I learn after I buy the product and start using it that for some unfathomable reason it won’t work on phone calls. The product has a good mic on it. Every other bluetooth speaker can do this. There is no mention anywhere of the lack of capability. I feel completely misled and wasted my money. I demand an explanation for why the company chooses not to allow this use case. And don’t close this topic for comments just because you don’t want to hear from more customers about this issue. I WANT AN ANSWER.
Why can't Sonos Roam work for phone calls? I want an answer.
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i understand where twinsdad is coming from i also get where everyone else is coming from telling him to research first buy second, and how sonos doesn’t advertise this.
With that being said, i have sonos all throughout the house garage and sunporch…….the roam is a great speaker to take on the beach or into a breakfast area with a work team. I do a conference call everyday at work and wanted the roam to play the conference call loud enough i could get in the shower walk in to the closet brush my teeth etc and still be able to hear the whole call. Because it doesn’t have the much needed feature i would have this blue tooth speaker for beach pool etc and i have to carry another with me for when i have 10 people in a meeting room listening to the same call or if i’m in the shower and want to listen to that call on something louder than the phone………...i think THIS was twins dads point …...just give us the feature and a way to turn it off…..
example. on an android phone i used to go in to the bluetooth settings of the phone and i could select phone audio or media audio toggled on or off if i wanted to. Sonos could give us this feature….
its better to have and not need than to need and not have.
great for audio -- yes…...will it replace the functionality of other bluetooth speakers --no. so either carry two bluetooth speakers OR BUY SOMETHING ELSE…..hope you’re listening SONOS…..ironic if they weren’t good listeners ;)
It is clearly reasonable to assume that the majority of people would want this feature, or are indifferent, with only a handful of people not wanting the feature. I can’t imagine that Sonos isn’t aware of this and would implement ASAP if it was as simple as flipping a switch in the firmware.
In your examples, you’re using the Roam as a standalone speaker, not considering that it’s actually part of a multiroom audio system over WiFi. So when your Roam is currently grouped with other speakers in your home, and you receive a phone call, what should happen? Should the phone call audio play for the whole group or should the Roam disconnect from the group to take the call? If it stays grouped, are you expecting every mic in the home to be listening? Are you going to be ok with the buffered audio delay inherent in Sonos? If it disconnects from the group, are you going to be annoyed if you don’t want to take the call, and your group got disconnected for nothing? Should the Roam only “take the call” if it’s currently playing bluetooth audio? Maybe it should be disconnected from WiFI to take calls? Can you group the bluetooth audio after taking a call? Do you think Sonos should provide the user with options on exactly how they want it to operate in these situations?
I do suspect Sonos is looking at these issues, as there rumors that Sonos will be release headphones later this year. Ability to take phone calls is surely an even more desired feature in headphones, even over the ear, than in portable speakers. Although, it’s far from a given, and I wouldn’t be surprised either way. There is also a rumor, though much more vague, that an update Roam will be coming out too. If these features require a hardware change, it makes sense that new tech in the headphones would be port over to a “Roam 2” if it could benefit from the same features. Again though...very far from a given and just speculation.
First off thanks for being conversational and not a jerk. Those are ALL great points. I think for the money we pay for sonos surely they could come up with a way that would allow it to have dual function in this way.
When on wifi and used in the sonos ecosystem it should function as home audio speakers do and just work as sonos has always worked.
i see no need at all to have it connected to the phone through bluetooth but grouped with other wifi speakers. If there is i’m open to people pointing that out but for now lets assume if it is connected through wifi it works like normal. BUT if I connect to it through bluetooth, NOW it is either 1. AWAY from my other wifi speakers, beach, board room, campsite, etc. and now i could have phone call capability. 2. if i am at home and i’m on a conference call and want to hear it while getting ready or doing breakfast or even working out etc. then i would have it connected through bluetooth and it would disconnect from wifi and NOT be grouped almost the same way the soundbars ungroup when the tv plays.
