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McCoyoioi
Contributor I
May 22, 2019

How do we get ambient sleep sounds to play via Google Assistant/Google Home?

  • May 22, 2019
  • 17 replies
  • 4737 views
After 5 minutes with Google Assistant controlling my devices in the house it’s already a mile ahead of Alexa who was always rather clunky. And the app was terrible.

However one of my favorite things to use my bedroom Sonos One for was to ask Alexa to play Thunderstorm sounds while falling asleep. When I ask Google assistant the same thing all I get is “Alright, Playing lighting and thunderstorm sounds on Google Play Music...Sorry it looks like the subscription to your for* Google Play Music is not supported.”

A standard google home device plays ambient sleep sounds without a Google Play subscription. Alexa was kind enough to do the same. But does this mean I’d have to pay for a Google Play Music subscription in order to simply have ambient sounds?

I don’t think it’s too early to start having basic expectations of our smart home devices. Turn on lights, tell me the weather, play white noise seem like they should be basic freebies to me.

And of all the music services, Google has the absolute worst app and limited services. There’s no way I’d switch from Apple Music.

Has anyone gotten this to work?

Help is appreciated. :-)

-Sleepless in North Carolina


* (That’s not a typo, she throws a random “for” in there)
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    17 replies

    Show previous replies
    Doug Ames
    Headliner I
    May 27, 2019
    I just discovered another odd quirk to do with sleep sounds.

    When I ask Google Assistant on Sonos to play a specific ambient sound like "Hey Google, play rain sound", it goes to a Spotify playlist for rain sounds.

    When I say the same thing to Google Home, it plays "the sound of rain" for me instead.

    If I say "Hey Google, sleep sounds", it says "Welcome to Sleep Sounds", or "Welcome back", and offers to play anything from a list of sleep sounds. It seems to be a separate service. I can say "rain", and it says "playing rain sound". On Google Home I get the sound of rain. On Sonos I get nothing...
      just_luc
      Trending Lyricist I
      May 28, 2019
      Ive noticed the same asking it to play white noise. It just plays a 1 minute sound file from play music
      Timirons
      Lyricist I
      October 6, 2019
      Still having this problem too, it still doesn’t work. Come on Sonos, you can do better than this.
        amacaskill
        Contributor II
        December 1, 2019

        Just adding my frustration to this as well.  

         

        The weather, news routines are all nice but the sleep sounds are one that I used every day for my daughter.  I had a Play 1 and google mini in the same room and had hoped my new Play One would take over from the two.

         

        But it isn’t any better than the two of them so will likely be returning :( 

          joemack13
          Lyricist I
          December 7, 2019

          A bit disappointed as well, just ordered multiple speakers and was looking forward to using ambient sounds in the bedroom.  Basic functionality doesn’t seem to work in the Sonos application

            alanwf
            Contributor I
            March 10, 2020

            Sleep sounds have starting working on my system.  Way to go Sonos!

            quicksilverrs
            Contributor I
            December 17, 2020

            Have you figured out how to play the sleep sounds all night?  It ends after an hour and wakes us up!

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