Contributor I

Why can't Sonos Roam work for phone calls? I want an answer.

53 replies
9754 views

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.

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J

JJM2023

Lyricist III

I am completely supportive of twinsdad’s perspective here. A Bluetooth speaker with a mic and does not support phone calls is completely ludicrous. Since every speaker with a mic can do a phone call - that’s what they are there for since they communicate with your f’n phone - it’s completely logical to expect this feature without having to read fine point to confirm an illogical expectation.

For those of you who believe this as a lack of research, you must write insurance policies exclusions for a living.

well said. Just got off the phone with SONOS support, they have no plans to upgrade the software to allow this feature. direct quote “phone wont transfer the audio to the speaker” “it may sound too soft” after giving the customer service person the chance to retract that clearly insufficient response, he politely declined and offered a refund on my 2 x SONOS roam speakers. (which I will accept) WOW.

106rallye

@JJM2023 As I said earlier this would be a nice feature to have. I do think you are lashing out at Sonos while not acknowledging the fact you did not really read about the Roam before you bought two of these fairly expensive items.

Also not sure if Sonos could “just enable” calling on the Roam because no other Sonos speaker has this possibility.

T

Traveller

Sounds like the support person at Sonos has acted very sensibly. You bought something under a mistaken assumption it would do something it’s not advertised to do, and they’re refunding. End of story.

Well done Sonos!

Richard

D

darshakparmar

Avid Contributor I

I agree with the majority of answers here that Sonos never advertised ROAM or MOVE as a device that can support Bluetooth calling. If a customer is investing money in a product, he/she should investigate a little bit before doing so. Though, there are occasions when certain things are assumed, particularly if those things are basic and investment is being made in a well-recognized, reliable, trust-worthy brand like Sonos. You don't ask if Rolls Royce comes with a car AC or not… it's assumed. However, I am not arguing in favor of or against the person who posted the question originally. Things like this happen. I was taken aback when I learned that the Sonos system I spent $2,500 on; does not support Alexa in my region. But it sounds great, so no hard feelings.

Having said that, being able to make calls using Sonos ROAM while you are on the move makes for a great use case. ROAM is made to be used outdoors. It seems a bit silly to use a phone mic to make calls and hear the other person's voice on ROAM. I am sure this is a simple change in software for Sonos. If they decide to make it happen, they can easily do it.

I am personally irritated by having to use two speaker devices (one for listening to music – ROAM, and another for conference calls - Bang & Olufsen A1) when I travel. As a Sonos fan, at times, it is embarrassing too when I have to explain that Sonos ROAM does not support Bluetooth calling.

Would be great to hear Sonos's reasoning behind not making it happen.

buzz

Grand Maestro

Personally, I wish that callers would not use an external microphone/speaker when calling me because they usually become hard to understand.

D

darshakparmar

Avid Contributor I

Personally, I wish that callers would not use an external microphone/speaker when calling me because they usually become hard to understand.

I think it all boils down to personal preferences. I prefer to use external device, particularly for conference calls. It helps keeping hands free for other work, easy for multiple people to listen in and contribute, and clarity is so much better compared to putting phone on speaker.

V

virtualjsk

Contributor I

@twinsdad

Not to be rude … (and @Ken_Griffiths did an excellent job to address your RANT) but no where on the Sonos website does it say the Roam can be used for phone calls. Duh??

I would suggest you do better research before you buy a product. Maybe you should have hoped the thread would be closed for comment. Had it been…my (this) post exposing your lack of common sense when buying a product would have never seen the light of day.

Where’s the downvote button?

V

virtualjsk

Contributor I

If something is listed as “bluetooth” and “built-in mic”, then in my opinion it needs to explicitly be listed as not allowing for phone calls. Because I’m willing to bet 100% of other portable speakers with “bluetooth” and “built-in mic” support phone calls. It’s like a car that has an accelerator pedal and a “Drive” mode but doesn’t support actually moving forward.

The devil is sometimes in the detail I guess and it’s what a device will actually do - not what you think it will do. Sonos has never said the Roam will work as a speaker for phone calls over Bluetooth - the mic, as I’ve attempted to explain, is used to speak to the built in voice assistant and for continuous auto-TruePlay tuning of the speaker, as you move it about to different listening environments.

What you perhaps need to do is contact Sonos Customer Support and submit your requirements as a ‘new feature request’, then see if the Sonos developers can perhaps go onto include that in a software update at some point in the future. Here is the link if you wish to chat/speak to Sonos Support:

https://support.sonos.com/s/contact

Hope that helps…👍

By the way, my car has ‘wings’, but it doesn’t fly (joke) … ha ha 😀

Hope this helps…

R

ragnevi

Lyricist III

I think this is the main reason why I never recommend anyone to buy the Sonos Roam.

This is a feature my old Bose Soundlink mini II had, and I just took for granted that this function where, there when I bought it. Yeah, Sonos never market that function, but neither do other companies that sell speakers and headphones with Bluetooth where this function is available. The funtion has always been there so you take it for granted.

When it wasn’t, I thought that this would be added further down the road. It ca’t be used together with the computer connected with USB-C, also something you take for granted when you see an USB-C port. Sinca e it can’t work as speaker for phone calls, you can’t use it for video conferences neither. (This was also a product released while the pandemic was going on and the demand was high for this kind of products.)

The Roam is probably the worse portable Bluetooth speaker you can buy. The sound delay if you connect it to your iPad or computer with Bluetooth is so noticeable that you can’t watch any movies with it. It just has one function that other Bluetooth speakers lacks, it is compatible with the Sonos eco system. But that is all. Mostly it collect dust on my shelf.

B

beynym

World-Class Superstar

I just took for granted

You shouldn't have done that. Always keep thinking by yourself, or you'll get into trouble. As you did.

Mostly it collect dust on my shelf.

Don't dust it off. Sell it.

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