I learn after I buy the product and start using it that for some unfathomable reason it won’t work on phone calls. The product has a good mic on it. Every other bluetooth speaker can do this. There is no mention anywhere of the lack of capability. I feel completely misled and wasted my money. I demand an explanation for why the company chooses not to allow this use case. And don’t close this topic for comments just because you don’t want to hear from more customers about this issue. I WANT AN ANSWER.
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Userlevel 3
If something is listed as “bluetooth” and “built-in mic”, then in my opinion it needs to explicitly be listed as not allowing for phone calls. Because I’m willing to bet 100% of other portable speakers with “bluetooth” and “built-in mic” support phone calls. It’s like a car that has an accelerator pedal and a “Drive” mode but doesn’t support actually moving forward.
Userlevel 1
Whether it comes down to a lack of clarity or a lack of research, what do you expect to come of posting angrily on the forums about it? Try to think about, what exactly do you hope to gain from this? And, were the tables turned, would you be inclined to go out of your way to help someone whose first inclination is to angrily demand answers from you?
And perhaps even more to the point, what do you hope to gain by flaming other forum members, who aren’t even Sonos employees??? I get it, you’re disappointed, but _damn_ some of you need to learn how to act
If something is listed as “bluetooth” and “built-in mic”, then in my opinion it needs to explicitly be listed as not allowing for phone calls. Because I’m willing to bet 100% of other portable speakers with “bluetooth” and “built-in mic” support phone calls. It’s like a car that has an accelerator pedal and a “Drive” mode but doesn’t support actually moving forward.
The devil is sometimes in the detail I guess and it’s what a device will actually do - not what you think it will do. Sonos has never said the Roam will work as a speaker for phone calls over Bluetooth - the mic, as I’ve attempted to explain, is used to speak to the built in voice assistant and for continuous auto-TruePlay tuning of the speaker, as you move it about to different listening environments.
What you perhaps need to do is contact Sonos Customer Support and submit your requirements as a ‘new feature request’, then see if the Sonos developers can perhaps go onto include that in a software update at some point in the future. Here is the link if you wish to chat/speak to Sonos Support:
https://support.sonos.com/s/contact
Hope that helps…
By the way, my car has ‘wings’, but it doesn’t fly (joke) … ha ha 
Not of fanboys, but of people capable of looking at the specs of a device before purchasing it, yes.
Userlevel 7
Look…man-up, woman-up or whatever sexual orientation you identify with and STOP blaming others for your mistakes. Take responsibility for your actions. Learn from your mistakes and hopefully you won’t make the same mistake again. Your rational to justify your actions is that of a two year old and not that of a responsible intelligent person (or adult if you’re of age). So you have two choices:
- Keep the speaker
- Return it and buy what you want
Your complaining about your mistaken buying decision is fruitless. Take
Now that said…Do you have a technical issue this community can address? If not…well…you know the answer.
Phone use? For me it was implicit and I was surprised that it does not feature this. But hey, it's a great unit as designed. There are other ways to manage phone calls. Stop beating each other up, it's not that big a deal.
Sounds like the support person at Sonos has acted very sensibly. You bought something under a mistaken assumption it would do something it’s not advertised to do, and they’re refunding. End of story.
Well done Sonos!
This is not a feature that I wish for.
Certainly, a single ROAM or MOVE could be retooled as a phone support device, but the SONOS system is larger and much more complex than a simple phone support device. For example, the SONOS device might be Bonded with another as a stereo pair or Grouped with other Rooms and playing music. How should the phone connect to this large system? Do you want your call to be distributed through the whole house? Do you want the music to stop? Would you want the music to play in the background while on the call? If there are multiple devices, how does the phone know which device to use? One option might be to stop all of the music, but multiple people might be listening to the music in other areas. I would be annoyed if my music stopped because your phone rang.
Userlevel 7
+17
Also not sure if Sonos could “just enable” calling on the Roam because no other Sonos speaker has this possibility.
In all fairness Sonos is considered a leading company in speaker technology. Creating products with jam packed features.
