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Cannot group Sonos system with Google Home devices

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218 replies

J
Sorry you feel that way. Out of curiosity is that a gen 1 or gen 2 Play:5?
P
Userlevel 2
Badge +1
I just wanted to add my voice to this to say that I was one of the people dissapointed that the Google Assistant integration was not complete. I expected my Sonos to behave is the exact manner as my Google Home, but that's not what I'm getting. The lack of grouping is only one of my issues. It also has difficulty controlling my other Google speakers and I'm sure there are many other things missing from its abilities when compared to the Google Home. Anyway, I'm hoping that Sonos will reach full integration sooner rather than later. I'd love for Google to simply recognize it as another speaker in the system as it it had been a native Google speaker.

I stated earlier in this topic that I put my Sonos Play 5 for sale. Sold bought Google Home Max. Sound just as good as Play 5 and obviously fill GA. Yes I know it's made by Google, but even cheaper speakers JBL, LG and Sony have almost full GA integration. The only thing they lack is voice calling. Google didn't block those manafactures. I would suggest this is down to Sonos thinking they are superior and don't need Cast build in and full GA.

I believe in years to come this will be the death nail for Sonos. They have regular discounts, that rarely happened in the past.

Nest thing I will sell in my Play 1 & 3. They will be the end of my Sonos ownership.
A
I just wanted to add my voice to this to say that I was one of the people dissapointed that the Google Assistant integration was not complete. I expected my Sonos to behave is the exact manner as my Google Home, but that's not what I'm getting. The lack of grouping is only one of my issues. It also has difficulty controlling my other Google speakers and I'm sure there are many other things missing from its abilities when compared to the Google Home. Anyway, I'm hoping that Sonos will reach full integration sooner rather than later. I'd love for Google to simply recognize it as another speaker in the system as it it had been a native Google speaker.
spydrwebb
Badge +7
OK, that helps me better understand. I, too, wouldn't expect Sonos to ever have exactly the same functionality as a Google Home Max.
Beam, Sub, 2 x P:1 -- 5.1 (video) / 2 x P:3 (music) / 2 x gen1 One (music) ----> ever evolving setup, as they say...
P
Userlevel 3
Badge +4
You have to set a group in the sonos app first, to play to more than 1 sonos device via GA.

You cannot group sonos with other "works with google" speakers you may have for ALL house playing same thing , sonos's previous main usp and hence need to still keep some sort of closed eco-system.
If this did happen you would basically turn sonos into an expensive google cast enabled speaker.
Tricky.....alot of people want ALL their speakers to play nicely together. and will decide to sell sonos.

Iam not that bothered about "all house", what i want is bbc iplayer radio support 😫
spydrwebb
Badge +7
Forgive me if it's already been covered in this thread, tried to make it all the way through but have limited time to do so at work.

Is it fair to say the main concern is that 3rd party speakers are not grouping within the Google Home app, so each speaker can play music simultaneously?

Just trying to confirm because Sonos does have the option to play music to all your Sonos speakers at the same time through the Sonos app. But that doesn't appear to be the issue, right?

Thanks for clarity.
Beam, Sub, 2 x P:1 -- 5.1 (video) / 2 x P:3 (music) / 2 x gen1 One (music) ----> ever evolving setup, as they say...
P
Userlevel 3
Badge +4
I would rather be able to set sonos as default speaker for google home hub and mini.
We will soon know if bose will let their speakers be grouped with non-bose speakers with google assistant, if not, then no pressure on sonos to do it either.....
D
Userlevel 1
Again, regarding grouping capability. I would suggest you prioritize the grouping of Sonos branded speakers first (using google voice assistant). Focus initially on satisfying those consumers that purchased your branded products with the promise of google assistant functionality. It doesn’t need to be overly intuitive or a highly friendly initial experience but the capability should exist sooner than later to “group” and “remove from group” any sonos branded speaker using google assistant.
A
Me too. Make grouping happen.
B
Team, I figured out a way to group the Sonos system into the Google Play Room Groups. I had a Chromecast audio that I plugged into the Sonos AMP. The Chromecast Audio is like a speaker so once I set the Sonos delay (slightly off from Google Home Speakers I can group all my Sonos and Google Home Speakers together as one Home Group, voila, SOLVED!!!!! Sure the AMP is pricey, but I needed it for my outdoor waterproof speakers anyway. Let me know if you have any questions!!!!!
Z
.... Also, there isn't currently the ability to set a Sonos device as a preferred speaker within the Google Home app.

This feature would be great to have. The other features that seem to be missing, that cripple the current implementation are the ability to shuffle a playlist, and the ability to ask to play one song and have Sonos keep playing other songs based on the first selection. These two things do happen when I use Google Assistant with my chromecast devices.
D
Userlevel 1
Sonos Team,

First let me say congrats on the release / integration with Google Assistant. I am technical product owner and my hope for you all is that it feels good to accomplish this milestone. The role is such that you will never arrive at the destination so celebrate and enjoy the wins along the journey.

I’m certain that I’m just adding a vote here to many internal discussions but please add my vote to the need to sooner than later add the capability to group speakers together. I would prioritize the opportunity and not the feature so initially worry less about the experience and just deliver the capability. The ability to group speakers I would believe to be a core functionality that attracted many to the sonos product. I myself have 12 sonos speakers across the house and want to group and add to group with voice. You should not over complicate this. For MVP it would be fine to add one at a time to initial speaker. Eg. “Hey Google play XYZ on living room”, “Hey Google group TV Room to Living Room”, “Hey Google group Office to living room”, etc... I could list many others that like this I’m sure are already on your roadmap.. I mostly just wanted to encourage you to not over complicate that could delay delivery.

