Contributor I

Answered

Groups within Google Home App

Forum|Forum|7 years ago
August 20, 2019
33 replies
24695 views

I know one can create a group of Sonos speakers within the Sonos app. What I am hoping to do is to create groups of speakers (Sonos and Google Home / Mini devices) using the Google Home app. I can see the Sonos speakers in the Google Home App as visible devices, but I can not seem to include any Sonos speaker as part of the groups. Am I missing something or is this not a possibility? If not, any plans to revise this?

The Sonos integration with the Google Voice system is great, but if the voice commands work to play on "Whole House"... I would love for it to include my top of the line Sonos speakers. Any help is appreciated. Thanks!

This topic has been closed for further comments. You can use the search bar to find a similar topic, or create a new one by clicking Create Topic at the top of the page.

Best answer by UKMedia

There is a way of doing this for all rooms in your Sonos system via IFTTT. Just follow these steps (I’ve used the web browser version but it’s possible to use the app as well.)

1/ Log in to IFTTT and then click on your profile picture and select ‘Create’;

2/ Click on the ‘+’ symbol in the phrase, select ‘Google Assistant’ and then select ‘Say a specific phrase’;

3/ Type in your preferred phrase for Google Assistant to respond to. e.g. ‘group sonos’;

4/ Click on the newly located ‘+’ symbol and select ‘Sonos’

5/ Select ‘Play Favorite’ and then select the favorite, a default device and in the ‘Include grouped rooms’, select ‘include all rooms’. Followed by ‘Create Action

6/ Google Assistant will then respond to ‘Hey Google, group Sonos’ and will create a Sonos group containing all of your rooms and start playing the Favorite

If you want to play different music asking Google Assistant to ‘play xx on Sonos’ maintains the Sonos Grouping.

I know this isn’t as flexible as you are all requesting but it does provide some level of grouping by voice to GA.

Show previous replies

X

xjs

Lyricist II

For real? I bought the Sonos One for one single reason – to be able to group my Sonos speakers that I already owned since December and make them available in my Google Home speaker groups. I have now spent ridiculous money on Sonos speakers in just two months and STILL can't play music across my house. Please tell me this will be remedied in an update and I won't have to sell all my new speakers and start over!

This is a Google issue…. grouping Sonos Speakers with Apple HomePod works great. Just sell your Google stuff… doesn’t work as well or sound as good anyway so just wasting time waiting for them to improve it. Only thing I miss from Google was ability to see song name playing on Home Hub, but everything else was worse

I

interwebme

Lyricist I

This is very disappointing.

I will have to return the two speakers that I have bought, I simply cannot afford to buy Sonos speakers for the whole house and therefore require integration with google home. The marketing is misleading.

What a shame.

S

Snarley

Lyricist II

Super frustrating not having the option to group within the Google home app. Sonos is an incredible speaker company. The voice war is on between the giant's. They obviously can embrace both and win on both sides both from Amazon and Google yet I still can't group them within the Google home app? This is political and not technical. If they fix this they'll easily get another $3k from me completing my home with Sonos speakers for their kick-ass sound quality and convenience. I don't buy Sonos for their app.... I buy them for the sound and wireless connectivity.. embrace what they are good at and stop fighting the political wars between the tech Titans

Smilja

@Snarley, It’s not on Sonos to ‘fix’. As you’ve stated yourself “[...] yet I still can't group them within the Google home app?” The Google Home App is Google’s territory. As the rights holder it’s on Google to unlock and permit Sonos access to every feature related to Google Assistant.

»And the world is like an apple whirling silently in space, Like the circles that you find in the windmills of your mind.« (›Windmills Of Your Mind‹ [1967]. Music by Michel Legrand ; English lyrics written by Alan & Marilyn Bergman)

S

Snarley

Lyricist II

Can we get a confirmation from Sonos in this? If I'm barking up the wrong tree I'd love to know.

