Answered

Play google assistant on all speakers in group

  • 31 December 2022
  • 2 replies
  • 393 views
R

I have 2 Sonos ones in a stereo pair. Only one can be set to run google assistant.

I think it would be nice to have the option to have google assistant answer on both / all speakers. Currently the response will only come from the one that is set to run google assistant, and I dont see any way to change that.

This would be nice for example when asking google to play pink noise or anything similar, where sound appears to be coming from google as opposed to having sonos play from a music service.

Even better would be if all speakers could listen for the wake word, and then start the command from whichever hears better

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Best answer by Corry P 2 January 2023, 14:52

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Corry P
Userlevel 7
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Hi @r4321 

Welcome to the Sonos Community!

Thank you for your feedback.

I looked this up because I was unsure. It turns out that the behaviour changes across all three available voice assistants:

Assuming microphones are installed on both units of a stereo pair...

Sonos Voice Control lets you choose which of the pair the service should run on. If two speakers already running SVC are paired together, they will both have it and keep it.

Alexa will run on both speakers in a stereo pair.

Google Assistant will normally run only on the left speaker of a pair - except for the Sonos One. When there is a pair of Sonos Ones with Google Assistant, the assistant will run on the left speaker unless the left speaker is a Generation 1 model and the right speaker is a Generation 2 model, in which case GA will run on the right, newer speaker.

Because it is different for each service, I suspect that the reason for the restriction on Google Assistant is technical in nature, which unfortunately makes it less likely to be changed - especially without a lot of pressure from our customers. I was unaware of these differences in part due to the fact that I’ve never really had to look them up before, which in itself indicates a lack of enquiries on the topic. I will, however, tag this thread as a feature request so it is seen by the relevant teams for consideration. Thanks!

"Common sense is the collection of prejudices acquired by age eighteen." - Albert Einstein
R

Thanks Corry, perhaps I’ll give Alexa another try in that case.

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