What up with Google Assistant!


Been waiting for Google Assistant for over a year. Bought my Sonos system because of the promise from Sonos that Google Assistsnt would be available in late 2018. Very disappointed.

Moderator Note: Google Assistant is now available for use on Sonos. Read more here.

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63 replies

Been waiting for Google Assistant for over a year. Bought my Sonos system because of the promise from Sonos that Google Assistsnt would be available in late 2018. Very disappointed.
Stay tuned!
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Stay tuned forever... ?
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Bore bored bored... very close to giving up as shifted from Squeezebox to google home, etc and was very happy. When I moved into a new house I invested heavily in Sonos throughout on the promise of upcoming google support. Of course this is continuing to fail to materialise and even though I spent thousands on sonos, my wife still uses a google home device for music as Alexa sucks and sonos app is inconvenient when compared to the ease of natural language commands of google assistant. Money would be better spent with google devices and audio amps then sonos!
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Im just stunned why Sonos is treating their customers like this. This will only backfire and cause them to loose customers. I loved sonos, but after so much lies i will recommend people to buy others brands. Why dont sonos say something or be more transparent? Are they this arrogant? This makes me believe they only think about money... Shameful.
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Why the insults? It is not in Sonos' interest to delay and they have explained it's taking longer than expected.
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Because Sonos, by their admission, were late regarding voice assistance technology. They they were slow almost a crawl regarding the work for Google Assistant. Then because of pressure to be seeing to getting this product out due to missing 2018 timescale, they posted a blog 1st November last year saying they had completed a great deal of work on Google Assistant and asking for trialists. The blog further stated than they would give a further update early 2019. Sonos words not my interpretation. Well we are nearly half way through March. By any defenition that is not early 2019.

So another timescale set by Sonos missed. In the UK recently Google were selling their max for £200. I was tempted, but held off. If or when the deal comes back I will buy and ditch Sonos if Google Assistant has not launched.

Google Assistant is available with LG, Sony, JBL need I say any more.
Why don't you people get it that Sonos is WORKING TOGETHER WITH GOOGLE on the integration, and therefore have to adapt to Google's working schedule?
Im just stunned why Sonos is treating their customers like this. This will only backfire and cause them to loose customers. I loved sonos, but after so much lies i will recommend people to buy others brands. Why dont sonos say something or be more transparent? Are they this arrogant? This makes me believe they only think about money... Shameful.

Well, you can't really make an argument that Sonos intended to miss their deadlines. I don't think you can all it a lie, unless you have proof that they never intended to deliver on time, or knew that it wasn't possible. I've heard nothing to support that.

I have no doubt that Sonos has lost some business due to this. Missing the Christmas season was clearly a disappointment. As far as being transparent, you could argument that attempting to be transparent and provide a rough (very rough) date is what's causing the disappointment to begin with.
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My argument, based on the fact I have worked in IT R&D for over 20 years, is that they made a market commitment without the actual engineering investment. To allow a slip of a software integration of over 12 months (and it is an integration effort, not a new development) from initial announcement reflects a lack of engineering resource. The poor side of this is that people invested based on their announcement of upcoming support. There is a reason why mature technology companies rarely promote roadmap beyond 6 months unless there is significant back room engineering underway, this is because it can influence sales both positively and negatively. Positively in a way that customers invest based on expectation that may not materialise which damages brand, negatively as it can cause customers to delay purchases while awaiting for the new releases. I think Sonos has shown a high level of immaturity with the way they have handled the google assistant as they obviously made announcements before they have had even proven viability in the labs. As such they have hit hurdles either technically or resource aligned that has caused the delay. The product is solid but without assistant it still is no better in my house then what I had with squeezebox as far as my family is concerned. Once you get use to google assistant it is hard to down sell the family (especially wife) back to remote/mobile control.

For the sake of transparency of setup, 2 x Sonos Ones with Alexa, 1x Sub, 1x soundbar, 2 x AMP so we have Alexa but it has nothing on google. For google I have 2 x google chromecast audio, 3 x google home, 2 x Sony google speakers. The google devices get used by everyone but myself as the lone Sonos consumer in the house.
Sigh, it's getting a little boring.

Google Confirms Integration in Sonos One at CES 2019


P.S. It is also immature to make purchasing decisions based on expectations, announcements, promises or wishful thinking.
Sonos made the promise, and they are dragging their feet in delivering. I too purchased Sonos One based largely on the promise that Google Home integration was coming. I haven't dumped my two Sonos One speakers yet, but they have definitely lost the value of my purchase due to the negative feedback I have spread to friends and family.
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Sonos made the promise, and they are dragging their feet in delivering.
I promise you that Sonos is not dragging their feet. This is top priority for Sonos. They are losing a lot of money on this.

Google might well be dragging their feet. We already know that Google is not keen on sharing this product with Alexa. We also know that Google sells a whole-house music product that directly competes with Sonos (Google Max). There isn't really much incentive for Google to play nicely here.
I'm seriously thinking of selling my 3 Play:1 speakers and buying something else. It's pretty ridiculous that this integration isn't already here. I paid $250 for these things and can't even use them like I want to. I can sell one of them and probably buy two more speakers with that money that actually work with Google already.
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I'm seriously thinking of selling my 3 Play:1 speakers and buying something else. It's pretty ridiculous that this integration isn't already here. I paid $250 for these things and can't even use them like I want to. I can sell one of them and probably buy two more speakers with that money that actually work with Google already.

