Summary
- Recent legal battles lead to lost functionalities for Android users, but Google is slowly reintroducing volume control features.
- Google Home now allows users to control speaker groups and adjust volume with ease, potentially improving user experience.
- Despite ongoing legal disputes, Sonos remains a top choice for high-end smart speakers as Google focuses on other ventures.
It seems like such a simple idea: use your smartphone to change the volume of all of your connected smart speakers at the same time. But this simple idea has led to a years-long legal battle between Sonos, one of the biggest smart speaker makers on the market, and Google, the insatiable internet giant. Although Google initially lost its legal battle with Sonos to the tune of over $30 million dollars in May 2023, that ruling was thrown out in October, opening the door for some lost functionalities to return to Android phones.
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More lost features returning
Just last week we learned that users with Android 15 Beta 2 could control speaker volume while casting from their phones, and now Android users can use Google Home to control the volume of multiple speakers at once (via 9 to 5 Google). You’ll also be able to control speaker groups by using Google Assistant, so you can tell Google to adjust the volume without having to muck about with menus and settings.
Sonos has said that it intends to appeal this new ruling, so it’s unclear if these changes will be sticking around, but Google is moving ahead anyway. In addition to the volume control features we’ve already covered, Google has added back other functionality like being able to add a smart speaker to multiple speaker groups at once.
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Even our speakers deserve a fresh start
Even though it’s nice to have this functionality back, there’s no sign that Google is reentering the smart speaker market. The only smart speakers available on its store are the Nest Mini and the Nest Audio, which launched in 2019 and 2020 respectively (right about the time the Sonos lawsuit was first filed). In the meantime, Sonos is doing just fine and if you’re in the market for some high-end smart speakers, they have a great selection to choose from.