Thanks and again congrats!
W
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.
A
Add me to the list of disappointed customers. I really hope they add the ability to add the Sonos speakers to Google Speaker Groups.
L
I bought Sonos One last year hoping it would be able to be grouped with other Chromecast speakers including google home in the other rooms once upgraded. But now it's disappointing...
RWQuick
Badge +1
Here’s a workaround I tested yesterday morning:

Using a Chromecast on the TV you’ve paired with your Sonos Beam create a group using the Chromecast and any other Google devices you own, call the the TV Chromecast Group.

Cast to the TV Chromecast Group and then using the Sonos app select all the Sonos speakers you want to play along with Google devices.

You may have to adjust for a lag between the Sonos and Google devices but it works.
melvimbe

Basically it comes down to whether you were looking to buy Sonos with a google assistant, or a google assistant with the Sonos brand on it.I think this is a great summarization. Thus far--for my Sonos Beam soundbar--it feels like a Sonos with GA but I really just wanted a high-quality GA that has native support for TVs.

Knowing that they don't typically communicate their feature roadmap, it's somewhat comforting that we have not gotten confirmation that using Sonos within a Google Home speaker group is not something they're planning on doing.

This article says about the same thing.

https://9to5google.com/2019/05/17/google-assistant-sonos-home/
Danny
B
Userlevel 1

Basically it comes down to whether you were looking to buy Sonos with a google assistant, or a google assistant with the Sonos brand on it.

I think this is a great summarization. Thus far--for my Sonos Beam soundbar--it feels like a Sonos with GA but I really just wanted a high-quality GA that has native support for TVs.

Knowing that they don't typically communicate their feature roadmap, it's somewhat comforting that we have not gotten confirmation that using Sonos within a Google Home speaker group is not something they're planning on doing.
melvimbe
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:

  1. Group Sonos speaker with other speakers for multiroom playback (not necessarily with Sonos in all rooms)


I was not surprised by this at all. While I get that there are 3rd party speakers that can play in sync with Google speakers (the same with Alexa) there are not any multiroom systems that play in sync. While I understand why some could care less about Sonos multiroom functionality, or any feature that isn't related to Google home for that matter as they just wanted a better sounding speaker, that's not what Sonos is.

Whether it's Sonos decision or Google's decision, I can't say for sure. I believe Sonos wants to remain a multiroom system company, not a simple smart speaker company, so it makes sense to see Sonos in favor of this move. However, they do support airplay, which doesn't completely fit with the closed system model.


  1. Set Sonos speaker as a default music speaker


Yea, this is disappointing. Sonos is definitely aware that this is desired by customers. With Alexa, it seems like the delay in bringing this was waiting on Amazon to implement the Alexa groups on their side. It does make more sense for the functional be on the assistant side. With Google, it seems like the functionality already exists. I still think it would be Google that needs to apply the default setting in their logic, but I'm surprised this wasn't done. Perhaps it will come much sooner than it did with Alexa.

  1. 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).


As I've not used Google's casting very much, I don't know what to make of this. It seems like Google's casting strategy is evolving, so perhaps it's being delayed for that reason. Perhaps it has something to do with casting for youtube requiring video capabilities on it's casting destinations. Perhaps, Sonos didn't want it for whatever reason, or Google is requiring a license fee that Sonos doesn't like. Perhaps it's coming after further development.

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)


Yea, that's the thing. Sonos isn't just a wifi speaker, it's an entire integrated system. In a way, saying that Sonos is poor since they don't do the things you want from an essentially 'dumb' smart speaker, is ignoring all the things that Sonos is. I'm not at all saying that you're wrong for wanting the features you want or being disappointed. I'm not. I'm not even saying that your assumptions on functionality were poor. Maybe Sonos could have done a better job of expectations, though I'm not exactly sure how that would be done in a positive manner.

Basically it comes down to whether you were looking to buy Sonos with a google assistant, or a google assistant with the Sonos brand on it.

Personally, I'm hopeful that having the integration of both Google and Alexa is going to create some competition that will drive more features in the future on the Sonos platform. In that regard, I'm disappointed that the Google integration isn't starting off at the current level of Alexa integration, and has some catching up to do before competition can really be effective.


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.


Based on past experience, Sonos doesn't like to give out this kind of information until firm dates are set. Obviously, they want to avoid customer disappointment from missed dates, as was the case with this integration. Everything I've seen from Sonos staff on this subject so far has been no commitments on future releases or what will be in those releases.
Danny
UKMedia
Userlevel 7
Badge +20
I don't think that Sonos will ever support all GA or Alexa functionality, their stated goal is to support commands that enable the control of music.
Remember: Sometimes Red Wine helps :)
M
Userlevel 2
If a year ago Sonos were honest and said - we will have GA support but it is going to be limited, I probably wouldn't have spent the money on a Sonos speaker
M
Userlevel 2
It will be very nice to have some information from Sonos about their roadmap with regards to further GA implementation. All I hear above is speculation (assuming it will be similar to Alexa, etc.) and it is not clear at all that this functionality (chromcast functionality) will ever happen. The wait will be easier if I know it is something they are actually working on. Sonos speakers are not cheap and as paying consumers I think Sonos should treat us with respect, especially given that GA support was promised when I bought the speaker (yes, no specific functionality was promised but it was easy to assume that it will have the same basic functionality as other google-supported network speakers).
P
Userlevel 2
Badge +1
I don't think there will be any major development before the UK launch. I may be wrong and regret my decision, but I feel Sonos will always be playing catch-up with Google and their development of Google Assistant.

Just decided I wanted the option of Full Google Assistant and Chromecast. Shame as I really loved my Sonos speakers. After sale of Play 5, I will then sell the Play 1 & Play 3.
UKMedia
Userlevel 7
Badge +20
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.
Remember: Sometimes Red Wine helps :)
P
Userlevel 2
Badge +1
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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