Google Assistant problem with Beam

Hi @Ernie29.

Thanks for reaching out and welcome to the community!

I’d be more than glad to help and try to get this figured out.

To understand it better, I’ll need some more details that can help us identify where the issue is coming from:

• Is this playback failure universal or are there some artists/services that Google Assistant will play? 
• Have you selected a default speaker so content always plays in a specific room without saying the room name in the command?
• Can you try asking for a more generic music request and specify playback in the Beam’s Room name?
• Please ensure that all device names under the voice assistant are unique, the assistant may not be targeting the correct device for commands.

Kindly please submit a diagnostic report through the Sonos app, and reply with the confirmation number.
It can help up identify what is causing your issue.

Let us know how it goes and if you have any other questions or run into any issues, please do not hesitate to reach out.

Hi I have submitted a diagnostic 1416997269.

In answer to your questions, I have tried several artists and songs with the same outcome. I have tried specifying the device " dianna ross on front room beam". All have the same outcome. I get confirmation the command is understood "playing diana ross on spitify" then  "sorry, I don't understand". 

All device names are unique.

I couldn't figure out how to set a default device name, but did try specifying a device in the command. 

This morning I see the same behaviour when trying to select music. However, once I had selected music through the app I tried voice control to skip a track, that worked ok.

@Ernie29

I appreciate that you also tried other commands and good to know it works.

As we get the issue isolated, it looks like it is specifically happening when you’re trying to ‘play music’?

Please ensure that any music services you add in the Google Assistant app have also been added to your Sonos system in the Sonos app.

I see that Spotify is already on your Sonos account, is it also added to the Google Assistant app?

What music services have you added on Google Assistant?

• To see available music services, open the Assistant app for iOS or Android, tap your profile icon to get to your account page, and then tap Services > Music.
• Available services are listed under More Music Services.
• Music service availability will vary by region.

You can ask your Google Assistant to play music, if those services are already added to your Sonos system, but they can’t be directly added to your Google Assistant app.

Let us know how it goes and if you have any other questions or run into any issues,  please do not hesitate to reach out. 

Thanks for the additional instructions. I count find ant settings wrong, so I removed google assistant from the Beam and reinstalled. This helped and the " don't understand " message went away and music played, but not on the Beam. Even when said play B52s on living room sonos, the music played on the Sonos in the kitchen.

It seems now there is a fight between my Samsung S10 which is Goolge voice activated too and the Beam. Both react to my voice. The Beam speaks to me, but I think the phone is winning out when it comes to the commands. I do get the right result when I cover the Samsung S10 microphone when I issue the voice command which is why I think the two devices are fighting each other.

Any more ideas?

Hi @Ernie29.

Thanks for the response.

I recommend testing the Beam without the other voice-activated device to see how it will respond.

Is it possible to try and disable Google Assistant on your phone to test it?

How to turn off Google Assistant:

1. Open the Google app and select Menu.
2. Go to Settings.
3. Then, Google Assistant section click Settings > Phone and disable the Assistant option.

NOTE: You can turn back on the Assistant option if you prefer to, after the test using the above steps.

Let us know how it goes and if you have any other questions or run into any issues, please do not hesitate to reach out.

Hi, I turned my phone off completely to test. Things looked better, but the default device still seems to be the Sonos device in the kitchen, not the Beam in the living room. If I specify the device I want to use (living room beam), this does work. Definitely progress. 

Just need to figure out how to change the default sonos device and how to stop my phone fighting for control.

Hi @Annazel S 

I’m getting the same problem with a Beam and One speaker.

If I say “Play <station> from TuneIn” it says “playing <station> from TuneIn” followed by “sorry, I don’t understand”.

I get the same issue if I say “play spotify” or more specifically say “play <plylist> from spotify”.

It’s not a general Google Assistant issue, as a non-Sonos smart speaker has been responding fine to Assistant requests with no problem.

This has been ongoing for a number of days.

Diagnostic 922527666.

I think you will find that this has been ongoing for a number of weeks. Read this forum. All complaints about the terrible integration of GA on SONOS

i have an extensive setup I’d SONOS devices and google home devices(mini, home, hub, hub max)

if I ask the google device to play BBC RADIO 2 it works fine. When I set the default speaker as a SONOS speaker it fsils

same for music played using google play music and you tube premium. The SONOS fails so often that my wife has take a radio out of storage