S

Snarley

Lyricist II

Can we get a confirmation from Sonos in this? If I'm barking up the wrong tree I'd love to know.

Let me also clarify. I am looking to add Sonos speakers (or groups of Sonos speakers) to new or existing speaker groups in the Google home app. I don't want to use third party work arounds to get this done (though I very much appreciate the IFTTT work around outlined above).

It would be great to understand which side of the fence this is actually on. To me it's on the Sonos side that Google cannot access the speakers or speakers groups that exist.

Smilja

@Snarley, browse through the Sonosapp and you’ll see that there are no options to customise any settings related to Google Assistant (or Amazon Alexa for that matter). Sonos does not have access to the source code/program code of Google Assistant or Amazon Alexa. Sonos is solely a licensee bound by a legal agreement.

»And the world is like an apple whirling silently in space, Like the circles that you find in the windmills of your mind.« (›Windmills Of Your Mind‹ [1967]. Music by Michel Legrand ; English lyrics written by Alan & Marilyn Bergman)

W

Winty

Lyricist I

There is a way of doing this for all rooms in your Sonos system via IFTTT. Just follow these steps (I’ve used the web browser version but it’s possible to use the app as well.)

1/ Log in to IFTTT and then click on your profile picture and select ‘Create’;

2/ Click on the ‘+’ symbol in the phrase, select ‘Google Assistant’ and then select ‘Say a specific phrase’;

3/ Type in your preferred phrase for Google Assistant to respond to. e.g. ‘group sonos’;

4/ Click on the newly located ‘+’ symbol and select ‘Sonos’

5/ Select ‘Play Favorite’ and then select the favorite, a default device and in the ‘Include grouped rooms’, select ‘include all rooms’. Followed by ‘Create Action

6/ Google Assistant will then respond to ‘Hey Google, group Sonos’ and will create a Sonos group containing all of your rooms and start playing the Favorite

If you want to play different music asking Google Assistant to ‘play xx on Sonos’ maintains the Sonos Grouping.

I know this isn’t as flexible as you are all requesting but it does provide some level of grouping by voice to GA.

When I try this my google assistant just runs a search for ‘Group Sonos’. Any idea why or what I’ve missed? - Updated; this worked when I configured in the web browser.

G

Gee138

Lyricist I

Deal breaker for me. This has limited me for over a year. I would love to buy more Sonos speakers if I could group them with my Google whole home music setup (3 Homes, 2 Minis and 1 Max) since I can't group my Sonos when want to play music "Everywhere" (the name of my group that contains all my Google speakers) I'll just have to buy more Google Max's. I would MUCH rather buy 3-4 more Sonos, but the lack of integration is frustrating. If it's a hardware limitation, so be it, but I'm fairly certain this is a failed attempt to pigeon hole people into buying more Sonos products, without realizing it's probably hindering sales.

melvimbe

If it's a hardware limitation, so be it, but I'm fairly certain this is a failed attempt to pigeon hole people into buying more Sonos products, without realizing it's probably hindering sales.

I don’t think either of those are the reason really. Both Sonos and Google have their own multiroom audio protocols, protected as IP. For whatever reason, they aren’t sharing or licensing out their technology. I don’t know that we can say that one party wanted better integration while the other did not, or if neither party was interested in it. The same situation exists between Amazon and Sonos. Apple has licensed out it’s airplay 2, taking a completely different strategy.

In my opinion, I don’t know that a hybrid system of half Sonos and half Google (or Amazon) to play music is the best way to go anyway. Sonos has capabilities to play aux input and TV, other features of their system that Google does not. At the same time, Google has some features that Sonos doesn’t do. By going with a hybrid, you aren’t really getting the best of both worlds, but the limited intersection where they meet. A better option is probably to pick one and stick with it, or have a setup where you use Google for voice services and Sonos for music/audio playback.

Danny

Show more replies

Sign up

Login to the community