarm volume - remain unresolved? Sonos, improvements in this sub-par feature has been missing and requested for years. 

Userlevel 4
Badge +6

Not being able to control the volume of alarms set using Google Assistant is absolutely pathetic. Don’t call this a Google Assistant speaker if the alarm function is basically useless.

If I am listening to music at 25% volume then the alarm will sound at that volume too, which is so darn stupid.

Only one of many things not working as they should with Google Assistant on Sonos.

 

Sonos, fix this.

Userlevel 3
Badge

Noticed this as well. On my google home mini speakers, alarm volume can be independently set regardless of how loud music volume was. 

Userlevel 5
Badge +16

Hi folks,

Thank you for reaching out and welcome to the Sonos Community. I appreciate for bringing your concern to us and letting us know about it. Let me help you figure out what's happening.

You can use alarms to wake up to your favorite songs in the morning or set up reminders throughout the day in the Sonos app. 

The alarm sound can be changed to your desired volume limit. You can also create a playlist from your music service and linked it with the alarm you want to play with it.

When you command Google Assistant to set up an alarm on Sonos devices, it may or may not work. It's a cloud-based/assistant alarms and it's not visible with Sonos. This means that they are not synced. 

Alarm sounds are only played from Google Nest and Home speakers or displays. Alarm sounds don't play on other Cast devices (ex. TVs, other speakers) that are associated with your Google Nest or Home device.

Reference links:
https://support.google.com/googlenest/answer/7071598?co=GENIE.Platform%3DiOS&hl=en&oco=0

https://support.google.com/assistant/answer/9275058?co=GENIE.Platform%3DAndroid&hl=en

If you're having this issue, please run through our troubleshooting guide about Google Assistant.

The Sonos Community is always here to help.

Userlevel 4
Badge +6

Hi folks,

Thank you for reaching out and welcome to the Sonos Community. I appreciate for bringing your concern to us and letting us know about it. Let me help you figure out what's happening.

You can use alarms to wake up to your favorite songs in the morning or set up reminders throughout the day in the Sonos app. 

The alarm sound can be changed to your desired volume limit. You can also create a playlist from your music service and linked it with the alarm you want to play with it.

When you command Google Assistant to set up an alarm on Sonos devices, it may or may not work. It's a cloud-based/assistant alarms and it's not visible with Sonos. This means that they are not synced. 

Alarm sounds are only played from Google Nest and Home speakers or displays. Alarm sounds don't play on other Cast devices (ex. TVs, other speakers) that are associated with your Google Nest or Home device.

Reference links:
https://support.google.com/googlenest/answer/7071598?co=GENIE.Platform%3DiOS&hl=en&oco=0

https://support.google.com/assistant/answer/9275058?co=GENIE.Platform%3DAndroid&hl=en

If you're having this issue, please run through our troubleshooting guide about Google Assistant.

The Sonos Community is always here to help.

Sonos shouldn’t be touting Google Assistant support if basic things like setting alarms and shuffling music using voice commands don’t work.

If community support keeps referring us to the Sonos app then what is the point of Google Assistant and voice commands?

Google Assistant support really is so lackluster that you keep referring us to the app. This shows us how badly Google Assistant is integrated on Sonos devices and that this needs to be fixed.

 

The alarm sound can be changed to your desired volume limit.

Separately from the overall speaker (e.g. Move) volume?

Edit: I see now that is the case. This is good.

Userlevel 4
Badge +6

 

The alarm sound can be changed to your desired volume limit.

Separately from the overall speaker (e.g. Move) volume?

Yes, but this only includes the Sonos app and not alarms set using Google Assistant, rendering alarms set using Google Assistant useless.

Again, there’s no point of having Google Assistant support if Sonos keep pointing us towards their app. They need to work on the Google Assistant integration instead as using the app is not a substitute for using voice commands. It defeats the entire purpose of having Google Assistant support onboard.

Userlevel 5
Badge +16

Hi @knutb10 and @JamesDan. Thank you for reaching out to the Sonos Community and I really appreciate your feedback. 

Google Assistant allows you to control Sonos with your voice to play music, adjust volume, skip tracks, and even get the weather, all through your Sonos speakers. 

In setting alarm, Google Assistant is a cloud-based/assistant alarms that are not visible to Sonos.

