Sonos Voice Assistant and White Noise (Google Assistant)

  • 17 January 2022
  • 16 replies
  • 1040 views

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I have seen old posts about this but no solutions. I have a Sonos One with google assistant. I also have a Roam and Move. None of these speakers are able to play white noise indefinitely like you can on Google Home/Nest products. It will play 15 minutes to 1 hour of ocean sounds and then stop. This is a problem if you use white noise for kids naps or sleep. Sonos phone and email support have not been able to explain to me the problem. I have seen complaints about this with Alexa too and it’s related to some sort of time out.

Appreciate if others have the same problem or know what the reason is. I imagine Google also makes full implementation of their voice difficult.


16 replies

Are you not able to just create a playlist of white noise and put it on repeat? - there is one ‘white noise’ track on Amazon Music that is 6 hours long?

I don’t see any reason why the track(s) would stop playing, my own general playlists keep playing for many (many) hours? The only reason I can think that your track(s) might stop playing is a connectivity issue, intermittent interference, or possibly IP address ‘lease’ renewal, all of which should be solvable.

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I could make a playlist. But I would like Sonos to have the same functionality of it’s voice assistant. I don’t want to have to keep my phone on me.

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Also, it was an issue my guests who were visiting were having.

I could make a playlist. But I would like Sonos to have the same functionality of it’s voice assistant. I don’t want to have to keep my phone on me.

I’m not quite sure what you mean? The phone Sonos App is just a ‘remote’ - it doesn’t play/stream anything... The services, like Amazon Music, stream directly to the speaker - you simply use the App to tell the speaker what to play direct from the service. You will not need the mobile to be present after that.

I would expect visitors, or any guests to your home to have the same issues, if they are using your Network, which I suspect maybe the source of your problem.

I would ensure your speakers (portable/non-portable) use the main routers 2.4Ghz Wifi band only and that it is set to use a non-overlapping WiFi channel 1, 6 or 11 and set the channel-width to 20MHz only.

Ensure there are no other wireless extenders or power-line adapters involved in the network connections. If using a mesh network then try to ensure all hubs to operate on the same channel (if the mesh devices cater for that). 

Ensure the 5Ghz SSID (if named separately) is not showing in the Sonos App network settings ‘network list’ and that you have any guest networks disabled on the router too.

In addition to the above, you may perhaps also find these two links helpful…  

Wireless Interference Document:

WiFi Interference

Wireless Interference Video:

Wireless Interference and Sonos

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You told me to make a playlist and put it on repeat. Users can’t do that with voice controls.

 

I have 1 router and 2 access points with separated 2.4 ghz. I use non-overlapping 1, 6, and 11 channels. I have seen this problem reported by other users.

 

My google home products do not cut out after random periods of time.

 

 

You told me to make a playlist and put it on repeat. Users can’t do that with voice controls.

Save the playlist to the music service and then ask the voice assistant to play it, or you can load any tracks manually to the queue and then ask the assistant to play the queue.

I have 1 router and 2 access points with separated 2.4 ghz. I use non-overlapping 1, 6, and 11 channels. I have seen this problem reported by other users.

Each access point is best to use the same SSID/credentials as the main router and set their beacons to use the same channels/channel-widths too, that’s as long as they work okay with SSDP multicast/broadcasts for device discovery of the players across your LAN.

My google home products do not cut out after random periods of time.

Neither do the Sonos products on most user Networks - that’s why I’m offering these suggesting for you to maybe consider.

Our playlists will play for many hours and I’m sure there are other community users here who may attest to being able to do that too with their own Sonos speakers (portable and non-portable).

Anyhow those are my personal suggestions as a long-term user of Sonos products, it’s your decision of course if you wish to try them, or not.

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I am a long term Sonos user too. Do you use google assistant? There’s no place to save your google playlist and have it be recalled with voice control.

Same issue posted here:

Alexa here:

Here:

 

Have you tried to ask your Sonos voice assistant to play white noise or ocean sounds and see how long it’ll play for? Do you use a voice assistant? You’re giving suggestions that don’t actually work.

I am a long term Sonos user too. Do you use google assistant? There’s no place to save your google playlist and have it be recalled with voice control.

Have you tried to ask your Sonos voice assistant to play white noise or ocean sounds and see how long it’ll play for? Do you use a voice assistant? You’re giving suggestions that don’t actually work.

It works fine for me (Alexa or Google) .. screenshot attached, shows an example started using Alexa. Just create the playlist in your music service… it will work for Google too. 

If you prefer, you can create your own music queue and use the assistant to control that list.

Just to perhaps also assist you further, there is also a ‘White Noise’ station and other sleep routines in the free Sonos Radio service too.

The white noise track(s) I’ve loaded there in the earlier example shown will play for 6 hours+, before it repeats. I haven’t tested that particular track playlist of course, but my own regular playlists created in the same way, play for many hours everyday non-stop, so that why I suggest you should perhaps use your own playlists and start them with your chosen voice assistant. 

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You’ve created a playlist with the Amazon service. I can’t get Google Assistant to play a playlist I’ve customized. Can you use Alexa to tell it play the white noise playlist? You can’t use a voice command to say “Alexa, play white noise playlist”

 

I want the voice command “Ok, Google play ocean sounds” to play endlessly, currently it stops. 
 

If you want to recreate the issue, you have to use voice commands. You also have to let it play and see when it stops.

You’ve created a playlist with the Amazon service. I can’t get Google Assistant to play a playlist I’ve customized. Can you use Alexa to tell it play the white noise playlist? You can’t use a voice command to say “Alexa, play white noise playlist”

 

I want the voice command “Ok, Google play ocean sounds” to play endlessly, currently it stops. 
 

If you want to recreate the issue, you have to use voice commands. You also have to let it play and see when it stops.

My suggestion has been to create your own playlist (from whatever source if you do not wish to save it to your music service, which is perhaps the easiest method) Anyway, just load the saved playlist to your speaker queue and then use the voice assistant and simply say ‘Hey Google, play’

Here I’ve loaded the earlier created playlist from Amazon (a music service that is not even supported by the Google voice assistant service) to the queue of a Sonos Roam (called MotorRoam) which has the Google assistant installed - I’ve simple gone upstairs to that speaker and said "Hey Google, play” - it will now play that playlist for hours on repeat.

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Ok, that requires the playlist to always be loaded and an inability to switch to other music you want to listen to. It’s not a full Google voice assistant support. 

The ‘white noise’ session that was started earlier from the created playlist saved to the Amazon Music Service - is still playing now… that’s already 50 minutes+ and it would definitely continue to play all day if I let it.

You can see the time on the iPad clock in the earlier posted image if you want to confirm the times… it’s just one suggested way to maybe resolve your problems, but your network needs to possibly be setup as suggested, with any interference reduced to a minimum for your network environment.

Ok, that requires the playlist to always be loaded and an inability to switch to other music you want to listen to. It’s not a full Google voice assistant support. 

It would be better of course, if you were able to add your playlist to your music service, as the VA will load those with an instruction, otherwise you can load it manually, or use an Alarm to populate the queue, or start it with 3rd party Apps like Soro, that’s if you use iOS shortcuts?

Google play for example allows you to upload your own recordings and playlists, or you may find some tracks/playlists that may already exist within your music service. And don’t forget the Sonos radio stations that are available too.

Any playlists you create (set to repeat), if all is well with your network, should then hopefully continue to play for many hours/days. 

I did let the speaker play the White Noise for 2 hours, before eventually choosing to manually call it a day - so even the first attempt shows that the method suggested, can be made to work.

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