No Chromecast support - Returning product

  • 13 December 2020
  • 64 replies
  • 11753 views

1 lost customer. Sure there are others. I realize losing 1 person as a customer is no big deal. But I'm sure there are others. For the price - really should have most common streaming platforms. Billions of Android users. Lost opportunity. Anyways, just my 2 ¢

 


64 replies

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Hi @hawki, Thanks for reaching out, and welcome to the community. We appreciate your feedback about having Chromecast with Sonos. We'll make sure that we'll pass this on to our engineering team as a feature request. Rest assured that we'll try our best to improve your experience with our Sonos products.

If you have other questions about your Sonos products and services, feel free to reach out.

Appreciate the reply. But, unless it has never been passed along to the engineering team before there is no need for it. Billions of android devices that could use your fantastic product in a way that works very well, and Sonos make a conscious choice to not support a relatively common feature  available in speakers and soundbars starting at less then $100

 

Kind of not acceptable. Would love to keep my Beam, but it was refunded. I'm sure I'm one of many, and there are many more that won't purchase it because of the lack of Chromecast.

 

Not the end of the world. We all make choices. Happy holidays.

@hawki Sonos was designed to play music files in a multiroom environment. They have never seen 'cast all audio from device' technologies as core. Notwithstanding  the Move, Sonos has never really done Bluetooth. It never did Airplay 1. 

It appears that Airplay 2 makes commercial sense for Sonos, and Chromecast doesn't. Or else there are technical reasons, as there also were with Bluetooth and Airplay. 

Just because cheaper speakers have the feature doesn't make it 'unacceptable' that Sonos doesn't. Sonos offer the feature set at a market price and everyone can keep their money in their pockets if they wish.

One thing I do agree with you about is the ludicrously disingenuous pretence that this is some great new idea that nobody had ever thought of before. This has been suggested  numerous times and every time this senseless formulaic response is pastrd in. Please stop this Sonos,  it's so irritating. 

That's kind of my point. Be honest, explain. And be done with it. "Own" the reasoning and answer why it isn't there and stop being a PC politician.

That's kind of my point. Be honest, explain. And be done with it. "Own" the reasoning and answer why it isn't there and stop being a PC politician.

I can understand your wanting that, but Sonos just don’t make this sort of comment about why they do or don’t do something, or what their plans are.  They seem to regard all such information as commercially sensitive.  Which is their right, really.  People can always vote with their wallets, as you have done.

I would just like them to say, ‘we have received several requests for this feature and I will pass on the continuing interest’.  I know that would still be a bit of a politician’s answer.

Incidentally, as an Android user who feels absolutely no need for Chromecast, I wonder what you want to do with it that you cannot do without it?

Incidentally, as an Android user who feels absolutely no need for Chromecast, I wonder what you want to do with it that you cannot do without it?

I think that some people just want to cast from their phone, but I have it as my fall back position if I need to stop using the Sonos software.

It has the advantages that it doesn’t have the Sonos limits on tracks/store and will play hi-def tracks without a problem - I use a CCA into a Play 5 line-in.

The irony is that, for only a few dollars/pounds, the OP could have popped a Chromecast dongle into a spare HDMI port and piped it through to their Beam. 

But that ship has already sailed...

Incidentally, as an Android user who feels absolutely no need for Chromecast, I wonder what you want to do with it that you cannot do without it?

I think that some people just want to cast from their phone, but I have it as my fall back position if I need to stop using the Sonos software.

It has the advantages that it doesn’t have the Sonos limits on tracks/store and will play hi-def tracks without a problem - I use a CCA into a Play 5 line-in.

Am I correct in thinking Google discontinued the CCA quite a while back?  Perhaps that less-than-ringing endorsement of Chromecast for audio purposes from its owner has been a factor in Sonos’ reluctance to implement it??

The CCA was discontinued Jan 2019. Evidently the audio-related tech, e.g. multiroom, was merged into the 3rd gen Chromecast.

Incidentally, as an Android user who feels absolutely no need for Chromecast, I wonder what you want to do with it that you cannot do without it?

I think that some people just want to cast from their phone, but I have it as my fall back position if I need to stop using the Sonos software.

It has the advantages that it doesn’t have the Sonos limits on tracks/store and will play hi-def tracks without a problem - I use a CCA into a Play 5 line-in.

Am I correct in thinking Google discontinued the CCA quite a while back?  Perhaps that less-than-ringing endorsement of Chromecast for audio purposes from its owner has been a factor in Sonos’ reluctance to implement it??

I suspect that they discontinued the CCA because it didn’t make them enough money and outclassed their other offerings. A CCA into any quality audio system, why would you need their inferior speakers?

IMLE it certainly works fine, and is more capable (as mentioned above) than current Sonos software/hardware.

Incidentally, as an Android user who feels absolutely no need for Chromecast, I wonder what you want to do with it that you cannot do without it?

I think that some people just want to cast from their phone, but I have it as my fall back position if I need to stop using the Sonos software.

It has the advantages that it doesn’t have the Sonos limits on tracks/store and will play hi-def tracks without a problem - I use a CCA into a Play 5 line-in.

Am I correct in thinking Google discontinued the CCA quite a while back?  Perhaps that less-than-ringing endorsement of Chromecast for audio purposes from its owner has been a factor in Sonos’ reluctance to implement it??

Disagree - extra $5-$10, you can cast video as well, so what the point of it anymore. I have a CCA as well, it's great. But only audio, not both.

The irony is that, for only a few dollars/pounds, the OP could have popped a Chromecast dongle into a spare HDMI port and piped it through to their Beam. 

But that ship has already sailed...

Unless I want to watch a game, while listening to music?