For me it is both disappointing and surprising that calls are not an option. I have been waiting and hoping for an update.
I am a tradesman and would love to use this in my work truck for on the go calls between job sites instead of installing a expensive and complicated aftermarket head unit..
please make this happen sonos.
Userlevel 1
I am completely supportive of twinsdad’s perspective here. A Bluetooth speaker with a mic and does not support phone calls is completely ludicrous. Since every speaker with a mic can do a phone call - that’s what they are there for since they communicate with your f’n phone - it’s completely logical to expect this feature without having to read fine point to confirm an illogical expectation.
For those of you who believe this as a lack of research, you must write insurance policies exclusions for a living.
Userlevel 1
I should have mentioned that I am on this forum for the same reason - I could not believe the Roam did not support phone calls. I would have bought the one without the microphone.
Add my voice to "it would be a cool feature and it seams it could support it hardware wise."
It’s not advertised by Sonos as a telephone speaker, it’s perhaps better described as a wireless-multiroom audio speaker with Bluetooth and Airplay built-in, whose microphones are used to auto-TruePlay and tune it’s audio-output to its surrounding environment. The mics allow the user to converse with the built in voice assistants for playback/control of the audio and adjust its volume.
The Bluetooth built-in, in some respects is unlike any other, in that it acts as a line-in/pass-through for the Bluetooth-playing audio, which in turn allows the Roam to be ‘grouped’ over WiFi with other Sonos speakers (with or without Bluetooth) to playback that streaming audio to multiple rooms.
The little speaker has these listed features (not an exhaustive list):
- Waterproof
- Auto-Trueplay
- Apple Airplay
- Wireless Audio
- Sound Swap Audio Transfer to compatible Sonos products
- Bluetooth (with pass-through/line-in to Sonos wireless connected devices)
- Stereo pairing & grouping.
- 10 hour+ battery life
- Built-in mic with voice assistant (Alexa/Google?)
- Available in Black/White colours
- Wired/Wireless charging
…but a mobile telephone speaker, it isn’t (not yet at least), nor as it ever been advertised as such.
Userlevel 7
Not to be rude … (and
I would suggest you do better research before you buy a product. Maybe you should have hoped the thread would be closed for comment. Had it been…my (this) post exposing your lack of common sense when buying a product would have never seen the light of day.
Userlevel 3
Here's the product I bought the Roam to replace. To see phone support you need to expand on the second to last bullet point on the very bottom of the product page. So because I didn't happen to notice that one point is not made on the second to last bullet point expansion, when every other product in the category supports this, that's my lack of research? Is this a site of Sonos fanboys?
https://www.ultimateears.com/en-us/wireless-speakers/boom-2.html
I can understand the assumption, but when a speaker that has bluetooth does a lot of other things that a typical bluetooth speaker doesn’t do, it’s reasonable that it may not do all that you assume it would. Does Sonos have a responsibility to highlight all the features a product doesn’t in can you make an assumption? No. I personally think Sonos should added to their FAQ, along with other assumptions they dispel in the FAQ though. And you can always return the product if it’s not what you want.
All that said, you could have easily asked the question without making demand. No body really wants to deal with people who start off making demands. I am not sure what the consequences of not meeting your demands are anyway.
Okay … got to stick up for OP on this one. I found this thread because like him, I couldn’t believe it couldn’t double as a conference call speaker. I did not buy the Roam for that function, but I found myself on a road trip recently where I brought it along, and it would have been nice to be able to make some business calls from my room with it. It took some Googling just to find out it couldn’t do that, despite being a BT speaker with a microphone.
I’m not sure about the relevance of the post immediately prior to mine - I wouldn’t expect it to work as a phone speaker in Wifi mode - but in pure Bluetooth Mode, it’s baffling to me why this functionality wouldn’t be there.
