Sonos Not Really Compatible with Android.

@S1211652 “I had a friend over today with a Samsung S20, and she was able to cast to the Sonos following the directions from her device, so I suspect I do have an Android version issue. She didn’t have other services, so we couldn’t test others.  Still, I am getting somewhere.”

One of the frustrations with Android is that different manufacturers implement it in different ways. I have an Android 5, 6 and 10 devices different manufacturers and all can “cast” Spotify to Sonos from the Spotify App so your problem appears to be more manufacturer or Spotify version rather than Android version.

Deezer which is the service I use regularly cannot cast to Sonos from its App - Deezer have been suggesting it is coming for at least 2 years on their forum

I suppose listening to music through my phone’s own speaker or through headphones must be clunky as well.  I guess I never noticed in either case.  Works great for me and my needs.

Not sure what you are implying, but I’ll take it as a legitimate question:  When my phone rings and throughout the call, the music just keeps on streaming to the Airplay 2 speaker(s).  The phone call stays on the phone.  

Like @Airgetlam , I think it is very unlikely that Apple could put in any such condition for the use of another company’s product like that, but also like @Airgetlam , I cannot say that for sure.   There must be many factors affecting Sonos’ decision (so far) not to implement Chromecast, and we are all guessing as to what they are

I’ll throw another thought into the mix.  My impression is that Airplay has much greater ‘brand awareness’ than Chromecast.  I can imagine that a lot of Apple devotees would not touch a speaker if they didn’t see ‘Airplay compatible’ on the box - even if Sonos could do everything they wanted without Airplay, and probably do it better.  I suspect that the presence or absence of ‘Chromecast compatible’ on the box would have a negligible impact on sales.  Not zero of course, but the cost/benefit analysis may be very different.

And returning to the title of this thread… Sonos is perfectly entitled to claim to be ‘Android compatible’ on the box, just as it used to say it was ‘iOS compatible’ before it supported Airplay.  But it cannot claim to be ‘Chromecast compatible’ and it doesn’t.

Sonos does allow users to do many things using their Android phones that they may think they need Chromecast for, but don’t.

Clunky because it keeps the phone busy, consuming battery charge for the music to stream. 

A question: what happens to the music stream when the phone rings and is in use for a call? 

What I hear is that Sonos is designed to be a service on the speaker(s) which handle the music streams on their own, and the app is just a remote control and doesn’t participate in the music stream.

Casting from a device hands off the responsibility of the stream from a device to the speaker(s) and then doesn’t participate in the music stream.  Sounds like Casting is a perfect fit for Sonos and the way it was “designed” to work.

I also hear that Sonos is not designed to have a music stream pushed to it.  Odd how Airplay 2 can pull it off?  Does this break the Sonos design, change the assumptions about the design, or maybe the design has changed?

The general user could care less what the technology is that lets them listen on their device and then redirect what they are streaming to another playback device (whether pulled or pushed is irrelevant).

What is relevant is that this can be done from Apple but not from Android.

In the end, this is likely not a technical issue, but a business issue.  But that is just me.  I don’t much care because I use Airplay 2 and it works great (even if others see it as clunky?)

@Kumar . I appreciate your comments which I would like to think are correct.  I feel I should point out that @P1553d off is entirely correct that I am a geek and a fanboy.

@S1211652 .  Can we make peace? I apologise for calling you a troll, but many features of your initial posts suggested this. So, no, I am not in any way affiliated to Sonos. I give my time freely on here because I like to help, and that is mostly what I try to do on here.

Let me try to explain why Sonos is as it is. You have to understand that its fundamental design is not for casting audio.  It was originally designed for local libraries and Internet radio. Streaming services were added when they came into existence. The app has always been a remote control for the system. It is not a music player and so is incapable of casting from the device.

Playing tracks actually stored on the phone was added, on iOS and Android, at a later date. This still does not use a casting approach. Changes made by Apple forced Sonos to drop this on iOS devices but it remains on Android. 

So you need to understand that there are lots of us users out here who are entirely happy with the setup for Android. All we expect of the Android app is that it controls the system. We understand that Sonos isn't about casting and we don't want to cast. That is why I object to your assertion that the system is unsuitable for Android users.

So, to casting.  Sonos has, in its relatively recent history, added casting in various forms. The obvious one is Airplay 2. For reasons none of us really knows, Sonos hasn't added Chromecast to give a comprehensive Android casting solution. I agree that in an ideal world this would be in place. 

Instead, Sonos has added the ability to cast from many of the music service apps. In some ways this is better than Airplay because it works with all Sonos devices, not just more recent, Airplay compatible ones. I do not know why you are having problems with these but they do work.

To sum up, you have a 'casting' mentality but Sonos is designed to work in a different way, with the app as a remote control. Casting has been added in many forms but is not totally comprehensive on Android. But it does everything many of us want and need.

Sonos software is as good as the hardware. 

Edit: in light of @Kumar ‘s subsequent post, I have used ‘casting’ to mean sending audio to Sonos speakers from outside the Sonos app; in effect, barely using the Sonos system at all.

He isn't a Sonos employee and does not get paid for his time here. You may not get the advice you want to hear from him, but seeing the low level of responses in general here from Sonos staff, he renders valuable service to users by filling in that fairly large hole they leave.

So, what’s your specific complaint?

Hi @S1211652, welcome to the community.

I appreciate your feedback on your Sonos experience so far, and I’d like to address a couple of things you’ve mentioned here. 

Sonos does support a wide range of music services and casting options through a number of third party applications. 
Spotify, Pandora and TIDAL all have the capability of casting directly from their own applications as well as browsing the content directly inside the Sonos app.

You are also completely able to stream your own local music files from your Android device’s internal storage or SD card without the need to establish a Bluetooth or casting connection. 

I’m also an Android user, so I understand where you’re coming from in that not every app is supported to the fullest extent possible, but with most services it’s up to the service creator to work with us to build that integration into the Sonos ecosystem.

Also, John B is not a Sonos employee, he’s another user like yourself, trying to assist with your concerns.

I hope that’s cleared some things up, but if you have any other questions please let us know; we’re all here to help.

I can’t tell you more than there is no Cast button available. Even it it was available, it does not solve my main issue.

You still haven’t answered the question: Do you work for Sonos or an affiliate? Please, let us know.

I have tried the article listed, thanks for trying to help.

First, for other readers, please note this solution requires the Sonos app to be installed and logged in to your account. It also requires that you have linked your Pandora to your Sonos account. I have done both those the steps described in the article linked here.

My original complaint is that if an app isn’t in the Sonos Ecosystem, you can’t use it. I have secondary complains that supported apps don’t work well in Sonos’s embedded environment, and if Pandora can cast to Sonos speakers in an Android environment directly I am happy to be wrong, but this doesn’t work for me:

Unfortunately, there is no “Cast” icon on my now playing screen. That is with Pandora V 2101.1 and Sonos as an active app in the background. It could be the fault is my own, but even if it did work, I still can’t get audio to these speakers easily from apps that aren’t already in the Sonos ecosystem. Again, if you have any thoughts on why I don’t have this icon, I am sure I am not the only one interested in in how to fix it. My guess is that this would work fine for an iPhone user.

Still, it will not fix the issue of getting audio to these speakers on an Android device using apps unsupported by Sonos.

And thank you for the original post for an excellent example of the forum as an opportunity for education and information sharing.