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Cannot group Sonos system with Google Home devices

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E
Userlevel 2
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Well I think this may explain a lot of the seemingly-inexplicable missing features within the GA-Sonos ‘integration’. As I suspected it’s nothing to do with any technical limitations.

https://www.theverge.com/2020/1/8/21056198/sonos-google-statement-lawsuit-ces-reaction-big-tech

C

I was looking into buying a Sonos 5.1 system and integrate it with my smarthome and google with the intent of adding the speakers into my various groups. Seeming this cannot be done, I won’t be buying. Glad I found this tread. Made an account just to post this and follow it in case down the road it does become possible.

G

I too was disappointed about lack of grouped speakers integration with GA. However, I was not particularly surprised. Sonos’ business model is similar to Apple’s. They want you to buy into an ecosystem, not just a single product. The Sonos One is the gateway drug, the good value for money speaker to tempt you in, with the hope you’ll add one to each room, then a pricey sound bar to your TV, followed by more Ones to add as surround speakers. 

If they provide full (speaker groups) integration with Google Assistant, we can all then choose to buy a Google Home Max instead, or a Google Nest Mini for the rooms where the extra volume isn’t required. I’m not sure this is what Sonos want. 

I hope I’m wrong.

T

Sadly, it looks like the Google Assistant integration in Sonos is pretty weak.   Hard to say who’s to blame, Google or Sonos.   No matter, you can’t group Sonos speaker in a Google Home Group, and, you can’t even shuffle a Spotify playlist with the Sonos Google Assistant.   And, no ETA for fixing.   The Sonos speakers sound nice, but if I can’t use the Google Assistant to control, I’ll return and replace with speakers that have better GA control.  

B

Beati3, Thanks for confirming!  It sounds like using chromecast audio is a viable work around in my case or for anyone with a Sonos device in the room with a aux input.  It’s too bad I just discovered that Google discontinued chromecast audio so there’s no guaranteed method for integrating going forward.  Due to this I’m still planning to return the Sonos and stick to Google for now.

B

Bambooya, I can confirm that any speaker you can fit a chromecast to will have 100% integration with Google speakers and can be grouped. This means through the Home app, not the Sonos app. Unfortunately you can't integrate Sonos One this way as they don't have AUX inputs.

B

I recently purchased a Sonos playbar, sub and two surrounds only to find that they cannot seamlessly integrate with my google home devices.  I really do like the Sonos speakers, but the failed google integration is a real deal breaker so I’ll be returning the Sonos setup sometime this week if I can’t find a work around.

I saw one person mentioned using a chromecast to the aux in of a sonos speaker as a potential work around.  Can anyone confirm if this works and the level of integration that can be achieved, such as does this allow me to group the Sonos speakers in one room with google home speakers in another room to play music in both rooms concurrently?

Unfortunately, buying only Sonos is not a realistic option for me because I don’t want to spend $500 bucks a pop for speakers in every room of the house, but would like to have a nice quality sound system in the tv/entertainment room that can integrate with the more affordable, but lesser quality speakers in the rest of the house.  True Google integration is obviously not a priority for Sonos if they won’t even venture to release an official statement on whether or not support for this functionality is planned or in the works.  I’m a very disappointed new customer and will likely not be buying Sonos again due to their false advertising on the level of Google integration (or lack thereof in this case).

B

So I just bought a One for the living room with probably the overall goal of completing a 5.1 setup.

In terms of Google products, I have a regular Hub in my bedroom and a Home Mini in the kitchen, with a Shield TV and come Christmas Day, a Chromecast Ultra in the living room.

So not as entwined within the Google ecosystem as many here.

I guess my point and what I’m thinking for me is that should I just stop my Google purchases from this point onwards and merely buy the Sonos stuff to get the whole house audio set up?

S
Userlevel 1

I have 3 JBLs and a Chromecast all grouped together on the Google Home app so I’m not having the same issue the people are within the link you’ve provided.

