Contributor I

Answered

Cannot group Sonos system with Google Home devices

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Sonos,

After all this waiting. And after multiple articles. And after multiple phone calls to your service reps (including today), I’m now being told that you cannot group your Sonos system devices with your Google Home devices (after being told for months and more than a year that the aid be able to group them). Even the rep I spoke with today tried to help me and didn’t find out it wasn’t possible until he spoke to a system engineer. You can do it with Amazon devices, but STILL not with Google devices

In all honesty, what is the point of adding Google assistant to Sonos if you can’t even use Sonos speakers with Google Speakers together in a group? It’s pretty useless for me to be in living room, have to get up and walk to my kitchen to say “hey google, play x in my Living Room” and then walk back.

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Ryan SAnswer

Retired Sonos Staff

Hi Roman, sorry to hear it took you so long to find your answers. You're correct, the current integration brings Google Assistant to Sonos devices with built in microphones, and it allows you to control what's playing using Google Home devices. However, Sonos devices and Google devices are unable to be grouped together to play the same thing in sync. Also, there isn't currently the ability to set a Sonos device as a preferred speaker within the Google Home app.

This is just the beginning of our integration with Google Assistant and we're looking forward to making improvements as we go, but I don't have any specifics I can share on what's next, or if either of those things are on the list. We'll be sure to tell everyone when changes are made, so you can always watch out for announcements on our board here, or elsewhere.

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bnelson

Lyricist I

A few reporters asked about this specific functionality during CES and the spokesperson said something along the lines of “that’s the plan” w/o full committal. I should know better. As for Alexa, I don’t think that’s the right comparison by which to set expectations. Amazon doesn’t allow any third party devices to be grouped. Google on the other hand does. I have multiple third party speakers (including JBL) that work as Google assistants and can be grouped within the Google home app, so i had a similar expectation for Sonos. It’s fair to believe this is a Sonos issue (or worse, choice) and not a Google permissions issue. Shame because the Sonos speaker has such better sound.

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msangerman

Contributor I

My Google Home/Assistant is linked to my Sonos Play 5.

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nesc

Lyricist I

Another user here that was expecting being able to group the sonos speakers into the google cast speakers... Not being able to do so basically kills a lot of its functionality. My guess its sonos way of trying to make you buy only their products. This paired with a no line-in in or bluetooth input sonos one makes it a very unused speaker, such a shame.

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Blayne M

Lyricist I

Big let down for me as well.

Google Integration was the driving factor for me choosing sonos. I'd been watching the release of the JBL Link Bar, but after months of delays and the Sonos integration announcement, I changed my plans. I knew not all integrations are created equal, but I didn't expect such common functionality not to exist!

It sounds like the Sonos team may be working on it, so although I'm in the fence, I'm going to take a chance and not return the device hoping that a fix is released in the future.

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muammar

Lyricist I

Same problem here. I added my two sonos play 1 and found that it is not possible to group them with other google speakers I have at home... that is very frustrating. I hope they get this functionality to work.

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Mazemeshane

Lyricist III

As the people above, I am similarly disappointed from the Google Assistant integration into the Sonos ecosystem, especially after waiting for so long. I think it is crucial requirement that users will be able to:

Group Sonos speaker with other speakers for multiroom playback (not necessarily with Sonos in all rooms)
Set Sonos speaker as a default music speaker
Cast from Google Assistant/Google Home to a Sonos speaker from within apps (i.e. for the Sonos speaker to show up as one of the casting destinations).

Essentially, all this functionality would be possible if Sonos implemented Chromcast into the system. For me, it is not so important to use the Sonos speaker itself as a Google Assistant/Home device - I have google Home devices for that. I just want to use Sonos as a network speaker (I only have Sonos Play:5)

Can anyone comment (I am hoping for an official Sonos response) if those functionalities will be coming to Sonos in the near future? It will be nice to know because if it is not coming soon I think it will be time to sell my Sonos and invest in other solutions.

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muammar

Lyricist I

Now I understand why Sonos' stock went down from ~$20 per stock to ~$10. If they do not align to what people are expecting "smart functionality" they are not going to be able to sell more.

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UKMedia

Now I understand why Sonos' stock went down from ~$20 per stock to ~$10. If they do not align to what people are expecting "smart functionality" they are not going to be able to sell more.

There are many reasons that Share prices fluctuate but as Sonos reported higher earnings than analysts were expecting, lack of sales is not relevant in this instance. (16% of the reduction was when the CFO announced his retirement...)

I understand your frustration but I have never seen a definitive list of functionality to be included within the initial release and I expect the level of integration to follow a similar path as the Alexa integration did - with a steady increase in functionality and integration over time.

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Remember: Sometimes Red Wine helps :)

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pwwhitehead

Trending Lyricist II

So disappointed with the limited GA integration by Sonos, espically after nearly 2 years of work on this launch. I have advertised my Sonos Play 5 for sale. As soon as it goes it's Google Home Max for me.

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UKMedia

So disappointed with the limited GA integration by Sonos, espically after nearly 2 years of work on this launch. I have advertised my Sonos Play 5 for sale. As soon as it goes it's Google Home Max for me.

Strange decision as the GA integration hasn't been released in the UK yet and the Sonos development approach is always to release functionality over a number of releases rather than incorporating it all in one big release but good luck with your choice.

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Remember: Sometimes Red Wine helps :)

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