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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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Best answer by Ryan S 15 May 2019, 00:50

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Sonos Move and next Arc owner here.

 

Thinking of returning if this isn’t going to change. At home we have 5 Google Assistant speakers (one of them it’s a Smart Display from Lenovo) and we want to group all devices with the SONOS Move and Arc.

 

Not so happy with them, they aren’t cheap and I bought them because they announced Google Assistant’s compatibility.

 

Any news SONOS, can you tell us something? Any feedback? We’ll be glad to hear from you and know we’re heard.

 

Sonos isn’t going to tell you this, but if it hasn’t happened by now, it’s not going to happen. 

If this is never going to happen and/or someone from Sonos won’t even comment, I seriously regret this purchase.  Not sure if I can still return it.  Sonos should know better, the sound of silence is far worse than actually communicating with the customer and being honest.

There are so many issues with the google integration.  

  1. I don’t want to use the Sonos app to play music, I want to use Youtube Music.  The problem is, YM can see all speakers except Sonos.
  2. Voice commands with the Google Assistant don’t work well with Sonos at all.  Very inconsistent and I’m sure that’s related to the fact that the Sonos is not really a speaker in the Google ecosystem.
  3. I can’t choose the Sonos speaker as a speaker or include it in a speaker group.

I can deal with these things, others in my household can’t.  They just want things to work.  They don’t want to deal with these limitations and workarounds.  It’s crap and just causes frustration.

Sonos is a great multiroom audio system. The original and best. It allows voice control using Google or Alexa. It is simply not designed to work with other systems and really isn't suitable for someone who is already significantly invested in another system. 

One either buys into Sonos completely as one's whole home audio system, or go with something else.

IMO this situation is not going to change for the foreseeable future. I think you would do best to act on that assumption.

Thanks John.  The fact that they have Google Assistant built-in and their marketing materials always suggest full integration, one would assume it would work with other Google Assistant speakers like Google’s own.  

Thanks John.  The fact that they have Google Assistant built-in and their marketing materials always suggest full integration, one would assume it would work with other Google Assistant speakers like Google’s own.  

If you can point me to where it has been claimed that Sonos has 'full integration' with Google Assistant then I will concede that it was an understandable misinterpretation. I can only find references to controlling Sonos using GA. But I haven't looked very hard.

Edit. I'd also be interested in knowing where it is said that Sonos has GA "built in".

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

@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.  

I am not interested in saying whose ‘fault’ this is, not least because I don’t see it as a fault.  Sonos does not make speakers.  Its product is a fully integrated multiroom audio system.  That is what you voluntarily buy into when you go down the Sonos route.  It is not designed to work with other companies’ systems, and it makes no apologies for that.

Sonos has, relatively recently in its history, added voice control, including that provided by Google Assistant.  That is a world away from integrating two rival multiroom systems, and it was a big and incorrect assumption that that was the case.  

So, Sonos is unashamedly a solution to whole-home music in itself.  I am happy to be committed to the Sonos ecosystem - a willing prisoner, if you like.  But I started from scratch with Sonos.  @Boppy17 - you are starting from a different place from me, as you are already invested in the Google system.  I can understand you wanting your Google system and your Sonos system to sync, but that is just not on offer.  You have to choose one or the other, and given where you are now it would be understandable if you chose Google.

For all I know, Sonos and Google are currently working behind the scenes on making this possible, but that seems highly unlikely to me, especially given the current litigation between the two companies.

2 years and still no progress on this topic?

2 years and still no progress on this topic?

“Progress”?  Exactly when were you promised this feature that you would expect some “progress”?  I’ll answer - Never, because it’s not possible.  Sonos and Google have two completely different synching methodologies.  

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?

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.

2 years and still no progress on this topic?

“Progress”?  Exactly when were you promised this feature that you would expect some “progress”?  I’ll answer - Never, because it’s not possible.  Sonos and Google have two completely different synching methodologies.  

Please stop trolling this thread. This is a feature many Sonos owners want. If Sonos can explain why they don't implement this, that would be great.

I imagine the primary reason is maintaining the extremely high audio quality of Sonos products. There are times I am willing to sacrifice that for the functionality of speaker groups. It would also be nice to have some genuine feedback and commitment (either for or against) from Sonos themselves. It might encourage Google to improve their integration, or it might encourage Sonos to improve their integration.

But simply telling people to stop asking is just stupid. We want this feature, so go back to your mushroom growing cellar and let us get on with our genuine attempts to get Sonos to address the problem.

Please please please Sonos. With a cherry on top? I can literally not play music on my patio Sonos while my daughter listens on her cheap-and-nasty Google Home mini in her room, because I can't isolate the Sonos.

I am also disappointed in my purchase of a Sonos product that basically advertised it could be part of a speaker group and then cannot. Probably got something to do with the patent infringement war with Google? Are they holding it back from Sonos because Sonos are suing them? The win in court just recently certainly wont help things. Hope it was worth it Sonos. I won’t buy your products again until they can integrate with Google Speaker Groups. 

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@Simbadagr8 Please show where Sonos advertised the ability of Sonos speakers to be part of a Google speaker group?

@Simbadagr8 Please show where Sonos advertised the ability of Sonos speakers to be part of a Google speaker group?

