Google Assistant does not play Radio Stations

F
Userlevel 2

When I ask my Sonos: "Hey, Google! Play Heart 80s". It replies with: "Playing Heart 80s on TuneIn". However, it then says: "Sorry I can't find what you asked for". This is really disappointing, because Alexa plays radio stations without any issues. Any suggestions on how to fix this? 

 

Exactly the same issue reported 

https://en.community.sonos.com/google-assistant-and-sonos-229109/google-assistant-does-not-play-radio-stations-6833977

and

https://en.community.sonos.com/google-assistant-and-sonos-229109/google-assistant-has-problem-playing-tunein-station-6825633

Weirdly Sonos seems to just keep closing the issues so you can’t comment on. Very poor customer service.

 

As described in the other issues - this is 100% a Sonos issue. The error comes after control is handed back from Google to Sonos and the exact same voice commands work on google home devices on the same network.

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66 replies

Krishma M
Userlevel 5
Badge +13

Hi @JamesDan, thanks for your reply. Just to let you know that starting playback through voice aren’t available at this time for the Global Player and Sonos Radio. For now, voice assistants will utilize the default radio services selected from within the respective app, and 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. 

I'll make sure your voice is heard with the team. We and the community are always here.

Help others find useful content by clicking the like button and selecting the best answer to your question.
D
Userlevel 5
Badge +8

The GA command to play my local news station from TuneIn has suddenly started working after more than a year! I’m not sure when exactly that happened within the last few weeks (I accidentally tell GA on Sonos to play that station at least that often, forgetting that I am talking to Sonos instead of one of the Google Home units).

Until now, I would say “Hey Google, play (station)”, it would respond “Ok, playing (station)”… and then “I couldn’t find that content”. And then the next two commands to GA on Sonos would fail with “Something went wrong”, doesn’t matter what commands.

Today I accidentally told Sonos to play that station again, and now it works! To be clear, it has never worked before - the problem has been there since I first converted to using GA on Sonos last year.

Krishma M
Userlevel 5
Badge +13

Hi @Doug Ames, thanks for your response and for letting us know here. I’m glad that it’s working now, and if in case you had trouble again, reach out to our phone/chat support team to better assist you. 

We and the community are always here to help.

Help others find useful content by clicking the like button and selecting the best answer to your question.
D
Userlevel 5
Badge +8

Continues to work fine for me.

N
Badge +3

Sorry I could not find the solution.

Can you please refer me how to fix it? 

B

Radio stations worked a week ago now don’t. Sonos One, GA, station Rock 102 CJDJ. Works from app but not voice command.

I

Same issue. When I ask google assistant on my Sonos One to play my NPR station, it says “playing kpbx fm on TuneIn,” followed by “Sorry, I can’t find what you it asked for.” Any thoughts on a fix?

R

Same issue here.

Someone knows if there’s a fix provided by Sonos support?

Thanks

B

I have the same problem.  Always worked fine but recently it cannot play tune-in stations.  It says sure and then says it can’t find what I am looking for, even though on the app it shpws it and it can be played from the app

 

R

Same issue. When I ask google assistant on my Sonos One to play my NPR station, it says “playing kpbx fm on TuneIn,” followed by “Sorry, I can’t find what you it asked for.” Any thoughts on a fix?

I have the same problem for a month now. Have stopped recommending Sonos to other quarantined ppl lol. @Doug Ames did u do anything to fix or did it just randomly work?

R

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.

I tried removing Google assistant from Sonos, deleting it from phone and reinstalling and adding to Sonos. It did not work and I have the same problem😑 commands for local radio, bbc, and now even Pandora do not work. At first it was just radio. Now the Sonos speaker is just taking up space on the counter. 

JamesDan
Userlevel 4
Badge +6

Never mind radio stations not working, when I tell GA on Sonos to play radio, it literally plays an ad before playing the actual station! On such an expensive device, while on my cheaper Google speakers, there is not one ad to be heard!

This needs to be fixed!

Also, the BBC and Global Player (LBC, Capital FM, Classic FM) now have proper integration with native GA speakers, but not with Sonos, I can barely play any of them using voice commands on Sonos, and all I get is poor streaming quality and ads.

When I say “Play LBC on Global Player”, the Assistant says that this isn’t supported on my device.

Sonos, fix this!

J

Same issue. Any news on this?

I

My conclusion is that Sonos are not fit for purpose for voice activation with Google Assistant. Compare the experience to just using a google Speaker and it’s sub-optimal

T

I’m also having this problem with my Sonos Move. Up until a few eeks ago, I could ask it to play “Fun Kids” and it would duly do so. Now, all of a sudden, it says “Sure, playing Fun Kids UK from Tune In…. Sorry, I can’t find what you asked for”.

However, opening the Sonos App on my phone and playing the station from there works fine.

As time goes on, I’m finding the whole Sonos / Google integration more and more problematic.

Reading this thread, I can’t believe that Sonos appear to be ignoring this issue.

J

I live in Sweden and I usually tell my Sonos One to play swedish radio stations like P1, P3, P4 Halland, Radio Bastad, Rix FM. 

Recently GA says it cant’t find the radio station on tune-in and doesn’t play it.

They are all visible in the Sonos app and I can select them manually from the internal services Tune-in, Sonos Radio and Sveriges Radio.

Doesn’work: P1, P4 Halland

Work: P3, Radio Bastad, Rix FM.

 

What’s happend?

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