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If anything, this post is to vent my frustrations over the last week while trying to intergrate my SONOS devices with Google Assistant/Home.  I do not need support, as the stock answer of “Please submit a Report, yada yada yada, is getting no one anywhere on here or various other forums where this issue has been reported.  Also, I gave up and have successfully integrated with Alexa with no issues, no glitches, no bugs, just works!

To clarify, I love my Sonos devices for their primary role as a speaker and as a music player.  The sound quality is superb and the integration with Spotify is flawless.  Having said that, Sonos needs to disable and remove from production the Goolge Assistant functionality until it works as designed!

Yes, I have reset my entire network and devices multiple times!  Yes, everything works on said network and on said devices except for Google Assistant/Home integration.  There is nothing wrong with my network or my devices, everything else works, even SONOS with Alexa integration!

So, what issues have I encountered?  Many of you have reported them as well with no fix insight.

  1. On initial setup of Google Assistant integration the Sonos app directs you to the Google Assistant which then attempts to find your device.  It never finds any of my SONOS on first attempt as a matter of fact, if I hit “RETRY” several times it will eventually find the device, sometimes after 10-12 “RETRY”.
  2. If I get lucky and get past 1 above, then you have the pleasure of Google Assistant/HOME not seeing the device occasionally or Assistant doesn’t recognize it but home does.  Even if HOME recognizes it, any Google HUB doesn’t and can’t play music on it directly or through Spotify.
  3. If you happen to get past 1 above, I struggle with 2, then you have the dreaded “Sorry, there was a glitch” issue after initiating a command once.  If you initiate the same command to the same SONOS again, it recognizes it and does it.  Minutes later, hours later, same pattern.

SONOS, please fix this, don’t blame Google, this is your product, your design, work with them to fix it!

I use both the Google Assistant and Alexa installed on my various Sonos devices and whilst I have a personal preference for Alexa, I’m not having the same difficulties with Google that you mention in your post.

In step one… the Google Assistant ‘coloured shapes’ for me just bounce around the iPad display for about 10 seconds and the App quite-quickly discovers the Sonos device that I’m setting up …and I’ve done that setup step with 3 Sonos products, which are a Roam, Sonos One (gen2) and a Beam. 

I’ve not had the Sonos devices disappear, as mentioned in your step two, which I moved about and put into my chosen rooms in the Google Home App, but i have noticed it can sometimes take 30 seconds or so, for Google to sometimes get started with my Roam, but that’s if I have left it powered off completely for a while… Alexa connects-back to the Roam far more quickly, I find.

I have seen/heard the “Sorry there was a glitch” message from GA, as highlighted in step three, but only very occasionally and in fairness to Sonos, I have had that exact same message from a Google Nest Hub and Google display device, from time to time - so I think that’s ‘most likely’ a Google issue.

All said and done though, Google works okay for me, but i still much prefer Alexa, not least for the way Sonos devices work with their Alexa ‘enabled’ groups for auto-grouping/ungrouping speakers and the rather useful ‘group volume’ voice control.

I would like to add the following:

A long time ago I was able to add Google Assistant to my Sonos move.

When taking it out of range from my wifi, and taking it back, the Assistant was away, and I had to add it back.

 

That worked once and a while.

When buying a second Sonos Move, I was able to add the assistant again.

When I this spring bought a Sonos Roam, I wasn’t able to add the assistant again.

After taking it out on a vacation, and back, I then was able to.

When I came back from another weekend trip, I had to add the assistant again.

 

This is seriously useless, and I would be better without having the Google Assistant as an option than just have it removed when taking out the speakers built for it.

 

When will there be a fix?

I would like to add the following:

A long time ago I was able to add Google Assistant to my Sonos move.

When taking it out of range from my wifi, and taking it back, the Assistant was away, and I had to add it back.

 

That worked once and a while.

When buying a second Sonos Move, I was able to add the assistant again.

When I this spring bought a Sonos Roam, I wasn’t able to add the assistant again.

After taking it out on a vacation, and back, I then was able to.

When I came back from another weekend trip, I had to add the assistant again.

 

This is seriously useless, and I would be better without having the Google Assistant as an option than just have it removed when taking out the speakers built for it.

 

When will there be a fix?

I have to say your post doesn’t make much sense to me - I have Google Assistant on a Roam and have recently taken it away on holiday and the Google assistant worked both whilst I was away and when I returned Home with the speaker - no need to reinstall it at all?

You must either be removing the assistant, or perhaps even Factory resetting your speaker(s), rather than adding/removing the network credentials instead. Otherwise the assistant on the speaker stays in situ.

Hmm… I forgot to mention that I’ve used it on different wifi networks. I can try to take out my Roam and have it on just bluetooth and see if that works.

Hmm… I forgot to mention that I’ve used it on different wifi networks. I can try to take out my Roam and have it on just bluetooth and see if that works.

I use my Roam on different WiFi networks too - just simply add the network credentials to the speaker (see screenshot attached). You can add/remove upto 16 different WiFi networks. The Google VA is unaffected by the WiFi network switching

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