They never did, and never would.

Sync play with cheap third party speakers would be technically challenging to say the least, not to mention commercially senseless.

@Simbadagr8 Please show where Sonos advertised the ability of Sonos speakers to be part of a Google speaker group?

I'm well aware now that they technically avoided specifically saying it integrates with Speaker Groups, but their advertising espoused that it does everything your Google smart stuff does. It does not and they made no effort to make that clear, despite it being the reason many would not have purchased it including myself. 

"All the smarts of Google" Except integrating with Google Speaker Groups.

 

That’ll be the page which details the Google Assistant features in Sonos. 

That’ll be the page which details the Google Assistant features in Sonos. 

I'm aware. I'm simply showing examples as to why customers may have arrived at the wrong impression about this, when Sonos marketing team seemingly banged on at length about how it does everything your current Google stuff does and left out mentioning that the multi speaker thing Sonos is famous for does not integrate with Google Speakers.

I'm not saying I'm technically right. I should have been more thorough in my research before buying it. I considered asking the question by email of Sonos before buying, but with a sale on, I impulse click & collect bought it thinking there's no way it won't do that. I even asked the sales guy & he just pointed to the works with Google logo and said it should right? 

I run Alexa on it now just to hear it's different voice & have a Google Home Speaker in the same room to do the group music stuff. I'll survive and I'll never buy Sonos again unless they get this feature right. If Google supposedly stole their intellectual property they should be able to integrate with it easily 😂

Even if Google did a technology licensing deal and, somehow, it was technically feasible to sync with cheap third party speakers I’m sure you can see that it would be commercially crazy to do so. Overnight a large slice of Sonos’ business would haemorrhage away.

That’ll be the page which details the Google Assistant features in Sonos. 

I'm aware. I'm simply showing examples as to why customers may have arrived at the wrong impression about this, when Sonos marketing team seemingly banged on at length about how it does everything your current Google stuff does and left out mentioning that the multi speaker thing Sonos is famous for does not integrate with Google Speakers.

 

 

I agree that it’s a reasonable assumption, but I also don’t think it’s Sonos, or any other company’s, job to do negative marketing so that customers don’t draw the wrong conclusions about their product features.  Perhaps it’s a good role for 3rd party reviewers to play, or just a gap in the market that we’ll have to deal with.

 

I'm not saying I'm technically right. I should have been more thorough in my research before buying it. I considered asking the question by email of Sonos before buying, but with a sale on, I impulse click & collect bought it thinking there's no way it won't do that. I even asked the sales guy & he just pointed to the works with Google logo and said it should right? 

 

 

I don’t think it’s a matter of right and wrong, or should have done more research.  Sure, there doesn’t have to be a target for frustration.  And I would not trust salesmen in a tech store to know much about the products.  Too many products with different variations and likely too low on the pay grade.

 

I run Alexa on it now just to hear it's different voice & have a Google Home Speaker in the same room to do the group music stuff. I'll survive and I'll never buy Sonos again unless they get this feature right. If Google supposedly stole their intellectual property they should be able to integrate with it easily 😂

 

The feature isn’t wrong.  I doubt there was ever any intention in the Google integration to downgrade Sonos multiroom capabilities, throw out their own system in favor of Google’s (or Amazon’s) and any ability to add features that differentiate themselves from the market. 

And there is no more ‘if’ regarding the theft of intellectual property, at least according to the trade commission ruling.   But Google didn’t steal everything, only certain features.  For example, the method for adjusting volume on multiple speakers at the same time.  Google didn’t steal the method for playing TV audio, aux input sources, or adding speakers to an exsting stream, as far as I know.

 

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Here is another problem.

I have fully equiped smarthome and couple of nest hubs. Nest hubs control lights, heating, AC, Roomba etc. It's very convinient out of the box solution. My family members really like it and use it every day. Way better than using your mobile phone.

I started with Sonos, have couple of them. For me, Sonos sound is perfect, way better than nest audio speakers.

But for multiroom Sonos lost the battle. Convinince of manipulating groups of speakers with nest hub is way better than, grabing your phone , opening Sonos app, and doing everything needed.

So what happend is that I got couple of nest minis and couple nest audio speakers for multiroom audio and installed Sonos speakers in rooms that I would like to have better listening experience, but I also have google speakers in that rooms.

All in all, I use Sonos now as dumb speakers and google nest for multiroom audio, home control, and everything else it offers.

I am sad because of that. Still thrilled when I hear sound from Sonos speakers but the reallity is google offers way more in one solution. And smarthomes are the future.

So for me it would be dream come true if I could control speaker groups with nest hub that could include both Sonos and google speakers. 

But in truth, google will launch good expensive speaker and that would be the end of Sonos in my home :-(

It is too bad that after 2 years since this topic, still I can't sync my Sonos speaker with my Google home speaker. Disappointed. Do you have any update? Google or Alexa are able to group with Sonos?

This would likely be one of two things, or a combination of both. First, the method by which data is transmitted to each device is different, and second, Google doesn’t want to allow Sonos into their ‘walled’ garden, so that Google gets the hardware sales, not Sonos.

Given the legal issues between the two companies, I wouldn’t expect this to change any time soon. 

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