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

D
Userlevel 5
Badge +8

Google Home: “Hey Google, play News 1130” “News 1130...” station plays

Alexa (set to use Sonos as media player): “Alexa, play News 1130” “News 1130, playing on Sonos...” station plays

Sonos app: search for News 1130 under Stations, finds it under TuneIn, plays when selected

Sonos running GA: “Hey Google, play News 1130” “Ok, playing CKWX on TuneIn...Sorry, I can’t find what you asked for” (CKWX is the official station ID of the news station calling itself News 1130)

Sonos running GA: “Hey Google, play CKWX from TuneIn” “Ok, playing CKWX on TuneIn...Sorry, I can’t find what you asked for”

and, the next 2 commands to Sonos to play any media fail, the 3rd succeeds normally again.

B
Userlevel 2

I just posted on this same issue too…

https://en.community.sonos.com/google-assistant-and-sonos-229109/google-assistant-and-tune-in-6842854?postid=16440848#post16440848

and then I found this thread, so bumping ;-) 

A

Hi everyone. 

We are still investigating reports of an issue with Google Assistant not playing BBC radio streams. I would be happy to provide an update once it becomes available to me.

D
Userlevel 1
Badge

THIS ISSUE’S REALLY GETTING UP MY NOSE NOW.

M
Userlevel 4
Badge +3

I don’t think that SONOS should really be allowed to advertise their devices as having Google Assistant. 

A key selling point is the ability to say “Hey Google, play Jimi Hendrix” if it fails then how can they advertise this rubbish.

Had I purchased from SONOS and still in the returns window I would be sending it back for a refund. 

G

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.

D
Userlevel 5
Badge +8

Continues to work fine for me.

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?

D
Userlevel 5
Badge +8

This particular issue with radio stations applies to TuneIn as well, and seems to be a Sonos-specific GA bug. It recognizes the station, says it’s playing it now, then says it can’t find it. While Google Home or Alexa or even the Sonos app can find it and play it just fine.

But I have noticed with other music services including Spotify, Amazon, and Deezer, that Google Home seems to be able to find music titles that neither Alexa (on Echo) or Google Assistant (on Sonos) can find. I’m guessing that Google Home does its own search to refine the request before passing it to the music service, and that Google has not extended that capability to Google Assistant - or Sonos isn’t using it.

J

Hello @Doug Ames,

Thank you for your detailed post outlining this issue. 

Can you follow these steps to submit a diagnostic report from your system after testing these commands?

 Settings > Help&Tips > Submit Diagnostic

I’d like to see if there is anything under the hood that cold be preventing this playback.

Is your Sonos account still linked to your Amazon Alexa while you are trying to trigger playback via Google Assistant?


Has there been any progress with this? It’s really annoying. 

J

Google Home: “Hey Google, play News 1130” “News 1130...” station plays

Alexa (set to use Sonos as media player): “Alexa, play News 1130” “News 1130, playing on Sonos...” station plays

Sonos app: search for News 1130 under Stations, finds it under TuneIn, plays when selected

Sonos running GA: “Hey Google, play News 1130” “Ok, playing CKWX on TuneIn...Sorry, I can’t find what you asked for” (CKWX is the official station ID of the news station calling itself News 1130)

Sonos running GA: “Hey Google, play CKWX from TuneIn” “Ok, playing CKWX on TuneIn...Sorry, I can’t find what you asked for”

and, the next 2 commands to Sonos to play any media fail, the 3rd succeeds normally again.

@Doug Ames have you heard anything from Sonos on this one?

D
Userlevel 5
Badge +8

@Doug Ames have you heard anything from Sonos on this one?

 

No progress since I first reported it almost a year ago. At best all I ever get is a request to submit a diagnostic, even for things that are clearly at the Sonos end.

H

Im also having this issue. Can’t get bbc radio . The main reason I have a smart speaker. I’m going to find an alternative brand if this doesn’t work soon. 

H

Please do. Its really the main thing we use Sonos for - BBC radio…Will switching back to Alexa assistant fix it for now?  Thx 

R
Userlevel 4
Badge +4

Any updates on this???

I’ve posted on the other threads on this … it worked fine until about a couple of months ago and is now still broken for BBC radio in the UK (I’m on S1 system) despite Sonos saying they would investigate.

Jean C.
Userlevel 5
Badge +16

@johnson.sam.r, et all.

We are still working on a fix for this issue and unfortunately not able to provide a time-frame for a fix on this playback command issue.

We understand your frustration and hope to have a solution for this soon. 

 

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D
Userlevel 1
Badge

My setup has just started working again, after months of doing this and many complaints.  Cheers for the communication Sonos.  Never has there been a company that treats its customers so contemptuously.  Next setup WON’T be Sonos, that’s for sure.

JamesDan
Userlevel 4
Badge +6

I just found out that the Assistant on my Ones/Beam cannot seem to use Assistant actions. If I tell Sonos to play Radio 4 on the BBC, it says that the BBC isn’t currently supported on [speaker name]. All my other Google Home speakers support this but Sonos doesn’t. Even asking it to play Radio 4 on TuneIn doesn’t work. All I get is silence.

 

Trying to play LBC/Classic FM on Global Player doesn’t work either. It also tells me that Global Player currently isn’t supported on [speaker name]

Issuing the same command to my Google Home speakers always works.

Sonos is clearly at fault here, it doesn’t seem to support Assistant actions!

This needs to be fixed pronto!

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.

D
Userlevel 1
Badge

“….Upon checking the issue is no longer occurring. Thanks for understanding and let us know if there’s anything else we can help you with.”
 

 

Hilarious.

M
Userlevel 4
Badge +3

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!

M

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

JamesDan
Userlevel 4
Badge +6

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.

 

Krishma M
Userlevel 5
Badge +13

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!

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M

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. 

Krishma M
Userlevel 5
Badge +13

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! 

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