Google Assistant does not play Radio Stations

Is this ever going to be fixed?

Is this ever going to get any attention?

The OP also mentioned a Global radio station (Heart 80s) which isn’t available outside the UK using TuneIn. One must tell the Google Assistant to play it on Global Player instead of TuneIn. 

This works fine on Google’s own speakers but doesn’t work on Sonos.

Hilarious.

The fact that it just started working again looks to me like SONOS had nothing do with fixing it so it is laughable that the SONOS staff are asking if there is *anything else* they can help with. LOL!

I’m now able to play BBC Radio 1 and 5 using google assistant. Radio 2 and 4 still don’t work however. 

There’s one thing one should know about.

Usually, when requesting the Google Assistant to play Radio 4 on a Google speaker it says “playing BBC Radio 4 from the BBC”, meaning it does not play it on TuneIn, but from the BBC directly.

This is also apparent when telling a Google Nest Hub to do the same thing; instead of the TuneIn logo displaying a BBC Sounds logo is shown.

When asking Sonos to play Radio 4 on the BBC it doesn’t work but when issuing the same command to a Google speaker it always works.

Also, when telling a Google speaker to play Heart 80s it always plays it, but on Global Player instead of TuneIn.

When telling Sonos to do the same it says that it’s doing it but then fails to do so. Heart 80s on TuneIn doesn’t work. Only on Global Player, which doesn’t work on Sonos.

More and more radio stations seem to be switching from TuneIn to their own actions (apps) on Google Assistant whilst dropping TuneIn support outside the UK as well. Their own actions work fine outside the UK though, just not on Sonos.

This is a issue on Sonos speakers only and needs to be addressed quickly. Having not received a direct response from Sonos is pathetic. Do not say a problem is solved when it hasn’t been solved fully.

Again, I’m talking about basic stuff here: playing radio stations using voice commands.

Hi folks. Just wanna ask, the radio that isn’t working with Sonos speakers using Google Assistant, are they working when using the Sonos app? Keep us posted here. Thanks!

No, R2 and R4 not working with voice or via the Sonos app. 

Hi @martinski, thanks for your response and confirmation that it’s not working when using the Sonos app as well. Have you only tried it from TuneIn? Is it okay if we try to use the Radioplayer service for listening to BBC Stations within the UK? Let us know how it goes. Thanks! 

Ok. That now works from within the app. 

The app has always worked well for me! The problem here is voice commands though, which don’t work well, if at all. This includes BBC radio stations being played directly from the BBC via voice commands as well as Global radio stations played directly from Global Player via voice commands instead of TuneIn (as Global has slowly but surely been switching to their own platform).

This needs to be addressed quickly, as it has been going on for far to long if you ask me.

Asking Google Assistant on a Google speaker works fine. Just try saying “play Heart on Global Player” and you’ll find it won’t work on Sonos but it will on Google speakers.

Hi, @martinski! So the Radioplayer is working when using the Sonos app?

I’m just thinking if the specific radio is not really gonna work if it’s also not working in the Sonos app. Were the radio stations working before? 

@JamesDan, we'd be happy to share your interest with the team.

Thanks!

Yes, it’s working using the app, but not voice. All BBC stations worked before the app update using voice and app. 

Hi @martinski, if it’s working before using the Sonos app and voice, I’d suggest call 800-680-2345 from Monday to Friday from 10 am to 9 pm ET to further check and resolution, as I’ve checked there shouldn’t any problem anymore. If you still have questions, please let us know. 

Clearly still a Sonos problem and just saying it’s no longer an issue to try to bury it is terrible service.  Obviously Sonos isn’t fully integrated with GA and behind the scenes there is something else going on and they didn’t pay enough royalties or fees and they only get 60% integration.   Very disappointed as a new Sonos customer. 

I’m disappointed too. Global (owner of radio stations such as LBC in the UK) has blocked streams on TuneIn for most of their radio stations outside the UK, instead opting for their own solution called Global Player on Google smart speakers.

So if I tell a Google Nest Mini to play Heart it plays it just fine on Global Player. If I ask Google Assistant on Sonos however it tells me it’s playing the station on TuneIn which of course doesn’t work.

Certain Google Assistant actions just don’t seem to work, including Global Player and BBC. 
If I explicitly ask GA on Sonos to play Heart on Global Player, all I get back is: “Playing Heart on Global Player. Sorry, Global Player currently isn’t supported on [speaker name].”

