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

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.

I was looking at a Sonos Arc…

But without Chromecast audio build in it does not satisfy one of the most basic requirements I have.

As an Android user Airplay is no use to me. And with a relatively expensive product like this, I do not want to fiddle with all kinds of workarounds. It should just work, easily and reliably.

Too bad, it looked like an interesting quality product though.

 

Are you trying to use the Arc with a projector?  With the Arc (or other Sonos speaker attached to TV), I’m not quite seeing what chromecast really adds.  You can stream a ton of different audio services directly, and you can stream youtube and just about anything video through the TV and/or streaming box.  Is there some service you use that isn’t available through Sonos or a video streaming box?

I get the impression that much of the time, people’s desire for Chromecast is because they are not aware of what features Sonos actually has.  Maybe that’s not the case for you, but since you didn’t really say why chromecast is a basic requirement, can’t really tell if this is an actual issue or a misunderstanding.

 

 

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.

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??

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.

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Thanks, I know, but its not a nice approach and not practical.

Worst for me as I use the Bean with a projector, connected to an Nvidia shield.

Sure, if I turn on all the devices and their watt absorbtion, I can do whatever I want.....but hey, does this make sense in 2021?

Quite embarassing

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.

Not having chromecast is irritating. Seeing complain about that is not. Thanks.

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.

It’s been over a year has this been passed to the engineering team yet?

 

‘Passed to the engineering team’ does not mean that the feature will be implemented.  It’s just an acknowledgement of the request.

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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.

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?

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I’m one of the many that on a side do loves Sonos products and services like sonos radio, but on the other side do hate them for not having Chromecast built in.

One main concern for me is to not being able to cast from a browser tab of my pc, for playing the audio of a Yuotube video or other more custom sources.

So while thinking to add surrond sound to my Beam, I’m evaluating to sell it and change the whole system for a better integrated and flexible one.

so bad

 

@John B Tidal was probably a bad example as it does allow me to select the Sonos speakers as an output. But YouTube Music does not. That suggests to me that individual apps would have to build the functionality to output to Sonos instead of relying on the OS level APIs. 

Considering Sonos now supports AirPlay 2, I would expect Google Cast to be a no brainer decision as well regardless of how widely it would be used (also given the fact they are supporting Google Assistant APIs).

The only reason why I and other friends of me not buying Sonos is the lack of the Chromcast support! This is really a shame dor many years😣

I think there may be an element of irony in @Smilja 's post.

 

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. 

I think there may be an element of irony in @Smilja 's post.

 

Oh. So what does @Smilja mean? No, seriously, I’d like to know!

Just to make things clear, I’m not trying to be ironic here. Or funny.

In case this is veering off too much from the actual subject, please let me know, thanks.

My reasons for suspecting - indeed knowing - that @Smilja is being ironic are the exaggerated figures, and the fact that @Smilja is a frequent and very knowledgeable contributor to this Forum.

@Smilja can correct me if I am mistaken, but I suspect that post really belongs on one of the “I can’t believe that you can’t sync Sonos and Google speakers, I am going to sell my Sonos speakers” threads, rather than here on a “I can’t believe Sonos doesn’t support Google Chromecast, I am going to sell my Sonos speakers” thread.

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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.

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.

 

 

Googled killed the Home Max after only 3 years on the market. That doesn’t really stack up well with Sonos speakers that traditionally have longer lives than that.  The issue regarding support and compaitbility with other speakers in the system is still yet to be seen.  Yes, Home Max still works with other Google speakers and is supported, but Sonos has never stopped support of devices immediately after they stopped selling them either.  The old speakers you’re referring to stopped selling years before Max even went on sale, and didn’t get relegated to S1 until Spring 2020.  Your comparison is just silly.  Wait 5 years, and if the Home Max is compatible with speakers releases in 2025, then you might have a point.  

 

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.

 

Because it doesn’t support chromecast?  Not sure how you’re drawing this conclusion.

@jmak Bluetooth really isn't good news for AV audio anyway. To get decent audio for your movies you will need to use a switch of some sort. 

For example, if you had a Playbar then you would need an HDMI switch / audio extractor with optical out. 

Your Chromecast  TV device would go in the switch input, run HDMI from switch to the projector and optical from switch to Playbar. 

Yes it means some cabling, unless you use wireless HDMI,  and I am not sure how reliable that is.

@ralx . Your suggestion that Sonos sucks for Android users presumably implies that Airplay is vital for most iOS users of Sonos? Despite the fact that until a couple of years ago there was no Airplay on Sonos? Of course, iOS users do need Airplay to play music stored on their phones, for which Android users have 'on this device '.

You seem to believe that casting device audio is important to lots of Sonos' target market. As an Android user I can play Internet radio, stream my choice of music and other audio services, play my own music stored on a network drive or my phone. With my Arc I can listen to surround sound with Atmos. The sound quality is excellent and that is important to me.  SonosNet makes my large system rock solid.  Yet according to you, Sonos sucks because it doesn't have Chromecast (for which I have no use)?

I shall let others be the judge of how sensible that opinion is.

I wish you luck with your new system, which clearly meets your needs better than Sonos. I much prefer what Sonos offers. Each to their own.  I do not think that the system you prefer is inferior because it doesn't give me the best mix of features for my needs. So why do you think Sonos 'sucks' because it doesn't suit you?

I was looking at a Sonos Arc…

But without Chromecast audio build in it does not satisfy one of the most basic requirements I have.

As an Android user Airplay is no use to me. And with a relatively expensive product like this, I do not want to fiddle with all kinds of workarounds. It should just work, easily and reliably.

Too bad, it looked like an interesting quality product though.

 

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If I am already listening to music on my phone I can quickly press the cast button and start casting to my Google speakers.

Instead I would have to switch to a different app (sonos)I find to be less nice to use. 

No one else bothers to use the sonos because instead of just casting from their phone to a shared device they have to have to download a separate app. Makes Sharing songs when visiting a hassle.

I can't even group my sonos with my other speakers so when I play music to "my whole house" the sonos sits there looking sad

When I play songs on my sonos people are impressed but never before has there been a product I love that I have more actively told people not to purchase because lack of casting makes it a chore to use.

 

 

 

Four months later, still no chromecast support. Please get it done!

Four months later, still no chromecast support. Please get it done!

4 months? Sonos have not thought it worth adding for as long as it has existed. 

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