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Mike Paolini
Contributor II
March 12, 2019

Dear Sonos, please allow automation of groups, as well as persistent virtual groups.

Dear Sonos, thank you for the music.

Speaking of please allow automation of groups, as well as persistent virtual groups, for Sonos Speakers.

This appears to be a reoccurring theme from reading the forums - going back as far as 6 years! It would be really nice to have a predefined group, for example "downstairs", to invoke through home automation such as Siri, Alexa, Google, or smart buttons or IFTT.

Even a supper simple behavior such as ungrouping any current groups the speaker in the list are part of, then regrouping the speakers into the preset "virtual" group when its invoked would be appreciated. In this way, users could name groups of Sonos Speakers and ask Siri/Alexa/Google/Smart buttons/apps to play to them. (Siri play playlistX downstairs. In the case of a smart button, like a Pop or Flic, press the button to invoke the predefined speaker grouping, and ideally start the music).

It would be even nicer if any kind of grouping/ungrouping behavior was exposed for IFTT automations...
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    3 replies

    melvimbe
    melvimbe
    March 12, 2019
    A couple points. You can have named groups setup through the use of Alexa groups. However, that's only going to be usable through Alexa voice commands. Unless, I'm mistaken you wouldn't be able to use it in Alexa routines.

    I would be in support of creating named groups in the Sonos environment though. It's somewhat duplication of effort, but I want to be able to use the named groups in the Sonos app itself, as well as exposed in 3rd party apps for automation purposes. I don't really need, and really wouldn't want to see, any kind of automation features (beyond alarm), in the Sonos app. Any automation I do is liking going to involve other smart devices Sonos can't control, so they are best done in a 3rd party tool (Smartthings, IFTTT, Alexa, etc). I suppose it doesn't hurt to have automation in Sonos itself, but I'd prefer to see dev efforts used elsewhere, and having so many potential places for automation tends to complicate the overall smarthome.
    Danny
    Mike PaoliniAuthor
    Contributor II
    March 12, 2019
    I think you misread me. I'm after groups being usable (exposed) for automation, not automation in the Sonos app.

    Hence the example of calling out the predefined group from 3rd parties (though certainly any predefined groups should also be usable in the Sonos App. Nor do I think any of us would objective to a one button launch of a favorite on a predefined group with in the app).
      melvimbe
      melvimbe
      March 12, 2019
      In 100% agreement with you there.
      Danny
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