Shuffle mode with GA

So I have no sold my Play 1. I'm totally getting out of Sonos. Google are not selling the Max with a sale price £199. That's a speakers comparable to Sonos Play 5. Sony, JBL and LG have done a better job than Sonos.


Google doesn't offer HiFi Home Theater audio options, though. What then? I expect Sonos will become more fluid with GA as more updates become available. Perhaps that's not quick enough for some, but the quality sound the speakers produce is plenty to (usually) satiate my appetite.

I just said “Hey Google play Walk Me Home by Pink on the Lounge” and it played er... P!nk. So there are workarounds to what are just what I see as minor teething issues. There is another band called Pink on Amazon Music (spelt differently to P!nk).

Can’t see me selling my speakers and switching to a Google Home Max in place of a stereo pair of Sonos Play 5’s.

That would just be ...

...for something that will likely get fixed in a minor bug-fix update.

So I have no sold my Play 1. I'm totally getting out of Sonos. Google are not selling the Max with a sale price £199. That's a speakers comparable to Sonos Play 5. Sony, JBL and LG have done a better job than Sonos.

Google doesn't offer HiFi Home Theater audio options, though. What then? I expect Sonos will become more fluid with GA as more updates become available. Perhaps that's not quick enough for some, but the quality sound the speakers produce is plenty to (usually) satiate my appetite.

Numerous manufacturers now provide soundbars with Dolby Atmos and voice assistant built in. So the home theater option is fully catered for Edwin with better voice assistant. In the future Sonos patents will expire, then their only real selling point the Sonos system will be universal. I don't hate Sonos I love the build quality and sound but very let down by their feeble voice assistant work.

The Google Home Max has excellent sound, halt the price of Play 5 and GA works. Unlike Sonos.

The Google Home Max has excellent sound, halt the price of Play 5 and GA works. Unlike Sonos.

Owned a Google Home Max for nearly a year and sold it when I invested in Sonos. The Google Home Max was too muddy for me, and had a very uncharacteristic sound profile for an expensive speaker.

If you love bass to shake the room, it's for you... I have the Sonos Sub for that sort of thing.

To each their own. Perhaps GA may never please you on Sonos, hard to say.

Cheers!

The Google Home Max has excellent sound, halt the price of Play 5 and GA works. Unlike Sonos.Owned a Google Home Max for nearly a year and sold it when I invested in Sonos. The Google Home Max was too muddy for me, and had a very uncharacteristic sound profile for an expensive speaker.

If you love bass to shake the room, it's for you... I have the Sonos Sub for that sort of thing.

To each their own. Perhaps GA may never please you on Sonos, hard to say.

Cheers!
For me it's just a balance between a good solid speaker with excellent voice assistant. Yes my Sonos sound great I have praised their build quality and sound. However I want a fully functional voice assistant. Sonos does not deliver that so balence Google Max does that for. We all have our own likes and views. That's the good think about forums.

There's a long thread in Spotify's community forum complaining that both Google Assistant and Alexa stink at getting the right version of songs and artists. Nobody can understand why Spotify is perfectly capable of listing the common popular version of a song first when you do a search, but Google and Alexa inevitably select some weird cover version by an unknown artist. Spotify keeps saying that they're working on it, or they think they've solved it, but they haven't. How hard can it be to have Google and Alexa just pick the top item in the search list that Spotify already produces!

So it's more of a Google (and Alexa) issue than a Sonos issue.

There's a long thread in Spotify's community forum complaining that both Google Assistant and Alexa stink at getting the right version of songs and artists. Nobody can understand why Spotify is perfectly capable of listing the common popular version of a song first when you do a search, but Google and Alexa inevitably select some weird cover version by an unknown artist. Spotify keeps saying that they're working on it, or they think they've solved it, but they haven't. How hard can it be to have Google and Alexa just pick the top item in the search list that Spotify already produces!

So it's more of a Google (and Alexa) issue than a Sonos issue.

From my testing that does not ring true. I have a Spotify premium subscription, soon to end as I have YouTube Music for 3 months. That gives me access to Spotify, YouTube Music and Google Play Music.

I have tested all three with each being the default streaming service within the Google Home app, and each set up within the Sonos app.

When I ask for a particular artist using Google mini, the correct artist is selected and played. When I ask the same request only adding :On kitchen Sonos" it does not select and play the correct artist.

That is saying to me that the problem lies within the work Sonos have done regarding this voice assistance integration. Again I state that Sonos have been working on this for 2 years. The implementation is limited, I could put up with that if it was the result of 6 months work. Again other speaker manufacturers have almost full Google Assistant except voice calling.

Sonos on this forum have made no comment, if it was an issue not related to Sonos they would be shouting from the roof tops. Their silence says it all. They have been dragged into voice assistant echo systems Alexa and Google, but from where I sit it's half hearted so no-one really gains. Not Sonos as it's hurting the brand and certainly not their customers. I feel their attitude will hurt the company. You will always have people who love Sonos, and can take take or leave voice assistant. I loved my Sonos but want a proper voice assistant. Hence I'm leaving Sonos.

Going forward voice will only get bigger especially for music, and Sonos on this showing will get further behind.

Please add shuffle feature/command. This is basic and should not be missing!

If you are a happy Sonos owner using their well developed speaker integration then that's ok. However if you want a competent full operationally Google Assistant smart integration then look elsewhere.

If you look at the issue raised within Sonos forums and lack of basic features, shuffle command being one of many, then this launch looks and operates more in keeping with a beta launch. Not the result of 2 years work.

We all have our different views regarding Sonos, but few with all honesty can say the current GA experience is anything but lacking!

Really disappointed as well. Bought my first Sonos product (One) and the sound quality is excellent. The Google Assistant however is a mess. Doesn't work at all with voice activity enabled in Google settings and even when it's disabled it doesn't let me do simple things such as add an event to the calendar.
The most embarrassing thing is not being able to shuffle playlists.
If I tell my Home Mini to shuffle my private playlist it plays it AND shuffles it.
The Sonos One just plays it without shuffling it.
Adding a routine doesn't fix it either.
Really embarrassing, couldn't emphasize it enough.
Great sound quality is holding me back from returning it, but still, really disappointed.
Fix this Sonos, dammit!