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Contributor I
Dec 22, 2019 2:27 PM UTC

Google Assistant on Sonos is a joke

Is it really that bad?  Because at this point, it feels that bad.

I have a stereo pair of sonos ones (the main speaker being the second gen, the other 1st) and a sonos move.

I have no other google speakers in the house and to lessen any confusion from my Google assistants part, I even disengaged it on my phone.

I have problems nearly 100% of the time with google.  Simple commands such as, "pause," "play some music", or "skip this song" or mainly everything music related I get a constant,

"Sorry, something went wrong, when you're ready, give it another try."

 

Or, my favorite one is,

"Sorry, I can't do that here, but you can ask me to play it on one of your other devices."

This happens all the time.  If it does work, it's usually on the second or third try, and by then I'm so frustrated I wish I never invested in these speakers. 

Spotify is my main squeeze, but anything streaming related seems to be a nightmare.  I've tried rebooting google assistant but nothing works and now I feel like I have some serious buyers remorse.  These speakers are very expensive and sound great, but I have nothing but frustration with the simplest of music tasks.

 

I've looked at the forums and overall it seems like it's a mess for google assistant all around, but if anyone has found out anything I havent yet it would be helpful!

 

 

 

 

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26 replies

Trending Lyricist I
Jan 24, 2021 4:16 PM UTC

I have this same issue.  

 

google assistant on my Sonos One never works.  At all.  No matter what the command for playback control “Start playing music”, or “skip track”, or “pause”, or “raise/lower volume”, the answer is always the same: “Sorry, something went wrong.  When you’re ready, try again later.”

 

I’ve “tried again” dozens of times.  Never works on my two Sonos Ones.  I’ve factory reset the devices.  I’ve removed, then re-added Google Assistant.  Several times, in fact.  It never works.  

 

Sonos Customer support is a joke.  Ignored my first email for 10 days, then when I replied for a follow up...they asked me for a list of information that was already in the original ticket.  So I copy and paste it and send it back in.  No response for 3 more days.  I follow up again.  A different person replies, asks for  the same information again and tells me to re-install Google Assistant.

 

I guess this is what happens when they lay off their entire customer support team.  I can honestly say I’ll never get another Sonos Speaker again.  Did you know they now recommend you have one speaker wired via ethernet to your network for every 2 you have in your system?  I was told this by customer support because my system has never worked properly (always 2-3 players are not playing, skipping, one of a stereo pair not getting music, subwoofer not working, etc).  

So much for a wireless sound system!  If I knew I had to wire everything up, I’d just run speaker wire and get “normal” speakers.  

 

“Sorry, something went wrong.  Please try again later.”  What’s the point of even having a voice assistant built in if it literally never, ever works?

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Trending Lyricist I
Jan 24, 2021 7:31 PM UTC

Well. We have gotten to the point, where it is just funny how s***** the voice control is. 

But one useful command works: “hey google, Stop”, and the music stop on all speakers.

For for Sonos Marketing, that qualifies as Voice Control. :D

 

 

Moderator Note: Modified in accordance with the community guidelines.

 

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JamesDan
Prominent Collaborator I
Jan 24, 2021 7:50 PM UTC

Well. We have gotten to the point, where it is just funny how shitty the voice control is. 

But one useful command works: “hey google, Stop”, and the music stop on all speakers.

For for Sonos Marketing, that qualifies as Voice Control. :D

Welp, lucky you. All mine says is “I can’t do that here, but you can ask me to play it on one of your other devices” or “Something went wrong. Try again in a few seconds”.

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Lyricist I
Jan 31, 2021 10:28 PM UTC

It’s time to address the elephant in the room.

Sonos and Google don’t work together anymore and things are getting more and more broken because of patent disputes.

I also have apple devices, and it’s easier to use Apple (airplay and Siri) to play YTM to Sonos products, than it is to use casting (which actually no longer works) and Google Assistant.

 

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Lyricist II
Feb 9, 2021 6:10 AM UTC

Is sonos planning to address this? I had to switch back to Alexa because I couldn't get GA setup to discover my devices. But on Alexa. It was found instantaneously.

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Senior Virtuoso
Feb 9, 2021 8:04 AM UTC

Didn’t Sonos take over a “voice command” company a while ago? I guess that’s so they can try to introduce a music-oriented system fully integrated and working independent of other voice-control companies. 

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