topic Re: "cast my audio" to speaker group option missing - goes directly to speaker group setti in Speakers and Displays

"cast my audio" to speaker group option missing - goes directly to speaker group settings

ghostprint — Tue, 18 Jan 2022 22:07:02 GMT

About a week ago I lost the ability to cast my phones audio to my speaker group in the Google home app. Casting to a single speaker works fine but when I tap a group, it goes directly to group settings.

I understand that after the loss of the sonos patent lawsuit, google chosed to remove the ability to adjust speaker group volume (instead of paying for the patent royalties and providing it's customers a feature they played for, (but that's a different discussion all together)) As I understand, group volume has nothing to do with casting to a group 😒

I presume this is a quick fix like "just remove that volume adjust screen for speaker groups from the app until we fix it properly". Screen, which incidentally also contains the "cast my audio" buton...

I personally couldn't care less about group volume adjustment (I do it manually, for each one), but casting my phone audio is the main reason I bought a bunch of nest speakers. This feature is (for the time being) still working from chrome browser on my pc.

Yes, I know how to cast audio from specific apps that support audio casting. This is not about that...

The (horrible) workaround I found is to remote to my pc from my phone and cast audio from there using the chrome browser 😒 (but this is asinine)

Is there a way to get casting to speaker groups for my phone back?

Re: "cast my audio" to speaker group option missing - goes directly to speaker group setti

GothamNY — Wed, 19 Jan 2022 19:41:22 GMT

Hey, @ghostprint casting to grouped speakers works on my end, either to all 10 speakers or 5 downstairs or the 5 upstairs. It seems there's something amiss in your setup that needs checking or the simplest thing would be to recreate your speaker group and check the speakers in those groups.

Not everything can be blamed on the Sonos litigation, lol.

Re: "cast my audio" to speaker group option missing - goes directly to speaker group setti

CALAGAN — Thu, 20 Jan 2022 20:27:46 GMT

Hi GothamNY

I have the same problem and so do multiple people in the nest community...

Unfortunately, it has nothing to do with the setup since that issue appeared all of sudden for all of us !

Oddly I'm able to use YouTube music on the groups but the cast option is nowhere to be found like ghostprint said.

By the way, this happened at the same time as "Sonos/speakers changed rules" so it MUST have to be connected!!

I really hope a future update will solve the problem...

Re: "cast my audio" to speaker group option missing - goes directly to speaker group setti

GothamNY — Thu, 20 Jan 2022 21:19:27 GMT

I would be impacted if that were caused by Sonos. My setup and the options available when I choose to cast from within the YouTube Music app. I'm not using any special software or anything different than anyone else.

Re: "cast my audio" to speaker group option missing - goes directly to speaker group setti

ghostprint — Thu, 20 Jan 2022 21:58:47 GMT

Ok. So i deleted the group and remade it (several times). Same problem. The option to cast my audio is missing.

As I stated before, this option is missing IN THE GOOGLE HOME APP not in YouTube music or Spotify etc.

Open Google home app, scroll to a speaker group, open the group. Do you see a screen showing volume and a "cast my audio" button at the bottom ? Or are you taken to group settings directly (as when tapping the setting sprocket)?

The "missing" screen I'm talking about used to be exactly as the one shown when tapping a single speaker.

This:

This use to work before the sonos debacle...

Is there a way to get this back in Google home app, in speaker groups ?

Re: "cast my audio" to speaker group option missing - goes directly to speaker group setti

JustChristie — Thu, 20 Jan 2022 23:22:22 GMT

Same problem. Thought I was loosing it. Lmao. I can cast audio to any individual speaker but not my groups. I even tried recreating them.. incredibly frustrated as this was the entire reason I have one for every room

Re: "cast my audio" to speaker group option missing - goes directly to speaker group setti

GothamNY — Fri, 21 Jan 2022 21:43:51 GMT

My first observation is the image you've shown is for an individual speaker, not the grouping which allegedly this issue is about. My second observation is when going to my list of grouped speakers I see this:

My third observation is there are options to play music under each speaker group, supposedly the feature you insist is now gone. Moreover, by clicking the button that says "Play" under each speaker group it casts music to the speaker group.

