Contributor I

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Sonos Voice versus Google Assistant Era 100

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It's one thing that Google Assistant is missing, but the fact is Sonos Voice is rubbish. I asked Sonos "Hey Sonos, play [Song] by [Artist] everywhere" and it said it doesn't understand. Yet in the app, you can choose to play a song 'everywhere'. It also doesn't understand "Hey Sonos, play LBC radio". Also no Spotify control with Sonos Voice.

Come on Sonos, I know you’re in dispute with Google, but their assistant is so much better. You’ve got to implement this ASAP for the Era range, the current voice assistant is unusable!

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Kirk33Answer

Collaborator II

You could try Alexa, but unfortunately you won’t be able to create speaker groups, cause unfortunately that feature doesn’t work on the Eras yet

Yes it does, the only aspect missing (at the moment) for Era’s, is the ‘enabling’/‘controlling’ of an Alexa Group. It does not stop Alexa grouping/ungrouping Era speakers with other Sonos Rooms. Just set any other Alexa product as the group ‘enabling’ device and set the Era’s/other rooms in the 3rd speaker section of the Alexa group and set the ‘playback option’ to ‘Always’.

Sure, but if you want to actually control your group by voice, or even just change the volume, you have to walk to another room where you have an older speaker. Sort of defeats the point of voice control.

Sonos should start including a free One with every Era speaker. You can put them side by side. The One receives voice commands, passes the command to the Era, and the Era plays the music. It’s a shame the Era can’t do the job by itself, but I guess you get used to that kind of problem when you’re invested in the Sonos ecosystem.

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melvimbe

I have no idea why you feel so passionate about defending a substandard product, but each to their own. Ultimately I’m writing feedback to improve the product, your stance is take it or leave it. Don’t change it. Really odd position, you don’t have to love a product unconditionally, you can constructively criticise it. Have I said anything unfair or untrue about Sonos Voice? How do you expect a product to improve if you don’t give feedback?

Yes, you have stated several things that were unfair or untrue, which have been pointed out to you already. My ‘take it or leave it’ statement was not to say that you can’t make requests, but that you have chosen to ignore reasons given for why Beam Gen 2 has GA and Era speakers do not.

I have no problem with people making feature requests of Sonos. I don’t see the point of making baseless accusations about it all, or assuming that your opinion on the matter must be fact.

I’m not sure what your point is about Spotify - I have read online their support agents write there isn’t enough users to invest money on supporting it = niche. It’s hardly a controversial statement, just the truth. The fact is Spotify have not wrote coding for the Sonos Voice API 6 months after release.

The link you provided does back up your claim that Spotify thinks Sonos is too niche for support. If your arguing that thread isn't getting enough activity and likes to warrant Spotify’s attention (as if it’s the only way Spotify gauge’s user interest) why do you think Sonos should listen to your rant?

As I had a Beam 2 I had no idea GA wasn’t supported on Eras. I can assure you after looking online I wasn’t the only one who found this out. The review sites criticise this too and mark it down on this basis.

Correct. It’s not a secret, and people want it. Like I said, I have no problem with people making requests. What I have stated is that you’re incorrect about many of the reasons why you think GA isn’t on Era (and is on Beam and others). You stated that your opinions on SVC are as good as fact, but others have a different view on SVC. You stated that Spotify is never going to integrate with SVC, yet you have nothing to back up the claim.

Call it defending Sonos if you want, but people read rants like this and assume they are true. At the very least they should hear what’s actually happening and some different opinions.

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Danny

Bumper

@DD87 you can use a google mini to control your eras. Small extra cost but it actually works compared to svc and flexible placement for where you listen so still works when music is loud.

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Ken_Griffiths

You could try Alexa, but unfortunately you won’t be able to create speaker groups, cause unfortunately that feature doesn’t work on the Eras yet

Yes it does, the only aspect missing (at the moment) for Era’s, is the ‘enabling’/‘controlling’ of an Alexa Group. It does not stop Alexa grouping/ungrouping Era speakers with other Sonos Rooms. Just set any other Alexa product as the group ‘enabling’ device and set the Era’s/other rooms in the 3rd speaker section of the Alexa group and set the ‘playback option’ to ‘Always’.

Sure, but if you want to actually control your group by voice, or even just change the volume, you have to walk to another room where you have an older speaker. Sort of defeats the point of voice control.

Sonos should start including a free One with every Era speaker. You can put them side by side. The One receives voice commands, passes the command to the Era, and the Era plays the music. It’s a shame the Era can’t do the job by itself, but I guess you get used to that kind of problem when you’re invested in the Sonos ecosystem.

Easily resolved by having another echo device in the same room - but my thoughts are Sonos and Amazon will sort this eventually anyway, as it works for other Sonos products - it’s probably waiting for Amazon to certify these new products.

I have it working here with an echo dot that was otherwise sat around doing very little.

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K

Kirk33

Collaborator II

You could try Alexa, but unfortunately you won’t be able to create speaker groups, cause unfortunately that feature doesn’t work on the Eras yet

Yes it does, the only aspect missing (at the moment) for Era’s, is the ‘enabling’/‘controlling’ of an Alexa Group. It does not stop Alexa grouping/ungrouping Era speakers with other Sonos Rooms. Just set any other Alexa product as the group ‘enabling’ device and set the Era’s/other rooms in the 3rd speaker section of the Alexa group and set the ‘playback option’ to ‘Always’.

Sure, but if you want to actually control your group by voice, or even just change the volume, you have to walk to another room where you have an older speaker. Sort of defeats the point of voice control.

Sonos should start including a free One with every Era speaker. You can put them side by side. The One receives voice commands, passes the command to the Era, and the Era plays the music. It’s a shame the Era can’t do the job by itself, but I guess you get used to that kind of problem when you’re invested in the Sonos ecosystem.

Easily resolved by having another echo device in the same room - but my thoughts are Sonos and Amazon will sort this eventually anyway, as it works for other Sonos products - it’s probably waiting for Amazon to certify these new products.

I have it working here with an echo dot that was otherwise sat around doing very little.

But I have 8 rooms. Yes, you’re absolutely right, I could go buy a whole pile of hardware from other companies, and I could put one of them right next to each of my Sonos speakers to fix the things that don’t work on the Sonos speakers. I completely agree, that is a solution! I’m just not sure why anyone would think it’s a good solution

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