I laughed at the comment above about people defending the lack of the feature being the kind of people who write insurance exclusions. Exactly my thought. Not having that functionality would be like picking up my new car only to find it has manual door locks and the dealer stating “well, the X1As trim level you selection never claimed to have power locks or keyless entry”. Some things are so universal and so basic they don’t even merit advertising. I really can’t even think of a single other BT speaker I’ve purchased in the last 5 years that didn’t allow pass through for phone calls - and I’ve probably bought a dozen.
I’m no engineer, but it seems like this is something that could be added in via a software update. Not holding my breath, but it would be wonderful if Sonos actually improved a product after release. Other than that minor lack of functionality, I’ve been pretty darn pleased with my Roam (and my Move).
i understand where twinsdad is coming from i also get where everyone else is coming from telling him to research first buy second, and how sonos doesn’t advertise this.
With that being said, i have sonos all throughout the house garage and sunporch…….the roam is a great speaker to take on the beach or into a breakfast area with a work team. I do a conference call everyday at work and wanted the roam to play the conference call loud enough i could get in the shower walk in to the closet brush my teeth etc and still be able to hear the whole call. Because it doesn’t have the much needed feature i would have this blue tooth speaker for beach pool etc and i have to carry another with me for when i have 10 people in a meeting room listening to the same call or if i’m in the shower and want to listen to that call on something louder than the phone………...i think THIS was twins dads point …...just give us the feature and a way to turn it off…..
example. on an android phone i used to go in to the bluetooth settings of the phone and i could select phone audio or media audio toggled on or off if i wanted to. Sonos could give us this feature….
its better to have and not need than to need and not have.
great for audio -- yes…...will it replace the functionality of other bluetooth speakers --no. so either carry two bluetooth speakers OR BUY SOMETHING ELSE…..hope you’re listening SONOS…..ironic if they weren’t good listeners ;)
It is clearly reasonable to assume that the majority of people would want this feature, or are indifferent, with only a handful of people not wanting the feature. I can’t imagine that Sonos isn’t aware of this and would implement ASAP if it was as simple as flipping a switch in the firmware.
In your examples, you’re using the Roam as a standalone speaker, not considering that it’s actually part of a multiroom audio system over WiFi. So when your Roam is currently grouped with other speakers in your home, and you receive a phone call, what should happen? Should the phone call audio play for the whole group or should the Roam disconnect from the group to take the call? If it stays grouped, are you expecting every mic in the home to be listening? Are you going to be ok with the buffered audio delay inherent in Sonos? If it disconnects from the group, are you going to be annoyed if you don’t want to take the call, and your group got disconnected for nothing? Should the Roam only “take the call” if it’s currently playing bluetooth audio? Maybe it should be disconnected from WiFI to take calls? Can you group the bluetooth audio after taking a call? Do you think Sonos should provide the user with options on exactly how they want it to operate in these situations?
I do suspect Sonos is looking at these issues, as there rumors that Sonos will be release headphones later this year. Ability to take phone calls is surely an even more desired feature in headphones, even over the ear, than in portable speakers. Although, it’s far from a given, and I wouldn’t be surprised either way. There is also a rumor, though much more vague, that an update Roam will be coming out too. If these features require a hardware change, it makes sense that new tech in the headphones would be port over to a “Roam 2” if it could benefit from the same features. Again though...very far from a given and just speculation.
is there ANY reason you would want to use it on bluetooth and group it with other wifi speakers? or is that even possible…..if not we are that much closer to adding speakerphone functionality!
Actually, this function was well touted when the Roam was first produced, and the questions about it on the forum would suggest it’s a pretty popular feature to get Bluetooth sources into the Sonos ecosystem. So much so that Sonos went against a long-held stance to include the same Bluetooth capabilities in the new Era and Roam 2 speakers.
I think this is the main reason why I never recommend anyone to buy the Sonos Roam.
This is a feature my old Bose Soundlink mini II had, and I just took for granted that this function where, there when I bought it. Yeah, Sonos never market that function, but neither do other companies that sell speakers and headphones with Bluetooth where this function is available. The funtion has always been there so you take it for granted.
