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Cannot group Sonos system with Google Home devices

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218 replies

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
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...
Airgetlam

You must not be aware of the legal tussle between the two companies. So far, Google has been on the losing side, however just this week there have been new lawsuits. 

Bruce
T
Another one for the pile of disappointment here.

I have a play 1 already and recently discovered google assistant and the google home products, I was excited when I found that google home picked up my sonos and that I could now look to expand my sonos enterprise by integrating both the varying sonos and google products I want throughout the house.

I quickly found that I couldn’t get music playing both through my google home mini in the kitchen and the sonos 1 on the front room. This has halted the likely purchase of an extra sonos and a sonos sound bar for our TV and I’ll be looking into other products or the google home max instead to expand out now unless sonos can 100% commit to changing the grouping ability.
Q

Just bought an Arc, got it setup, and may be returning it based on this missing feature. I have a month to decide -- or for Sonos to commit to offering this.

J

Btw. I am sure you aren't the only person looking not to be tied into a particular brand of speaker. That's a perfectly reasonable position to take. 

And I understand that people with several existing Google devices before they buy Sonos are frustrated that they cannot group them with Sonos. 

I am happy to be 'trapped' in tbe Sonos ecosystem. Of course not everyone will be. 

jgatie

It is not possible to group Sonos speakers with Google speakers.

Q

Makes sense. It’s a fine piece of hardware & I’m tempted to hold onto it... especially as no “TV soundbar company” is building one that seems to pair nicely into Google Groups (for now.)

Hopefully someone fully in the Sonos ecosystem will get it as I can see a lot of love and effort went into the engineering. It’s sad to see it sit mostly unused when the rest of my house plays music 🙃

J

Makes sense. It’s a fine piece of hardware & I’m tempted to hold onto it... especially as no “TV soundbar company” is building one that seems to pair nicely into Google Groups (for now.)

Hopefully someone fully in the Sonos ecosystem will get it as I can see a lot of love and effort went into the engineering. It’s sad to see it sit mostly unused when the rest of my house plays music 🙃

Yes it is. But the history is that Sonos invented wireless multiroom audio and the model is still 'all or nothing '. 

Whether that model continues to be viable remains to be seen.  I think it has lots of life in it yet,  but only time will tell. 

K

I just quit Amazon and decided in all rooms except kitchen and living room to replace my echos with Sonos roam or Sonos One SL. I wish I would've read this article first. I love the speakers but might have to return them. Can't afford another almost 1000$ just to replace those rooms with Sonos equivalent right now. 

Airgetlam

So far, Google has not implemented it. 

Bruce
106rallye
Userlevel 7
Badge +17

@Kaluju Beats This thread is about Google Home devices - I’m not sure Alexa on Sonos works in the same way Google does and would also make it impossible to command grouping with Amazon devices.

As I'm not an Alexa user , maybe someone else can shed a light on this….

S
Userlevel 1

only feature keeping me from splurging on a full home sonos sytem. The moment this feature goes live, I go shopping.

Partially the same for me, but instead I may be buying other competitors due to their inability to add this feature. I have 2 Sonos Beam 5.0 systems (Sonos Ones and Play 1s as surrounds) and use a Chromecast attached to TV as a workaround for speaker grouping. Unfortunately I have several other places with no TVs, so can't do the workaround.  Therefore I'm probably getting the Google Home Max's during black black friday instead for those rooms. 

N

exactly! 

just bought SonosMove to group with others and got so frustrated after hours of attempts, then found in this forum that its not possible.

stupid, im selling it now.

J

 

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.

I saved my money for months and months to buy my playbar and I am disappointed 😞 

If you already have lots of Google speakers then there probably isn't any point. Sonos is a fully integrated multiroom system in itself - the original and best - to which voice control has now been added. For lots of customers and potential customers there's a lot of point in that.

