Transfer playback to another room via speaker controls

  • 18 December 2017
  • 10 replies
  • 1827 views

Userlevel 2
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I only recently figured out that if you have music playing in Room 1 and go into Room 2 you can group the two rooms (and start playback in Room 2 also) by pressing and holding the Play/Pause button on the speaker(s) in Room 2. Great feature, but what would be more useful is the ability to MOVE (not extend) playback to Room 2. So maybe press/hold Play/Pause AND Minus to move playback, vs Play/Pause and Plus to extend. I know you can do it via the app, but that means getting my phone out, etc. Just a suggestion for a future enhancement. (This is all on Play 1/3/5 - not the new Sonos one as I don't have one of them.)

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10 replies

If you do the press on any player with all others silent, the playlist last played will move to it.
Userlevel 3
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Are you sure?
I thought it just resumed playback, whatever was streaming last to that player.
It needs the same long press that is needed for adding it to a speaker that is playing. A short press will resume playback of last played.
Userlevel 2
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Wow, it does! Thanks, Kumar! I just need to stop playback in Room 1, then I can pick it up again in Room 2 by a long-press in Room 2. Good to know! (I'm sure it is documented somewhere, but in several years I've never found it...)
I am not sure they are well documented, but both are a recent addition.
Userlevel 2
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Yeah, it came out in the last controller update, a couple of months ago"

"Long Press to Group

Making it even easier to play music. With 8.0, you can press and hold the Play/Pause button (or mute on older players) to have your player join the most recently active player as a group. First, you have to start playing music on a player, (it can be from an alarm or any other source), and then just hold the button for a few seconds on another player. That second player will join the first one’s group and start playing the same music in sync.

There's another function of the long press, and that's being able to move recently stopped music to another room. First, stop playing music in any of your rooms. Then, press and hold the play/pause on another player for a few seconds. (Make sure that you don't start playing music anywhere else.) The queue or source will move to the unit you held the button for and start playing. The players won't group together and any existing queue will get whiped [sic] out in place of the new one."
I too have trouble whipping out the phone for every interaction with the system, and often use volume and start/stop buttons on the units. This is a very valuable addition, IMO.
Userlevel 7
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The long press to group is listed here too.

And a bit on there too on the playback restarting.
Ryan, you should make a consolidated sticky in a prominent place on how to use the hardware buttons on the units as an alternative to the app. IMO, this is often as useful as voice control in bypassing the need to search for the phone and then invoking the at times pesky app. Even more so now, with these new features added. IMO, this is where, in the long term, the extra price paid for Sonos over a USD 35 Chromecast Audio pays for itself. The latter always needs a phone for control.
Userlevel 1
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Ok so i have 2 sonos ones in different rooms, i have room 1 wake up to music via alarm setting, is there a alexa command to have the same music start playing in room 2 at a later stage? I dont want the music to stop in room 1. When i asked to play music in room 2 Alexa just played its last known music not the music that was playing in room 1