Google Assistant completely useless now

  • 7 September 2020
  • 37 replies
  • 3899 views

Userlevel 1

So over the last year Google Assistance on sonos (regarding spotify in particular) has been pretty buggy.. now it's completely useless. 

The response to any/every question I ask now, mainly regarding spotify, is "I'm sorry, I dont know how to help with that" 

I have 3 other google devices, if I ask them to play spotify on the sonos, no problem, works perfectly. 

Any way to fix this? Pretty frustrating that the $50 google speaker works flawlessly compared to this $600+ speaker


37 replies

Userlevel 4
Badge +6

I’ve had similar problems in the past as well, even though things seem to be working OK now (if you can call Google Assistant on Sonos OK, that is).

But all you get as a response is to remove and then add Google Assistant again and to submit a diagnostic. Sonos need to fix their Google Assistant integration.

Userlevel 2

I'm getting this constantly:

"Sorry something went wrong.

When you're ready, give it another try"

Sometimes retrying is successful, but after 4 retries, I give up.

This is so insanely frustrating!

Userlevel 4
Badge +6

I'm getting this constantly:

"Sorry something went wrong.

When you're ready, give it another try"

Sometimes retrying is successful, but after 4 retries, I give up.

This is so insanely frustrating!

I feel you. I’ve had this happen to me so many times. The Google Assistant is so slow and sucks so much on Sonos I have given up on it. 
I am using inferior sounding speakers from Google instead because they just work AND they have Chromecast.

Think about it: Google Assistant on Sonos lacks so much functionality that a $20 Google Home Mini offers more Assistant-related features and just works.

Userlevel 3
Badge

My biggest problem is that it says it’s not connected to the modem or router… then it comes back without me doing anything after 10-15 minutes. 
It happens with my wireless ones, and my arc connected via Ethernet to my router.

Userlevel 5
Badge +14

Hi @ssjken.

Welcome, thank you for reaching out to Sonos Community.

I'd be happy to take a look at the system. Can you submit a diagnostic report from your Sonos system and reply back with your confirmation number?

If you need help with any other information, please be sure to let us know.

Userlevel 5
Badge +8

Yes, the problem is back this week after a respite of a couple of months:

GA on Sonos starts to respond “Something went wrong” or “There was a glitch” after freezing up for a minute on many routine commands. It’s erratic, it doesn’t do it every time, but the percentage of error responses starts creeping up, quickly reaching about 50% within a day or so. Running Google Routines become impossible because they inevitably error out within a couple of commands into the routine. 

As I’ve reported before, after trying every possible measure to fix the issue, the only thing that works for me is to reboot the speaker with a different local IP address assigned. That fixes the problem right away. I can then reboot and return it to the original IP address after a few minutes of operation, and it remains fine. No, it’s not an IP address conflict - both IP addresses I use for the Sonos speaker are fixed reserved IP addresses used only by the speaker.

Userlevel 1

Same here - constant errors - seems to have taken a step backwards with ‘sorry I can’t do that’ when asked to play the radio. Works once out of every 5 requests  

Userlevel 1

Same thing over here. Asking the Sonos Arc to close the Somfy blinds, or light up the Philips Hue lamps, asking to play a number on Spotify...problems all the time….

 

  • No reaction after my command
  • A respond: I can’t help you with that, please try again.

While when I’m going 1 room further to the kitchen, where’s a google nest mini speaker….it understands me perfectly and executes all commands without error.

Of course I’ve tried to remove the Google assistant service from the Sonos Arc and yes I’ve the latest software updates installed.

Userlevel 5
Badge +14

Hi @Tommydaboy79 and @Mario_1.

Welcome, thank you for reaching out to Sonos Community, I totally understand where you're coming from and I’m here to help.

If the issue still continues I suggest contacting Google Support the reason for this is Google is just passing the command to Sonos and the speaker doesn't have any control with the Google assistance. 

Let us know if it works. If you need help with any other information, please be sure to let us know.

Userlevel 1

I don't agree on that. The Sonos mic is passingy command to the Google assistent environment, not the other way around.

 

The question is Why the Sonos isn't doing this correctly and my google nest speak is doing this fine. Also my LG with integrated google assistent is working well.

Userlevel 1

I don’t agree either - I have a google nest in the other room works perfectly including controlling my Sonos in that room. Leads me to believe Sonos issue not google otherwise it would be consistent across devices 

I could not agree more!  I have the exact same issues.  I get the “Something went wrong, when you are ready give it another try.”  “X is not available right now” and my personal favorite, “I can’t play that hear but you can try it on another device!”  Seriously, my Sonos speaker can’t play music but another device is an option.  The Sonos interaction with the Google API is horrible.  This needs to be a priority.  It makes me wonder if anyone who actually works at Sonos even uses the product.

I have the same issues and would like to see a fix asap. My Sonos Move is not working as intended right now when it comes to the integrated Google assistant. Thank you.

I don’t agree with Sonos as well. I had the old Sonos Play 1 and upgraded to Sonos One mainly for the voice control. I also have google mini for years and have no problems with basic command “hey google, how’s today weather” Now upgraded to Sonos One and ask for the same command but Sonos voice assistant said sorry, I don’t understand. Sonos should step up to investigate what’s wrong on their end instead of telling me to get Google support. Totally disappointed on this upgrade! 
 

Just been reading through this thread and I cannot agree more with fellow Sonos users. The Google Assistant integration with Sonos Arc is appalling. I upgraded from Sonos Beam to Arc & in terms of Google Assistant support the Beam was FAR superior. This leads me to think it has something to do with the mic on the Arc. Is its positioning different? Is it as sensitive? Are the hardware/software interactions different?