Nice discussion on hear. But if you don't have Bluetooth (common and understood by most), Chromecast (available literally on billions of devices), AirPlay 2 (they do think they're the Apple of speakers) and any other proprietary casting software at their price point when literally they're a software speaker specialist, their being narrow minded and they'll fail eventually. Will just leave it at this

 

https://www.engadget.com/sonos-2020-legal-and-competition-challenges-173005771.html

The irony is that, for only a few dollars/pounds, the OP could have popped a Chromecast dongle into a spare HDMI port and piped it through to their Beam. 

But that ship has already sailed...

Unless I want to watch a game, while listening to music?

An interesting but slightly contrived post hoc rationalisation.

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I recently sold all my Sonos speakers (1 x Play 5 and 3 x Play 1) plus decided not to buy the Arc and the Sub.

Instead I got a Chromecast compatible sound bar with subwoofer, 3 new Nest Audio and a Google Home Max. They all work beautifully as a whole home sound system where I get to Cast from different services directly and mix and match which ones I want to play. Sure, the sound quality may be one step below but they still sound great, work a lot better than Sonos for homes with Android devices and it’s a lot more straightforward for everyone to understand how to use them, as they can just use their favorite app instead of being forced to leave their app and open the subpar Sonos app to search for their music.

Sorry but Sonos is wrong to leave out a big portion of potential users by implementing only Airplay and not Chromecast. Your speakers are not that good to offer a subpar experience and still pretend to sell users your expensive hardware.

I recently sold all my Sonos speakers (1 x Play 5 and 3 x Play 1) plus decided not to buy the Arc and the Sub.

Instead I got a Chromecast compatible sound bar with subwoofer, 3 new Nest Audio and a Google Home Max. They all work beautifully as a whole home sound system where I get to Cast from different services directly and mix and match which ones I want to play. Sure, the sound quality may be one step below but they still sound great, work a lot better than Sonos for homes with Android devices and it’s a lot more straightforward for everyone to understand how to use them, as they can just use their favorite app instead of being forced to leave their app and open the subpar Sonos app to search for their music.

Sorry but Sonos is wrong to leave out a big portion of potential users by implementing only Airplay and not Chromecast. Your speakers are not that good to offer a subpar experience and still pretend to sell users your expensive hardware.

That is a perfectly valid choice for the way you want to use the system. I have no use for Chromecast so I am happy to stick with Sonos for the better sound quality.  Each to their own.  I am sure Sonos will introduce Chromecast if and when they think it will improve the bottom line, or improve it more than other developments.

(FWIW, as an Android user I already have Chromecast functionality on Sonos, as it is built into my Nvidia Shield, which I use with my Arc.  At least I think I have that functionality - I haven’t actually tried.)

I am sure your new system works well as a whole home system - that is why Sonos is suing Google for infringing Sonos’ wireless multiroom patents. 

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I'm not lawyer and I don't have personal interests in any of these companies, if Google is really infringing patents that's for a judge to decide. I only can say that they allowed me to have a more usable system than Sonos so they're doing it better, having patents is not enough to have a good product, you have to work to make it constantly better and more accessible for everyone or someone else will do it and that's what's happening here.

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Good luck with Google. They drop systems and features at their whim. Just found out my Google stored photos are next on their hit list.  
 

I suppose it’s part of the match towards subscription services by every company😳

Good luck with Google. They drop systems and features at their whim. Just found out my Google stored photos are next on their hit list.  
 

I suppose it’s part of the match towards subscription services by every company😳

Also see this...

www.theverge.com/2020/12/14/22175243/google-home-max-discontinued-smart-speaker-support

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Good luck with Google. They drop systems and features at their whim. Just found out my Google stored photos are next on their hit list.  
 

I suppose it’s part of the match towards subscription services by every company😳

So you’re buying expensive Sonos speaker and don’t want to pay $1.99/month for 100GB of cloud storage? I pay the 2 TB for $100/year and works flawlessly with my Google Photos, no issue here paying for services that really work well.

 

Good luck with Google. They drop systems and features at their whim. Just found out my Google stored photos are next on their hit list.  
 

I suppose it’s part of the match towards subscription services by every company😳

Also see this...

www.theverge.com/2020/12/14/22175243/google-home-max-discontinued-smart-speaker-support

Yes, they stopped selling the Google Home Max, just like Sonos stopped selling old products, but I can still use the Google Home app to group my Home Max with all my other speakers (I even had some Harman Kardon mixed in that worked fine but it was too bassy for my needs) and everything still works with any of my apps just like usual, I can’t say the same for old Sonos speaker that can’t be grouped anymore with new speakers on “S2” (or whatever it’s called)… "The pot calling the kettle black" some people would say.

Feel free to makes this a competition but in the end the issue here is that Sonos sucks big time with non-iOS devices and they don’t deserve any money from the millions of potential customers using Android devices.

Hi,

So I just purchased the Sonos 1 (Gen 2) assuming it’s compatible with Chromecast. 

I have a projector that has the new Chromecast TV plugged into it. The projector has a horrible sound so I used to have a Bose speaker connected to the projector via Chromecast TV. 

Chromecast TV has bluetooth integrated in it. Is there a way to connect the Sonos speaker to it and use it as an output for the sound?

No I don't think there is. But the Sonos One is designed to be purely for music, not AV applications.  

You should consider a Sonos product that is intended for AV applications (although even they are geared more to TV than projector but it's doable). 

Hi John,

Can you please tell me which Sonos products are intended for AV applications? 

So I just purchased the Sonos 1 (Gen 2) assuming it’s compatible with Chromecast. 

There are so many flavours of technology. I never assume anything. I study the specs. 

Hi John,

Can you please tell me which Sonos products are intended for AV applications? 

The Arc, the Beam and the Sonos Amp.  Also tne Playbar and Playbase if buying used.

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