B

Shadley, I suspect they can’t even though, like Sonos speakers they’ll show up in the Home app, this suggests they don't group either.

S
Userlevel 1

Please can someone explain why JBL speakers can be added to groups on the Google Home app but Sonos speakers can’t? I don’t understand why other 3rd party companies have this ability but Sonos doesn’t?

B

I share everyone’s frustration, but … there’s one work around you’re maybe ignoring. I’ve plugged a Chromecast into the AUX socket on my Play 5 gen 2 and that means it accepts voice commands from my Google devices. I’ve set it as the default speaker to play music from my Google Home. Voice commands to my Google Home play to the Chromecast only, not my Sonos One even though the 5 and One are grouped in the Sonos app. Ironically there’s no AUX jack on the “Google enabled” Sonos One in my bedroom. But … as long as I’ve got my Sonos speakers grouped, I can use voice commands to the Sonos One to control both speakers. I see the limitations, but the Sonos speakers are so superior in sound quality to the Home/Nest devices, I don’t know why you’d want to use them together. I understand though. One voice command to rule them all would make sense.

M

Yep...this is total false advertising to say it has GA when what they should be adverting, full disclosure,  that they provide only half GA functionality...not being able to integrate/group with rest of my home system is a deal breaker...will be returning these speakersssss...asap

S

What in the actual f*ck. 

 

I finally got myself a Sonos One with the idea of pairing it with my other google devices. Brought it home, set it up, only to find out I can’t play music on my google home and Sonos at the same time?! 
 

Looks like there are posts going back 6 months on this!!! Give us an ETA or I’m returning this thing and getting something that works. 🤬

 

You are not going to get an ETA, and it’s doubtful that this will ever happen.  Sonos and GA (and Alexa and everyone else for that matter) use different patented multiroom protocols to play audio together.  Sonos isn’t likely to drop their protocols in favor of GAs, nor would GA give up theirs...and vice versa.  Even if both companies did decide to do this, it would take quite some time to develop and test it all out. Can’t see this happening wiithout a major shift in the market for whatever reason.

 

I would recommend picking a speaker brand for multiroom audio system  and sticking with it instead of trying to mix and match.  Pick Sonos and use GA for control...or pick GA and use their speakers and others that are stand alone speakers only (not part of their own multiroom system). 

 

Not trying to undermine anyone’s frustration with this, as it’s understandable why people assume it all works together like that, just that it doesn’t match the reality.

 

The frustration arises out of the misleading positioning of Sonos working with Google Assistant/Home. 

They omit to mention that if you want to group speakers you’re shit out of luck. While I’d love to empathise with their cross platform protocol powergrab bullshit, the user experience has to be the driver. In this particular case, they dropped the ball and I’m returning their shitty speaker for one that will work with GA as advertised. 

melvimbe

What in the actual f*ck. 

 

I finally got myself a Sonos One with the idea of pairing it with my other google devices. Brought it home, set it up, only to find out I can’t play music on my google home and Sonos at the same time?! 
 

Looks like there are posts going back 6 months on this!!! Give us an ETA or I’m returning this thing and getting something that works. 🤬

 

You are not going to get an ETA, and it’s doubtful that this will ever happen.  Sonos and GA (and Alexa and everyone else for that matter) use different patented multiroom protocols to play audio together.  Sonos isn’t likely to drop their protocols in favor of GAs, nor would GA give up theirs...and vice versa.  Even if both companies did decide to do this, it would take quite some time to develop and test it all out. Can’t see this happening wiithout a major shift in the market for whatever reason.

 

I would recommend picking a speaker brand for multiroom audio system  and sticking with it instead of trying to mix and match.  Pick Sonos and use GA for control...or pick GA and use their speakers and others that are stand alone speakers only (not part of their own multiroom system). 

 

Not trying to undermine anyone’s frustration with this, as it’s understandable why people assume it all works together like that, just that it doesn’t match the reality.

Danny
S

What in the actual f*ck. 

