Sonos arc - Anyone know how to disable the mic button?

Hi @davo101010 

Remove the Arc from Alexa/Google in Services and Voice. That will disable voice assistance and turn off the mic and LED.

Hi AjTrek1

Thank you for your reply

Unfortunately I would still like to use theGthe assistance even though it doesn't seem to work as week as the Google home

Hi @davo101010.

Welcome to the Sonos community and thanks for reaching out to us.

I would recommend tapping on the mic button located at the top right most end of the Sonos Arc if you have the Sonos Arc facing you. the microphone logo on the right most end of the Sonos Arc. The microphone logo is also a touch capacitive button and the little round dot beside the microphone logo indicates the microphone status. With light means Mic is active and With no light means mic is disabled or not active.

I hope this helps.

Please let us know if you still have further questions or concerns. We are always here to help.

Thanks,

Hi Paul,

Thank you for the instructions however my issue is the button itself

Is there a way to disable or lock the button so that kids can't press it

Hi @davo101010.

Thanks for the immediate response.

Currently, there is no way to lock the status of the mic on any voice enabled Sonos device. Currently you only have 2 options, disable the mic on the Arc itself or just like what @AjTrek1 provided, remove voice assistant on the Sonos app. However, what I can do is send this to our engineering team to take a look into as a feature request. Just to set your expectation since our engineering team does not respond to any feature requests. We can subscribe to this thread and our announcement thread for any feature release and up-to-date announcements. 

Please let us know if you still have further questions or concerns. We are always here to help.,

Thanks,

You can still use the assistant via your google home, at least until your two year old has no interest in the button…otherwise if the mic-light is just the thing that attracts your 2 year old to press it, then simply use a ‘light-dim’ cover, so it’s not visible, but still active.

Hi Paul,

Thanks again for you quick response

Given soundbar are usually below the tv and therefore at a more reachable height for kids, it will be great if your engineers are look into a lock function to prevent kids from pressing the buttons

The challenge there is that Sonos is, I think, being careful about not allowing a software solution for turning off/on the mic, so that they can’t be accused of turning it on in software and listening in to your home. It’s the same way on all Sonos speakers that have microphones, they can only be turned off by a switch that isn’t accessible from software. The switch is hard wired, and separate from software access. 

I understand your dilemma, but would suggest Ken’s solution so as to avoid the child’s delight in being able to trigger the light. 

Unfortunately, people who worry about privacy insist there be no way to enable/disable the button and /or LED via software.  So I doubt Sonos will change this feature.

I fail to see how disabling the button itself can be detrimental to privacy. We're not talking about a software switch for the mic but an enabled/disabled switch for the button. So if the mic is off and you enable the button, the mic would remain off until you press the now enabled button to turn it on. 

In my case, I don't really care about the LED. If my toddler is still attracted to it but nothing happens when he presses the button thanks to a button disable on the app, he can press all day for all I care. Even better! It will keep him busy 🤣