If you have Google smart speakers in your home, you might be interested to know that it will soon be harder to control the volume of a group of speakers.
the reason is that Google lost a patent lawsuit against Sonos, which forced the company to announce that make settings in the speaker software.
After the update, each speaker will need to be adjusted individually, rather than using the group’s volume control. Users will also not be able to adjust the volume of a group of speakers via the phone’s volume buttons.
Due to a recent court ruling, we are making some changes to the way you configure your devices and the Speaker Group functionality will work from now on.
If you use the Speaker Group feature to control volume in the Google Home app, by voice with Google Assistant, or directly from the Nest Hub screen, you’ll notice a few changes:
– To adjust the volume on your speaker groups, you will have to adjust each speaker individually instead of using the group volume controller. Also, you will no longer be able to change the volume of your Speaker Group using your phone’s physical volume button.
– Most speaker groups should still work as expected unless you have a speaker group that contains third-party Cast-based devices like JBL or Lenovo which should be at version 1.52.272222 or higher of Cast firmware. Check out this article on how to find your device’s firmware version or contact your device manufacturer.
– A small group of users will have to use the “Device Utility” (DUA) application to complete the product installation and updates. You may be prompted to download and run DUA, and this will ensure that your device is connected to Wi-Fi and receives the most up-to-date software version.We will continue to support our users and work to minimize any further changes.
When the court handed down the verdict on the patents, Sonos warned that Google would have to “Downgrade or delete product features” to carry out the verdict, and that seems to be precisely what is happening.
The changes will involve a loss of functionality in Google’s multi-room audio features, which let you sync your speakers so they play the same track at the same time.
Now you can no longer say “Google, set your living room speaker volume to 60%”Instead, you’ll have to tune each speaker individually.
Google also advises that “A small group of users” you will need to use a specific app to update your devices.
It also warns users that if the speaker group contains products from other manufacturers such as JBL or Lenovo, They will have to update them to the latest firmware to keep them working as part of that group.