Being able to do this on a $20 Google Home Mini but not on speakers worth several hundreds is downright pathetic.

After seeing ads of the Sonos Move showing off its Google Assistant capabilities and getting this, I really do feel like I’ve been lied to.

Being told that certain Sonos products support Google Assistant when they only support the most basic stuff is a cheek when the GA on Sonos can’t even shuffle music!

Don’t get me wrong, I love Sonos, but if they want to keep up with the smart speaker industry they had better gear up and put things right. 

Further to JamesDan’s reply, I’ve tested various Sonos Radio specific stations and from what I have found, the only stations that actually work in the GA voice control are the one’s that are also available on other channels like iHeart radio or another free radio channel.  If it is only included as a Sonos Radio channel it won’t work.  So again, it confirms there is something between GA and Sonos specifically that GA does not allow access to.

Interesting. But what’s weird in my case is that Global Player is actually a service officially supported by the Sonos app but doesn’t work with voice commands when using Google Assistant.

Yep, again everything works via the Sonos app but voice commands via GA are limited.  That of course is the issue as I have everything set up via voice control for all my smart devices, including music from Sonos radio stations.  Very frustrating.

Hi folks and welcome to the community @glenspeed. We totally understand where you're coming from and I’m here to help you all. 

We have tested Google Assistant BBC radio playback using Sonos voice-enabled and Google first-party voice-enabled devices and Google Assistant appears to unaffected at this time so you all should be able to command BBC radio playback via Google Assistant on Sonos and on Google Devices and they can successfully target playback to other rooms from both Sonos and Google Voice-enabled devices. If not, try to remove GA from the Sonos app and unlink Sonos from Google Home and Google Assistant app then, re-add GA to Sonos. 

In order to use your selected music service with your Google Assistant on Sonos, you must also add it to your Sonos app. You can ask your Google Assistant to play music from iHeartRadio, TIDAL, and TuneIn Radio on Sonos if they’re available in your region, but they can’t be directly added to your Google Assistant app.

About the Global Player and Sonos Radio, starting playback through voice aren’t available at this time. For now, voice assistants will utilize the default radio services selected from within the respective app. We can certainly pass along these interests to the team.

While starting playback of Sonos Radio and Global Player using voice aren’t available at this time, you can control basic functions through voice such as volume control, pausing music, and even asking your voice assistant what’s playing. 

Please let us know if there’s anything else we can help you with. We and the community are always here.

It may be no longer occurring for the BBC, but nothing has been fixed for the other radio stations reported with this problem. Outstanding more than a year.

I would guess that the Sonos dev team knows very well what the problem is, but it’s an inherent issue with GA on Sonos that isn’t easily fixed, and they either haven’t bothered to let customer service know or they just don’t want to say because it would only attract criticism.

Hi @Doug Ames, thanks for reaching out. Sorry that other radio stations aren’t working on your end, and can you please tell us more about it? What’s the specific station and issue? I will be working with you to get this rectified. 

Just let us know. We and the community are always here to help.

I’ve pretty much given up responding to the standard requests for more information from Sonos Staff in these forums, because they appear to be totally unaware of previous reports of the same issue and previous times I have responded to requests for information with no result. Don’t you guys have a PR database?

But if you really want to do some research, check out my issue from a year ago that’s second reference link given in the initial post of this thread. The problem remains the same.

Hi @Doug Ames, thanks for your response, and we do not want this kind of experience for the Sonos users. Since it’s been a while and your problem is still there, I’d suggest call 800-680-2345 from Monday to Friday 10 am to 9 pm so they can further check it with you and escalate if needed. We want you to enjoy your experience with the Sonos products and just let us know. We and the community are always here to help.

Just asked Google Assistant on Sonos to play LBC. As it isn’t able to play it from Global Player despite that service being officially supported in the Sonos app and speakers made by Google and other third parties, it plays LBC from TuneIn. Thing is, loads other radio stations from Global don’t work on TuneIn outside the UK, but Global Player does.

And I have now started hearing ads before the actual radio station plays. This would not happen with Global Player.

Not getting ads when trying to play LBC, Heart, Capital etc. on a $20 Google Home Mini but getting ads on speakers worth hundreds because they don’t support Global Player amongst other actions is quite disgusting. I don’t want ads. But I get them because Sonos cannot be bothered to integrate Google Assistant properly.

Fix it.