Contributor I

Answered

Sonos as default speaker for music?

Forum|Forum|7 years ago
May 15, 2019
11 replies
4234 views

After the outage earlier today I finally have everything working and I couldn't be happier (I can play, pause and change volume on my old Play 3s with my voice which is all I wanted for two years now).

But it's a little unfortunate that in a room with (1) a Google home and (2) a sonos speaker, I still have to append "on the kitchen Sonos" to my requests to begin playing music (otherwise the music plays on the answering Google device).

The Google home app lets you configure what the default device is for playing music, and it lists not only my various Google speakers but also my vizio TVs on the network, etc., but it strangely doesn't list my sonos speakers. Is there a way to make this happen?

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Best answer by melvimbe

My knowledge on all things Google isn't as high as many others, but is the default music device setup for Google using chromecast? If that's the case, then in order for the default music speaker configuration to work, one of two things would need to happen.

1 - Google needs to build out the functionality so that the default music device setup also works for speakers that will receive instructions through their API to stream directly. This is likely what happens now, as it does with Alexa. Google cloud recognizes that the command to play music for a Sonos speaker, passes it to the Sonos cloud, that then passes the command to your home speakers. Google just needs to build in a feature for this.

2 - Sonos needs to support chromecast. I am honestly a littly fuzzy on this as I'm not quite sure chromecast would stream from your phone/table/google home product to the music player, Sonos in this case, or if it only passes on instructions for the music player to stream directly from the source. The first is pretty much what bluetooth and airplay 2 does, the second is how Alexa cast and casting from Spotify, Pandora, etc does with Sonos.

I can see where Sonos may prefer option 1, as it seems easier from a technical point of view, and not all of Sonos speakers have the hardware to support chromecast I'd guess. But Google might lack the motivation to do this. It did take Amazon over a year to get it done.

So while it seems like a pretty simple feature to customers, and absolutely something customers are justified in wanting and expecting, it may not be that simple to get done. But this is just my speculation.

Now, I'm going to go do some research on chromecast.

T

theuserjohnny

Contributor I

Yeah I found this strange also. In my room I have a Google Home Hub and the Sonos so when I say "Hey Google, play music" they'll both *ding* but the Home Hub will be the one to play music.

I also tried configure the Sonos One to become the default music device but it does not show up under my list of speakers.

H

hijimmylin

Lyricist I

I am in a similar situation. In my living room I have a Google Home Hub and a Play:5. It would be great if I could just say to the Hub "Hey Google play XXXXXX" and it automatically just plays on the Play:5 (without having to add the device name or room). In my bedroom I have a One and when I use the same command it works perfectly (without having to say the device name or room).

Does anyone who has done the Alexa integration know if this has been implemented already for Alexa? If so, might be good indication that it might eventually come to Google Assistant.

jgatie

It is implemented for Alexa.

melvimbeAnswer

My knowledge on all things Google isn't as high as many others, but is the default music device setup for Google using chromecast? If that's the case, then in order for the default music speaker configuration to work, one of two things would need to happen.

1 - Google needs to build out the functionality so that the default music device setup also works for speakers that will receive instructions through their API to stream directly. This is likely what happens now, as it does with Alexa. Google cloud recognizes that the command to play music for a Sonos speaker, passes it to the Sonos cloud, that then passes the command to your home speakers. Google just needs to build in a feature for this.

2 - Sonos needs to support chromecast. I am honestly a littly fuzzy on this as I'm not quite sure chromecast would stream from your phone/table/google home product to the music player, Sonos in this case, or if it only passes on instructions for the music player to stream directly from the source. The first is pretty much what bluetooth and airplay 2 does, the second is how Alexa cast and casting from Spotify, Pandora, etc does with Sonos.

I can see where Sonos may prefer option 1, as it seems easier from a technical point of view, and not all of Sonos speakers have the hardware to support chromecast I'd guess. But Google might lack the motivation to do this. It did take Amazon over a year to get it done.

So while it seems like a pretty simple feature to customers, and absolutely something customers are justified in wanting and expecting, it may not be that simple to get done. But this is just my speculation.

Now, I'm going to go do some research on chromecast.

Danny

F

Fieno

Lyricist I

Do we have any official statesments on this yet? If the speakers are shown why can't we select them as default in rooms?

chicks

My knowledge on all things Google isn't as high as many others, but is the default music device setup for Google using chromecast? If that's the case, then in order for the default music speaker configuration to work, one of two things would need to happen.

1 - Google needs to build out the functionality so that the default music device setup also works for speakers that will receive instructions through their API to stream directly. This is likely what happens now, as it does with Alexa. Google cloud recognizes that the command to play music for a Sonos speaker, passes it to the Sonos cloud, that then passes the command to your home speakers. Google just needs to build in a feature for this.

Yes, I believe this is exactly what a Google is doing. Sonos is Google’s first customer for Google’s new cloud casting architecture, which will eventually replace Chromecast. It will be enhanced with features to match Alexa Cast at some point in the future.

RWQuick

Trending Lyricist I

It would be very nice if a person could select “group everywhere” and all speakers, including Google devices, would stream the same music throughout the house.
Giving us Google and depriving us of that feature is worse than giving a child a toy and not providing the batteries required to operate/play with it.

K

kitkea1

Lyricist I

I am in a similar situation. In my living room I have a Google Home Hub and a Play:5. It would be great if I could just say to the Hub "Hey Google play XXXXXX" and it automatically just plays on the Play:5 (without having to add the device name or room). In my bedroom I have a One and when I use the same command it works perfectly (without having to say the device name or room).

Does anyone who has done the Alexa integration know if this has been implemented already for Alexa? If so, might be good indication that it might eventually come to Google Assistant.

Yes, I have the same setup and was disappointed this could not be done when google assistant was released for Sonos. Sonos and Google please bring this feature to the community! This would be a great addition, and would persuade me even more to get a nest hub for every room that one of my Sonos’s are in, to both display album art and controls of my music.

M

mmca22gr

Enthusiast II

Agree
Probably the most disappointing thing missing.
I would also like for a Google home Hub to display the album art of the music playing.

R

raditp

Lyricist I

Yes, I gets tired of saying "Hey Google, play XXXX on Sonos" to my Google Home every time. And there seems to be a bug that sometimes it still the Google Home itself that play the music.

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