Contributor II

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Google Assistant support for multiple homes with single Sonos account?

Forum|Forum|7 years ago
May 28, 2019
47 replies
4608 views

I switched all of my Sonos devices at my upstate home this weekend from Alexa to Google Assistant (2x Beam and 2x Sonos One) and everything worked great and controlled all of those as well as my 3x Connect:Amp devices. The Beam CEC control to turn on and off TVs with Google works great!

I attempted to update the Beam and Sonos One at my apartment when I returned to the city and when I run through the process, the Google Assistant app fails to find any devices.

My apartment setup has the same Sonos account with the latest firmware updates, same Google Account (which is configured for two homes) and is on the the same UniFi networking equipment (different SSIDs).

Are there any known limitations with a single Sonos account at multiples homes? There shouldn't be any limitations on the Google side as I have Ecobee thermostats at Google Home locations. The only other difference is that that I don't have any "real" Google products like a Home Mini at my apartment, so I'm wondering if a regular Google device needs to be a home hub to set up non-Google devices.

Thanks,
Sean

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Best answer by Ryan S

Hi Sean, the Google Assistant integration with Sonos is designed to link one Google Account with a single Sonos household. In the apartment, you're likely running a different Sonos household ID (which is expected for different systems). This is why you're having trouble.

The best thing you can do is to either have two Google Accounts, or try to merge your two Sonos households. Merging the households involves bringing a speaker from one location to the other and resetting one of the two systems. Then rebuilding the location using the speaker from the other house as an existing system. It's a little tricky and will delete any playlists and settings you have on the system you're merging.

Show previous replies

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Joran Lawrence

Lyricist I

This is now becoming an even bigger issue because many people (like myself) are now forced to run TWO Sonos networks because of the STUPID decision by Sonos to not make their system backwards compatible with their older hardware.

I bought a Sub and now I am FORCED to have two Sonos Systems in ONE house. And because of that Google forces me to pick which one to control. Yes, I could yell at Google for this but they are also forced into this weird situation by a Sonos decision.

I can only image how many customers Sonos lost because of this. Sonos - you have had a lot of time now to see the error of this. You can still undo this. The discount on new hardware was not enough. Please Please enable some concept of “Joined Sonos Systems”.

Require speaker names to be unique (or whatever) is needed. Do a scan of both “systems for limitations”. But, your app and Smart system managers like Google and Alexa should be able to control ALL Sonos devices in a single home or multiple homes and across Sonos1 and Sonos2 type networks. This is not a huge ask but its coming from your most loyal and probably target customers that are just going to buy more Google and Amazon products instead of yours.

Think about it.

J

jhollist99

Lyricist I

One option is to have a sonos account for each home/office and reconnect that account in google home when you arrive (takes 60 seconds). That is the only work around I have found. The platform solution would be to have the ability to connect multiple Sonos accounts in google home or multiple homes under one sonos account.

Did anyone follow “Ryan’s” instructions to merge systems? It sounds like you can pair all of your speakers at one site, create site specific names (all under the same network/wifi settings) and then bring the speakers to the second location?

Ken_Griffiths

I just opted to have the one Sonos Account only, with the S1 system/household controlled by Google assistant …and the S2HH controlled by Alexa, each with the same music services linked to the different assistant accounts. It works great …and I guess to play audio to both systems at the same time, the best thing there is to perhaps keep an Airplay component in each Sonos HH, which allows streaming audio to either/both systems, as they’re each operating on the same local subnet.

J

jhollist99

Lyricist I

Yea but I use other GA services… “Drive time...”, my news feeds etc so I need to solve the GA to Sonos issue. Glad you have found a happy compromise.

J

Joran Lawrence

Lyricist I

I just opted to have the one Sonos Account only, with the S1 system/household controlled by Google assistant …and the S2HH controlled by Alexa, each with the same music services linked to the different assistant accounts. It works great …and I guess to play audio to both systems at the same time, the best thing there is to perhaps keep an Airplay component in each Sonos HH, which allows streaming audio to either/both systems, as they’re each operating on the same local subnet.

This is exactly what I did too!!! But, how stupid is it that I have to use two different technologies to run ONE Sonos system because Sonos can’t figure out how to unify their own tech. Really really lazy Sonos. Super lazy, insanely lazy.

Ken_Griffiths

I just opted to have the one Sonos Account only, with the S1 system/household controlled by Google assistant …and the S2HH controlled by Alexa, each with the same music services linked to the different assistant accounts. It works great …and I guess to play audio to both systems at the same time, the best thing there is to perhaps keep an Airplay component in each Sonos HH, which allows streaming audio to either/both systems, as they’re each operating on the same local subnet.

This is exactly what I did too!!! But, how stupid is it that I have to use two different technologies to run ONE Sonos system because Sonos can’t figure out how to unify their own tech. Really really lazy Sonos. Super lazy, insanely lazy.

Or …maybe its a restriction simply imposed on Sonos by a Google/MSP sharing agreement. We will never know, I guess, as Sonos never reveals much about such things, particularly when it comes to dealings with partner services. Sonos probably just takes the criticism from users on the chin and moves on. So I’m a little reluctant to personally point a finger in these type of situations, as the behind the scenes partner issues are not entirely clear as to who has imposed the restriction, but Sonos seem to have less to gain in my own thinking ?

melvimbe

I just opted to have the one Sonos Account only, with the S1 system/household controlled by Google assistant …and the S2HH controlled by Alexa, each with the same music services linked to the different assistant accounts. It works great …and I guess to play audio to both systems at the same time, the best thing there is to perhaps keep an Airplay component in each Sonos HH, which allows streaming audio to either/both systems, as they’re each operating on the same local subnet.

This is exactly what I did too!!! But, how stupid is it that I have to use two different technologies to run ONE Sonos system because Sonos can’t figure out how to unify their own tech. Really really lazy Sonos. Super lazy, insanely lazy.

Or …maybe its a restriction simply imposed on Sonos by a Google/MSP sharing agreement. We will never know, I guess, as Sonos never reveals much about such things, particularly when it comes to dealings with partner services. Sonos probably just takes the criticism from users on the chin and moves on. So I’m a little reluctant to personally point a finger in these type of situations, as the behind the scenes partner issues are not entirely clear as to who has imposed the restriction, but Sonos seem to have less to gain in my own thinking ?

Well, we know for a fact that Google will not allow their voice assistant to coexist with any other voice assistant on the same smart speaker. It’s not a tech limitation of Sonos speakers, they have shown it can be done in tests.

Maybe Google would not have a problem with having 2 Google accounts on the same smart speaker, but that would be a bit difficult to accomplish. Besides, that isn’t the issue here is it?

The question was about connecting 2 separate Sonos systems to the same voice account, right? I don’t see Sonos putting a restriction on this, as your Google account would need the mechanism for storing two different Sonos accounts. So if Sonos is to blame, it would have to be because they didn’t force Google to make changes on their side.

Danny

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DorianB

Lyricist I

I have also recently discovered that I am affected by this problem, having set up a new Google Home at my studio space with a brand new set of Sonos speakers. By linking my new Google Home in the studio to my new Sonos system it has dumped my whole setup at home. This is totally unacceptable from what purports to be a premium speaker brand and I'm pretty mad about it. If I had know ahead of time I would have gone with another brand of speaker.