there could be software that we go in to the app (just like we do when we group speakers) and tell the speaker to only connect through bluetooth or only through wifi and just toggle this off. I could see it being a button combo or done through the app.
i love the scenarios you came up with because it’s that type of thinking that helps develop the products we need. I feel like my solution for it being a regular sonos product while used in wifi would allow it to work like all our other sonos products have and then when you use it bluetooth it would disconnect from the wifi system and function as a media/phone audio speaker like other bluetooth devices do.
is there ANY reason you would want to use it on bluetooth and group it with other wifi speakers? or is that even possible…..if not we are that much closer to adding speakerphone functionality!
is there ANY reason you would want to use it on bluetooth and group it with other wifi speakers? or is that even possible…..if not we are that much closer to adding speakerphone functionality!
Actually, this function was well touted when the Roam was first produced, and the questions about it on the forum would suggest it’s a pretty popular feature to get Bluetooth sources into the Sonos ecosystem. So much so that Sonos went against a long-held stance to include the same Bluetooth capabilities in the new Era and Roam 2 speakers.
First off thanks for being conversational and not a jerk. Those are ALL great points. I think for the money we pay for sonos surely they could come up with a way that would allow it to have dual function in this way.
My main reason for bringing these up is just to illustrate that many features seem easy before you dive into the details of how it should work in different common situations. I doubt that I’ve covered them all, and some probably are easily discovered to you actually do hands on testing.
When on wifi and used in the sonos ecosystem it should function as home audio speakers do and just work as sonos has always worked.
i see no need at all to have it connected to the phone through bluetooth but grouped with other wifi speakers. If there is i’m open to people pointing that out but for now lets assume if it is connected through wifi it works like normal. BUT if I connect to it through bluetooth, NOW it is either 1. AWAY from my other wifi speakers, beach, board room, campsite, etc. and now i could have phone call capability. 2. if i am at home and i’m on a conference call and want to hear it while getting ready or doing breakfast or even working out etc. then i would have it connected through bluetooth and it would disconnect from wifi and NOT be grouped almost the same way the soundbars ungroup when the tv plays.
The Roam and Move 2 currently can connect to bluetooth and WiFI, share bluetooth audio with the rest of the Sonos system and it is highly desired feature from consumers. The typical uses are to allow guests to play audio on your system without giving them access to the network, play audio on your android phone that isn’t a streaming service Sonos can play directly (airplay works for Apple users), or to play audio from a TV or any other source that can transmit audio. The original Move works as you describe, in that it could not be connected via bluetooth and WiFi at the same time, and it was considered a drawback to the product.
You are correct that Sonos could put in a setting to automatically ungroup when receiving bluetooth audio, the same as a soundbar disconnects when it receives TV audio. Well, I think that would work as I’m not sure that bluetooth audio can be sensed in the same way.
there could be software that we go in to the app (just like we do when we group speakers) and tell the speaker to only connect through bluetooth or only through wifi and just toggle this off. I could see it being a button combo or done through the app.
I get what you’re going for here, but I just don’t see that being a popular feature. I think people don’t want to switch back and forth depending on when they are expecting a call or not. And I don’t think the switch will activate and switch to bluetooth right as you are getting a call. I think the expectation will be that it stays fully connected to both bluetooth and WiFi and smartly plays the audio depending on what you likely want at that time.
i love the scenarios you came up with because it’s that type of thinking that helps develop the products we need. I feel like my solution for it being a regular sonos product while used in wifi would allow it to work like all our other sonos products have and then when you use it bluetooth it would disconnect from the wifi system and function as a media/phone audio speaker like other bluetooth devices do.
is there ANY reason you would want to use it on bluetooth and group it with other wifi speakers? or is that even possible…..if not we are that much closer to adding speakerphone functionality!
Yes, I went over that already. On a pair of Era 300s, I use the bluetooth to connect to a TV and share the audio with other rooms as my personal use case. And that’s another point, we are just talking about the Roam here, but portability is really the key feature, it’s the combination of speaker, mic, and bluetooth, which several Sonos products have right now.
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