Pressing any of the buttons that say "Play Music" casts music to grouped speakers.

Pressing the actual speaker groups does take me to settings, but why would one do that when there's an obvious option that says play music right there? Granted, one doesn't get to choose what plays with that option but normally if one has a preference for what they want to hear it's done outside the Home app in the music app of choice and then cast to the group of speakers using the popup shown here or by using voice instruction:

I don't mean to be dispassionate in my response, but I'm truly at a loss for what the fuss is unless perhaps it's an effort to "find" another issue, when there is none, resulting from the Sonos litigation.

Re: "cast my audio" to speaker group option missing - goes directly to speaker group setti

Stefanie — Sun, 23 Jan 2022 20:00:41 GMT

Post removed for violating Community Guidelines

Re: "cast my audio" to speaker group option missing - goes directly to speaker group setti

xkcdtank — Sun, 23 Jan 2022 20:08:30 GMT

The use case is casting PHONE AUDIO (whatever that audio might be. could be a website, a video, an app, an audiobook, a game, audio file, whatever) to a SPEAKER GROUP. Not "playing music". Speakers are used for far more than just music, gotham. Get it together. This isn't that hard to understand.

Re: "cast my audio" to speaker group option missing - goes directly to speaker group setti

JustChristie — Sun, 23 Jan 2022 20:48:16 GMT

Issue still exists as I need to cast audio from my phone to my speaker groups so I can listen to my audible - which isn't an option for 'play music'. Your comments aren't very helpful, and I'm not sure you read the entire issue some of us were having but thank you for trying! Hopefully the continued commenting will bring the issue to the forefront and keep it on others and google radar to fix 😁

Re: "cast my audio" to speaker group option missing - goes directly to speaker group setti

GothamNY — Mon, 24 Jan 2022 15:04:49 GMT

The OP main point is: "I lost the ability to cast my phones AUDIO to my speaker group in the Google home app." The type of media is irrelevant as is "use case" since the issue was/is the function to cast to speaker groups is missing, which isn't true.

We're free to cast whatever we like to speaker groups provided the underlying content/apps support the feature. In order to cast it needs to be started someplace else and then a destination is chosen (speaker group). Casting from an individual speaker from within the Home app begins the mirror process in the Home app when using a handheld device.

Re: "cast my audio" to speaker group option missing - goes directly to speaker group setti

GothamNY — Sun, 23 Jan 2022 22:57:56 GMT

I would encourage you to review the Terms of Use for the community and to keep your comments respectful toward others.

Re: "cast my audio" to speaker group option missing - goes directly to speaker group setti

KiiFromGoogle — Mon, 24 Jan 2022 21:03:26 GMT

Post removed for violating Community Guidelines

Re: "cast my audio" to speaker group option missing - goes directly to speaker group setti

eArmin — Mon, 24 Jan 2022 22:03:40 GMT

As @xkcdtank explained we can not cast phone's audio to the speakers group after that Sonos issue. I can't cast my audible or website audio to the speakers group. Only a very few apps that have built-in cast option can cast on the group. It doesn't related to the Sonos patent and we expect Google reenable this missing option again in near future updates. I mainly use speakers group to losten to my audibles while working.

Re: "cast my audio" to speaker group option missing - goes directly to speaker group setti

VillageMan — Mon, 24 Jan 2022 23:51:56 GMT

Thanks Ghostprint, I thought I'd fallen off my perch. I used to listen to Online webcasts, audiobooks which worked great by tapping the 'Cast my audio' that was under each individual speaker and each group. Now all I can do is tap 'Play music.' the simply defaults to whatever Music service I've linked in the music settings. Basically it rubbish now.

Regards turning volume up or down can still be done by say for example I'm on my Android phone playing music to all my home speakers (a group) just use the phones up/down buttons and it adjusts all equally.

Unless Amazon/Audible come up with a cast icon (Never going to happen) We're basically up the smelly river without paddles.

What's Google playing at?