If the alarm sound set to a 25% volume limit and you command Google Assistant to set the alarm to a specific volume, it will still play the same volume set in the Sonos app. This means when you adjust the volume alarm with Google Assistant is not sync with Sonos. 

This is one of the limitations with Google Assistant and the feature is not available with Sonos yet. I'll be noting your concern as a feature request for Sonos' future updates. We don't have the timeline on this but you can check our announcements when this feature becomes available. 

If you need further assistance with this, I recommend contacting our Sonos Customer Care to provide the best option for you.

Google assistant seemed to get even quieter a couple of months ago. While you can’t adjust the alarm volume can you just add a feature to control the overall volume of google assistant? All the voice and alarms are way too quiet and it all just needs to be managed as a seperate “google assistant” volume option please.

Same problem here, bought 2 weeks ago the Sonos Beam and 3 Sonos ONE, 
One Sonos ONE is in the kitchen and the others in the living room as Surround set.

Google Assistent  is to quiet, the google timer in the kitchen is unusable because you can't hear the beep. You can't hardly understand the assistent in the living room, because the volume is to low.
Another problem Google Assistent can't find content on the Sonos Radio, only on TuneIn services.
A  seperate “google assistant” volume option is very much desired, and please fix the Sonos Radio problem.

This can't be this hard to implement, surely? If Google or whoever doesn't tell you what the volume should be for an alarm then it can't override a volume setting you set in advance either, can it?

Add an app setting under alarms for the expected volume level (you alrrady have an alarm volume setting anyway) but apply it for _all_ alarm volumes - and when google or whoever triggers an alarm just set the volume to that level temporarily?

literally catch the alarm trigger, set the volume, play the trigger, wait until timeout/ aknowledgement/ cancel state and apply the original volume. (And on boot of device set to original expected volume).

​​​​​​I dont see this ad a hard issue to solve and it makes your entire product suite functionally better.

Same issue on Arc

Same issue on my side.

It is very disappointing Sonos is selling us Google Voice Assistant feature, but they are not able to fix this grazy alarm volume issue.   I am sharing this bad experience with my friends, and some of them have decided to not buy Sonos because of this.

Badge

Same issue , and can’t change it to Alexa since my son’s name is Alex… two key voice command fail. I Love my Sonos Speakers/System but the smart voice enablement has been very frustrating since the beginning.

Been over two years since the original post and there still hasn't been an update to address this issue? I just bought a Sonos One with the intention of using it instead of my Google Nest Mini as the smart speaker in my room but if there still no update on this then I’m returning the Sonos One as there is no point in having it

I use a google nest in my room and i have no problem that alarm

Userlevel 7
Badge +17

At what volume does a Google-originated alarm play? I suppose it is the volume last used when playing on Sonos? So the volume for an alarm can be set in the Sonos app?

 

By the way, my good morning routine also sets the volume to a level I’ve set it to in the Home app. If my supposition above is right, this can also be used to fix the alarm volme before setting it.

At what volume does a Google-originated alarm play? I suppose it is the volume last used when playing on Sonos? So the volume for an alarm can be set in the Sonos app?

You can set the alarm volume separate from media volume on Google devices through the Google Home app. So when you run a routine like “goodnight” on a google device, it could lower media volume, set an alarm for the morning, and play some white noise at a low volume. This allows the alarm to be loud enough to wake you up in the morning. However when you do the same with a Sonos One, the alarm will only play at the level the speaker was at last. So running the routine “goodnight”, the alarm in the morning will only go off at the same level as the white noise from the night before.

Sonos refers you to the Sonos app to adjust alarm volume but that’s only for alarms set in the Sonos app itself. Theres no way to properly run google routines with Sonos speakers.

I use a google nest in my room and i have no problem that alarm

The problem isn't with the alarm on a google nest. It’s a problem with a google alarm set on a Sonos One. It will only play at the volume the speaker was at last.

 

Read that. This is the root of the issue. Sonos decided to tie the volume of Google Assistant (and its component audio) to the music playback volume instead of a dedicated volume control. Setting the volume correctly for music results in Assistant (and alarms, etc...) volume being extremely soft. Please implement a separate volume control for Assistant. Other smarthome devices already does that, so why not Sonos being a premium product?

Reply