N

I found a workaround that works almost perfectly. If you have a Chromecast you can add that to a homegroup and have your Sonos devices play through that. Oddly it doesn't work with the Shield or the cast enabled tv, just the Chromecast. The only issue is volume. I want the Chromecast at 100% always and control the volume on Sonos devices manually. Hopefully, with the new group controls, they're rolling out I'll be able to lock individual devices at a specific volume soon

T

I just created a post for the work around. Plug one of the devices into your wireless router or get a boost. 

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.

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).

S

Any feedback from Sonos represented ?
 

I just bought Sonos One with intentions to Welcome Sonos to my Google Ecosystem, really looking forward to enjoy what i have read about, the sound Sonos can deliver to my home, garage, outside my house, where i need new equipment or have existing solutions today.

Beside good sound with some punch, I am looking for better look, active speakers taking less space and also using less equipment, hence smart/active the way forward for me.

What I'm not looking for is to replace my ecosystem, where i use Google Assistant today, with my alarm, cameras, vacuum cleaners, dishwasher, washer, dryer, etc. 


I do need speakers, smart speakers with a punch, what i can read, Sonos can deliver a punch, but if only with there own ecosystem, and not together with for example, google home, in groups with other speakers, i struggle to see how to add Sonos to my home.

 

Hope Sonos can give us some input here.

 

BR.

 

B

@Boppy17 Assumption is the mother of all f ups. Check before you buy. And maybe this is Google’s fault?

Google’s fault?  @106rallye should take your own advice or brush up on your tech before making ignorant assumptions.  Google integrates with 200 different vendors, including any speaker that supports bluetooth.  Google could have intentionally not allowed third parties in their google home ecosystem.  They decided to allow them.  Sonos is the company that does not support bluetooth or proper google integration.  Period.  End of story.  The same reason they make their own app and the same reason Sonos does not allow you to add other speakers into their ecosystem.  They don’t want to.  

R
Userlevel 4
Badge +4
Will be interesting to see if grouping with non-Sonos speakers is something that ever happens.

One of the main reasons I invested in Sonos was the idea that their approach to hardware, use of Sonosnet and commitment to this market meant they were the best for syncing whole house audio and not dropping streams. Maybe tech has improved since but it would genuinely surprise me if they can achieve a similarly solid experience with third party speakers mixed in.
F

Setups that you’re mentioning here are mostly complex (at least for someone that just started adding speakers to Google Home setup) so I’ve got a question to make sure that buying a Sonos Beam is a good/bad choice - I’ve got only one Sonos speaker so far and it’s the Ikea one (Symfonisk), added to a Sonos app and lined to google home; so I can tell the assistant to play music from spotify to said speaker. 

Now I’ve wanted to add a gen 2 Sonos Beam to the mix and do I understand correctly that i’ll be able to pair with sonos app and google home by extension, I’ll be able to play music on both but not simultaneously?

Ken_Griffiths

Setups that you’re mentioning here are mostly complex (at least for someone that just started adding speakers to Google Home setup) so I’ve got a question to make sure that buying a Sonos Beam is a good/bad choice - I’ve got only one Sonos speaker so far and it’s the Ikea one (Symfonisk), added to a Sonos app and lined to google home; so I can tell the assistant to play music from spotify to said speaker. 

Now I’ve wanted to add a gen 2 Sonos Beam to the mix and do I understand correctly that i’ll be able to pair with sonos app and google home by extension, I’ll be able to play music on both but not simultaneously?

If the two Sonos devices are ‘grouped’ in the Sonos App - the Spotify music requested via the Google Assistant will play on both.

L

Ok, so I think the fact that there are strong rumours that Apple is about to aquire Sonos for themselves will kill any idea of integrating it with anything BUT apple home, so keep dreaming boys and girls.

Im returning my sonos today that I just bought as I just heard and I wont be locking myself in apples world.

Also, sonos and google are apparently in a lawsuit, cant see that helping much either.

 

Google is planning on releasing some new speakers so I will hope they are up to standards and can replace my sonos devices.

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