I took quick look at Best Buy (US tech retailer)
They sell 167 bluetooth speakers. Of those, 40 have microphones. 17 can be used as speakerphones. I understand why the assumption is made that a bluetooth speaker has a microphone built in, and that microphone can be used a speaker phone...but it’s not a very good assumption.
When it wasn’t, I thought that this would be added further down the road. It ca’t be used together with the computer connected with USB-C, also something you take for granted when you see an USB-C port. Sinca e it can’t work as speaker for phone calls, you can’t use it for video conferences neither. (This was also a product released while the pandemic was going on and the demand was high for this kind of products.)
USB has become very common for any device requiring DC 5V regardless of whether any data transfer is required. Assuming that it a USB connection can be used for data, and that the data is audio in some format...also not the best assumption.
The Roam is probably the worse portable Bluetooth speaker you can buy. The sound delay if you connect it to your iPad or computer with Bluetooth is so noticeable that you can’t watch any movies with it. It just has one function that other Bluetooth speakers lacks, it is compatible with the Sonos eco system. But that is all. Mostly it collect dust on my shelf.
If all you need is a portable bluetooth speaker, I wouldn’t call it the worst option out there, as there is some really cheap junk out there, but it’s not the best bluetooth speaker. If you want a bluetooth speaker that works as a WiFi speaker as well that works with other Sonos speakers, then I don’t think you could find a better option.
Userlevel 7
+23
Has anyone able to figure out how can we make phone calls using Sonos Move?
Configure it for Alexa, and use that to make calls. Amazon just added support for T-Mobile to their phone calling Skill.
I don’t think that will work. This sounds like a variation of Alexa’s pre-existing calling feature, which didn’t work with Sonos speakers. Have you tried this out on Sonos?
Also, this obviously would not work over bluetooth.
I haven’t tried it, no, I gave up with Alexa for anything other than timers and IMDB type questions a while ago.
I second
No blame on Sonos as it is never advertised so. No attempt to convince others’ opinions whether it should support it or not. From my perspective, I would just suggest that when it works in bluetooth mode, just turn it to a normal bluetooth speaker. For my Sonos roam, every time I had a meeting (via my laptop), I had to open the lid to use the built-in microphone and switch the audio to sonos. Eventually I ended up not using Sonos at all.
I agree with the majority of answers here that Sonos never advertised ROAM or MOVE as a device that can support Bluetooth calling. If a customer is investing money in a product, he/she should investigate a little bit before doing so. Though, there are occasions when certain things are assumed, particularly if those things are basic and investment is being made in a well-recognized, reliable, trust-worthy brand like Sonos. You don't ask if Rolls Royce comes with a car AC or not… it's assumed. However, I am not arguing in favor of or against the person who posted the question originally. Things like this happen. I was taken aback when I learned that the Sonos system I spent $2,500 on; does not support Alexa in my region. But it sounds great, so no hard feelings.
Having said that, being able to make calls using Sonos ROAM while you are on the move makes for a great use case. ROAM is made to be used outdoors. It seems a bit silly to use a phone mic to make calls and hear the other person's voice on ROAM. I am sure this is a simple change in software for Sonos. If they decide to make it happen, they can easily do it.
I am personally irritated by having to use two speaker devices (one for listening to music – ROAM, and another for conference calls - Bang & Olufsen A1) when I travel. As a Sonos fan, at times, it is embarrassing too when I have to explain that Sonos ROAM does not support Bluetooth calling.
Would be great to hear Sonos's reasoning behind not making it happen.
@Twinsdad. I hear your frustration. Very disappointing indeed. Ultimately it might be the reason I return my entire system. Adding the ability to call would probably be fairly simple. However, clearly they decided not to do it. That is their choice. Can not be mad at them for that. You can find work arounds with other devices but it does complicate things more. At these prices you should not have to such a thing imo. Also they for sure come across as fan boyZ but you come across as disrespectful. Hopefully they will make their devices smarter in the future. The tech is there. For now im going to take my trial period for what it is. Trying to figure out if this not so smart tech is worth it. Great sound, bad UI, lacking in controls, pricey and sleek design.
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