Play:1 speakers wouldn't natively work with GA. Do you own a Sonos product with voice assistant capability?

GA testing has been fiercely underway for awhile now, and I assure you Sonos isn't giving up on its launch. Too many people would crucify them on this issue alone, so rest assured it's forthcoming.
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I'm seriously thinking of selling my 3 Play:1 speakers and buying something else. It's pretty ridiculous that this integration isn't already here. I paid $250 for these things and can't even use them like I want to. I can sell one of them and probably buy two more speakers with that money that actually work with Google already.As noted by spydrwebb, your Play:1 speakers will never have Google Assistant. They don't even have microphones built in
I have a google Hub... I'm just looking for it to interface with the Play:1 to see it as a source to cast to.

I'm seriously thinking of selling my 3 Play:1 speakers and buying something else. It's pretty ridiculous that this integration isn't already here. I paid $250 for these things and can't even use them like I want to. I can sell one of them and probably buy two more speakers with that money that actually work with Google already.As noted by spydrwebb, your Play:1 speakers will never have Google Assistant. They don't even have microphones built in
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Personally I don't care whether my speakers listen to me for GA. I want to pair them up and say 'Google play Bessie Smith on the living room speakers'. I can tell the Google assistant on my Pixel phone to play Bessie Smith. I can tell Google assistant to turn on the bedroom lights from Phillips Hue. I'd buy a bridge device like the HUE just to link it. I know you all love the decentralized aspect of it all but a smart bridge would bring it all together.
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I'm seriously thinking of selling my 3 Play:1 speakers and buying something else. It's pretty ridiculous that this integration isn't already here. I paid $250 for these things and can't even use them like I want to. I can sell one of them and probably buy two more speakers with that money that actually work with Google already.As noted by spydrwebb, your Play:1 speakers will never have Google Assistant. They don't even have microphones built in

Hey, you don't need Sonos One to use Google Assistant. We all just want google assistant integration. Obviously you don't own a google home or mini or you would understand how they work
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The speakers don't need to be smart, that's the whole point! We just need integration. Once a device of any sort is connected to an IP, it can be integrated into the google sphere...
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Hey, you don't need Sonos One to use Google Assistant. We all just want google assistant integration. Obviously you don't own a google home or mini or you would understand how they work


Please enlighten me as to how you could safely draw this conclusion. You don't have a clue what any of us own.

For your information, I'm thousands of dollars invested in Google/Nest, so I'm well aware of how a Home, Mini, and Hub all work. You came on here asking about GA integration with Sonos, and your question(s) have been asked and answered. You just don't like the answer(s), so you resort to false accusations?

Sonos will release the official announcement when they're ready. If that much isn't satisfying to you, that's entirely acceptable. But conducting yourself in the manner you've done here is neither welcome or productive.
The above conversation seems more around misunderstood statements than an actual disagreement of facts. It's almost assured that the Google integration will allow you to speak to a google home product (mini, home, max, hub, etc) to request music to play anywhere on your Sonos system. You don't have to have a Sonos One or Sonos Beam for this to work. Exactly the way it works with Alexa integration.
Guys, google is hands down better than Alexa. We’ve got to keep up the pressure and make sure this integration takes place. Get pissed, voice concerns but stay on sonos. I personally love sonos but refuse to install an echo dot or Alexa. They just suck. Google is the more intuitive solutio.
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Google IO19 is over. No Google Assistant on Sonos yet and still no word from Sonos. I already never every recommend this speaker to anyone because of Sonos' lies and silence. But I still have 4 Sonos One's and I really hope Google Assistant comes one day. I still think it's because the HW is too poor and they're SW is really crappy. They can't make this happen I think. That's why they released a new Sonos One with better HW and more memory...
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Google IO19 is over. No Google Assistant on Sonos yet and still no word from Sonos. I already never every recommend this speaker to anyone because of Sonos' lies and silence. But I still have 4 Sonos One's and I really hope Google Assistant comes one day. I still think it's because the HW is too poor and they're SW is really crappy. They can't make this happen I think. That's why they released a new Sonos One with better HW and more memory...You're the one who is lying here. Google I/O is a 3 day event. It's just getting started
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Google IO19 is over. No Google Assistant on Sonos yet and still no word from Sonos. I already never every recommend this speaker to anyone because of Sonos' lies and silence. But I still have 4 Sonos One's and I really hope Google Assistant comes one day. I still think it's because the HW is too poor and they're SW is really crappy. They can't make this happen I think. That's why they released a new Sonos One with better HW and more memory...

The event is still ongoing. However I looked at the Google store today, the Google Home Max speaker has been reduced to £299. This is a permanent price cut. This product competes with Play 5 at a cheaper price. Other products also get permanent price reduction. Looking like major competition for Sonos in smart speaker area.