 

I finally got myself a Sonos One with the idea of pairing it with my other google devices. Brought it home, set it up, only to find out I can’t play music on my google home and Sonos at the same time?! 
 

Looks like there are posts going back 6 months on this!!! Give us an ETA or I’m returning this thing and getting something that works. 🤬

S
Userlevel 1

I’ve just bought the Beam and 2 One’s for my living room.

 

Just tried to add these devices to my Google Group of devices which consists of 3 JBLs and a Chromecast. I’m very disappointed to find this thread and that Sonos devices cannot be added to Google Group of devices.

 

JBL devices can be added to a Google Group of devices so why can’t Sonos?

 

I have a 100 day trial so I’ll be seriously considering returning these Sonos devices and getting the JBL Bar instead, which has Google Assistant. I expect that will be fully integrated like my JBL 10’s and 20’s.

K

Hoping the speaker grouping is high on the next features list too...

A

Haha. You’re probably right, but i cannot help but feel cheated and resentful towards Sonos. It’s like they gave me enough to convince me it would work like every other speaker, but left out the key component that makes it appealing.

 

I’m sorry to all the other Californians that are innocent here, but i kind of hope it does break off into the ocean. Sonos hq is in Santa barabara, two birds one stone.

melvimbe

So, this sucks. Seriously, the speakers show up in the “google home” app, but just don’t show up when you try add them to a speaker group. I’ve got a group called “all speakers”, only now it cannot actually contain all my speakers. Sonos, just fix it...it’s a software change, and a small one, you’ll make a lot of people happy. I’ll be returning my products in the next 30 days if this isn’t fixed.

 

I would go ahead and make those returns when convenient.  It is not just a software change and certainly not small.  The two systems do not use the same multiroom audio protocols.  Sonos has patents on theirs, and Google problem does as well.  They both also have business interests to keep there system separate as well.  Even if they did suddenly decide to get it done, the legal aspects,  code change and testing involved would surely take several months.  I’d say the chances that the possibility of Sonos and GA speakers playing in sync as you wish in 30 days is about as likely as California breaking off into the ocean within the same time period.

Danny
A

So, this sucks. Seriously, the speakers show up in the “google home” app, but just don’t show up when you try add them to a speaker group. I’ve got a group called “all speakers”, only now it cannot actually contain all my speakers. Sonos, just fix it...it’s a software change, and a small one, you’ll make a lot of people happy. I’ll be returning my products in the next 30 days if this isn’t fixed.

L

I think it would be good if some of those complaining on this thread could get one thing straight in their heads: Sonos do not make speakers.  They make whole home wireless audio systems.  It’s an all or nothing sort of thing.  You either buy into it or not.  If you don’t, then that’s OK.  But please don’t complain that your misguided attempts to combine two different ecosystems have not been successful.

John, please understand that we were sold a very different story. We do now understand but at the time we spent a lot of money to integrate the Sonos base system as it was promised to us. Personally, I bought mine at Best buy and they were the ones that told me it would work. I did my homework and looked on the Sonos site. Regretfully I never found this thread before the point of buying it. I know better now. We were misguided. 

E
Userlevel 2
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I could be wrong but I think most people on here that are complaining about not being able to group speakers do not have a newer Sonos speaker with a line-in. I’m in that boat - I’ve got 2 play 1s, 2 play 3s, and a Google Home Mini.

Otherwise, yes, I’d just plug a chromecast into a Sonos line-in.

D

not sure I’m following you.   I’m trying to get my sonos speakers to show up in the google home app under “speaker groups” so I can pay in sync with all the other speakers in my house.   

So my friend, that won't happen. But if you want to play music through your Sonos AND other Google speakers grouped together, the good way is to use a chrome cast on your TV which is connected to a playbar or playbase. Unless you don't have these speakers, that's sad. At least with bar base or beam you can't . 

 

 

N

not sure I’m following you.   I’m trying to get my sonos speakers to show up in the google home app under “speaker groups” so I can pay in sync with all the other speakers in my house.   

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