This definitely needs looking at properly, I’ve been through all the standard fixes that either make no difference or seem to work for a limited time. The main frustration I have is that it’s intermittent with no pattern in terms of time of day/type of voice command/other devices using WiFi etc…

Wits end with it here.

Userlevel 5
Badge +8

While I agree that GA on Sonos has some annoying issues that have persisted since it was first introduced, some of the issues in this thread are probably just routine failure to hear correctly, or routine variability with GA in general (Google’s fault, not Sonos-specific). I have other Google Home and Google Assistant speakers, and also a bunch of Echo Dots and other Alexa-enabled devices to compare to, and they encounter issues often enough that I’ve developed reduced expectations of consistent reliability.

All my Google Home and Google Assistant speakers (and Alexa on the Echo Dots too!) occasionally start misunderstanding a routine phrase that I’ve used for ages for no apparent reason - and then return to normal operation days/weeks/months later, again for no apparent reason. Not the fault of Sonos in most cases, although I have encountered some such instances that seemed to be Sonos-specific, for example when GA on Sonos would suddenly refuse to recognize the Stop command for a day or two.

As for specific commands that are failing, I can say “Hey Google, how’s today weather” to my Sonos One pair, and it works fine. If it doesn’t work for you, possibly it’s not hearing you correctly due to speaker placement or ambient noise. You might want to check the activity log and see what Google is actually hearing.

This is what frustrates me! Google activity indicates the correct verbal instruction but Sonos just don’t recognize and said I don’t understand. I have google assistant in another room (no Sonos one) and have no issues with the same verbal instruction. 

Userlevel 4
Badge +6

Google Assistant on Sonos has never worked for me. Basic queries like “What’s the time?” usually work, but as soon as you want to play music, the speaker starts ignoring you completely.

And combined with constant messages like not being able to reach the internet even though streaming music through that speaker works just fine using the Sonos app and the speaker is using a wired connection to the router, or “I can’t do that here, but you can ask me to play it on one of your other devices”, it makes Google Assistant on Sonos completely unusable.

Not to mention other quirks like no volume ducking when speaking to another device in the same room, no separate alarm volume, many services like Apple Music not working, ...

And since this mess has been going on from the get go, I doubt very much that this will ever be resolved.

Google Assistant seems to be working fine with me. Can control all 300 Zigbee devices in my home without issue. The only thing that won't work is control of Netflix. All other streaming services work. There are a lot of small bugs though. For example, it'll respond "turning off lights" when turning them on or vice versa.

Mine is brutal.  I had to turn on the chirp so I knew it heard my wake command.   Then it just seems to do what it wants.    I asked it a math question last night and it started playing music!   Half the time I have to say okay Google 3 or 4 times.   I hate it.   My google mini works 100X better than this garbage.

Userlevel 7
Badge +18

Hopefully we’ll see something from Sonos soon using the Snips voice/AI technology they bought in late 2019. 

I have no much problem controling the lights but playing music is awfull.

When it works you ask for a song and it just plays that song. while in other devices starts a playlis or a radio based on that song. but welll i can survive with this problem as a minor.

 

the meyor problem is that lately it just doesnt work GA with sonos 

In the past the problem was every two weeks it replyed that it can play my music on that device… I needed to grab my phone an play it form sonos app. and suddenly it worked again the next day. naow it happens one thay and the other day too.  I reinstall  the GA on sonos Beam and it works again for a day. 

 

Also latley ti sas that is not conected to the internet while every other device is conected and working.

The purporse of adding an Asistant to a speaker is to make things easier not just complicate them. 

this problem has a lot of time and is getting serious and Sonos is not doing anything to solve. is as easy as just read all these coments reply the configurations and use them for a week. thre you have the problem and now start to fix it local.. 

 

And give feedback to your comunity.  

 

Honestly, I’ve been so disappointed in GA on Sonos that I’ve put my Google minis all around the house again.  They just work better.  My Sonos ones sound great, but I’m controlling them with my phone, not my voice.  After having had google speakers for years, which always just WORKED, I can’t believe how buggy it is on Sonos!  After a while I get tired of having so many speakers around the house and go back to using GA on Sonos, only to be disappointed again and get the minis back out.

I'm getting this constantly:

"Sorry something went wrong.

When you're ready, give it another try"

Sometimes retrying is successful, but after 4 retries, I give up.

This is so insanely frustrating!

Me TOO!  It’s gotten so bad recently.  I’ve removed and reinstalled Google Assistant several times.  I’ve rebooted my router.  I’ve connected Sonos to my router directly.  Nothing worked.  It finally got so bad that I deleted my whole Google Home and started over.  I did everything short of a factory reboot on my Sonos speakers.  Instead, I just put up my old Google nest minis again.  I don’t exactly regret buying my Sonos speakers, because they do sound great for music, but I DO regret buying the Ones that have GA build in.  I should have just gone with the SL.  I have to use the Sonos app all the time anyway.

I am having the same problems with Google assistant. Every command I give yields the same repsonse (“sorry something went wrong” ) then the second time I give the same command it sometimes works. And sometimes I can give the same commands that give a result sometimes till i am blue in the face but it does not do anything. I am appalled at the crappy quality of this “integration” and to redirect people that have complaints to Google is completely laughable. This is CLEARLY a Sonos issue.  I was a huge Sonos advocate for a long time but this just sucks. I am going to see what else I can get for my money, that actually works. 

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