Google home mini default speaker

You get to that menu when you select a Beam or Sonos One from the list of "Assistant devices" in the Google assistant app settings.

With a One or a Beam you can pick any other sonos speaker as the default sound output. However, if you go into the same menu from a google home mini it only lists google home speakers. You're still unable to select a Sonos speaker as the default output for a google home. I had hoped that would be changed by now. I'm starting to suspect it won't ever be possible.

Yeah this is what I’m waiting for. I find both GA and Alexa on my new One severely lacking in features/functions compared to a native Google Home or Amazon Echo device. Kind of a bummer because I bought the One last week because I wanted a smart speaker that also sounds great. I currently have no assistant enabled on my One and was planning to try and have a Google mini control my One...until I found this thread. Here’s hoping Google will allow its Home speakers to set a Sonos as the default audio output. 

Sadly, I arrived to the same conclusion. Sonos play 5/ Google Assistant integration is basically rubbish, an alpha product mvp. All it can do is to play something on the Sonos, after adding a long, convoluted “play xx on Family Room”.

i have my google mini located in the same room close to Sonos, and the play 5’s loudness blocks any further voice commands towards Google mini. 
 

I still hear Mini’s voice in Mini, instead of the Play 5s!

not to mention it was a nightmare to setup the two. I literally wasted 2hrs linking Play 5 stereo pair to Google assistant - it took endless renamings,  unlinkings, etc. 

Hello all. New to Sonos as I installed a “5.1” system just over a week ago. I’m also experiencing numerous problems. My google home hub, of which I’ve had several prior to purchasing Sonos, is named Living Room as is the Sonos system. I found If I say “Hey Google play Christmas music in the living room” it plays on the hub but if I say “Hey Google play Christmas music in MY living room” it plays thru my Sonos speakers. I absolutely cannot get it to change the volume. Regardless of how I issue my command, the volume changes of the hub changes. On a side note, I also can’t seem to use voice commands with my GA and Harmony hub-based remote to turn anything off or on as it says “power controls are not yet supported”. The Sonos system doesn’t need powered off or on so I removed Sonos from my activity and now the remote doesn’t control the volume of the Sonos system. All very frustrating. 

I got it to work :)

Step 1: in the Google home app, set your Sonos speaker location as a room that Google home mini is not in (e.g. toilet) hint: room can be fictional

Step 2: create a new routine with a voice command of your choice (e.g. play spotify) that will trigger assistant to: play "name_of_music_service" in the "room_name_from_step_1"

Step 3: enjoy

 *Attached screenshot of my set-up for your reference

Too bad, routines aren't available in my Language (Dutch) 

Only solution I have found and works:

Add chromecast to your TV (living room TV) 

Add Play 5 / Soundbar to your TV

Connect Play ones ( if wanted ) and group them.

 …

Set Default music on google home app as TV (Living Room TV) Make sure your TV's default audio is sonos.

'Hey Google play Bob Marley' 

For me it turns my TV on and Plays through Sonos 👍

I have found no other way, I dont mind my tv being on as it shows what's playing. If you just have play ones, it's not possible so have to stick to 'hey google play Bob Marley on sonos' 

You guys are expecting something very complicated to “just work” because in your minds, it simply should.

From a technical perspective, it is not as simple to make sonos play the audio while the Google Mini does the thinking. All this thinking and answering is computer code. And it’s code that Sonos is unfamiliar with. Sending it to Sonos would fail, because the code is designed to work with a particular speaker (the google home) and because the sonos is not at all designed the same way, the software would not just work. This has always been a problem with AI assistants, and it was why Siri used to be the best assistant (only needed to work on iphones). 

Ask your phone’s assistant the same questions as you do the google mini - you will get the same answers for basic things, but you will get very different answers if your questions/commands are more complicated. They are not the same software. This is the case even though both are written by Google. The developers of the Google Assistant app on android are not the same as the developers of the google assistant on Home, or on anything else, for that matter. And they can’t just take the code from the app and plug it into the Home. Or into the Sonos speaker. It doesn’t work that way.

For the integration to be as smooth as you were expecting, either Google or Sonos needs to design both the speaker and the software. Google would never allow Sonos to do that, but it does allow Sonos or anyone to get a vanilla version of Google Assistant that they then have to make compatible with their Sonos speaker. This takes a lot of work and money, and it will never be a top priority for Sonos. Even with years they spent focused on Alexa, the Alexa integration is not that good either.

It’s not really anyone’s fault; we just have not yet figured out a better way to integrate software with hardware. 

There are apps that try to fill in and do what you want -- but they are essentially tools for you to write your own commands. 

I just moved my Google minis into fictitious rooms ‘upstairs’ and ‘downstairs’ so that there was no conflict with any rooms that physically had both a Google device and Sonos. Then Sonos is the only option in each real room. Seems like the simplest solution?