Re: "cast my audio" to speaker group option missing - goes directly to speaker group setti

Lieflotje — Wed, 26 Jan 2022 22:13:31 GMT

I get sooo frustrated by reading these comments! 🤬

I have had the EXACT SAME problem for several weeks and it is driving me insane!

One of the biggest reasons I bought so many Google speakers is so I can cast to all speakers at once.

The responses of @GothamNY are ABSOLUTELY INFURIATING OMFG.

YOU ARE NOT LISTENING TO WHAT PEOPLE ARE SAYING!

I myself used the "cast my audio" option for my speaker groups, in the Home app, to cast my YouTube audio.

NOT my YouTube Music audio and NOT audio to listen to music.

I follow several murder/mistery accounts on YouTube and I use their videos like podcasts, so I cast the audio of their video to all speakers and then I can listen to the videos throughout my entire house while I am cleaning or doing chores or something.

Since a couple of weeks this option is gone and I have still found no solution.

I am really getting fed up and Google Support has been absolutely useless regarding this issue.

Sorry if I am a bit rude, but this was part of my every day routine and I am Autistic, so I can not describe in words how much stress and unease this is causing, because I just cannot find a solution and I spent a lot of money on speakers that I now am unable to use in the way I want to and bought them for...

PLEASE GOOGLE, FIX THIS ISSUE.

Re: "cast my audio" to speaker group option missing - goes directly to speaker group setti

VillageMan — Thu, 27 Jan 2022 13:11:45 GMT

I totally get where you come from with listening to things around the house while you get things done. I have debilitating arthritis and being able to cast audio to all the speaker groups around my house was a plus. I must say, after a telephone call from Google support two days ago I notice that cast my audio is back for individual speakers but not groups. I left a review on play store of one star and the following morning woke up to a reply from the developer. That had, a link to some q&a examples to fault diagnosis & contact details. I went to the letter and you get asked a few questions I think I kept doing other and other again and it came up with contact with email ir phone call. I chose call and entered my number. Had a call back moments later and whoever that was in a fault finding and as they were on loudspeaker they could actually hear the responses from my Google home device. He went away saying that definitely the firmware of the latest update is faulty and he was escalating it to the developer who will do something about it. 12 hours later I had cast my audio back on speakers but not groups. I also learnt that from your Google device say, Hey Google give feedback. It'll ask what's the feedback, you say it briefly. Those feedbacks are received by the developer. I tried some on mine and noticed it seemed solved a few hours later. (That's a separate issue I had on a new Nest device)

What did has given me is that Google seems to listen in my country anyway I'm hoping that be the same for you too. Best of lucky and happy hunting.

Re: "cast my audio" to speaker group option missing - goes directly to speaker group setti

ghostprint — Thu, 27 Jan 2022 14:38:56 GMT

My friend, please, understand what I (and others) are saying, please:

1) Open "home" app. 2) Open a speaker group. That's it !

Do you have the "Cast my audio" buton on that group ? (or dose it go strait to group settings?)

That picture I posted is EXACTLY what used to appear ON A SPEAKER GROUP before the sonos thing, exactly as it was (and still is) on an individual speaker.

I and all the folks here are talking about casting the phones audio (regardless on the source of that audio)

Not YouTube music, Spotify, etc that includes a casting feature.

Please friend, is it clear now (en, is not my first language. Hopefully I explained it clear) ?

Is the WHOLE PHONE AUDIO cast TO A GROUP still a thing as it was, in the Home app? (As it is now only for individual speakers)

Re: "cast my audio" to speaker group option missing - goes directly to speaker group setti

VillageMan — Thu, 27 Jan 2022 16:14:12 GMT

Advise looking at my reply today at the bottom of thread. Might help you.

Cast my Audio is back on individual speakers but NOT speaker groups yet.

My hopes as with others on here is Google developer is working on a fix and hopefully releases an update to the Home app soon that includes Faust my audio on speaker groups as it was before the Sonos issue.

Hopefully that helps.

Again read my reply to Lieflotje, that says all.

Re: "cast my audio" to speaker group option missing - goes directly to speaker group setti

eArmin — Thu, 27 Jan 2022 17:39:31 GMT

Cast on individual speaker was there before, nothing has changed. Casting phone's Audio on the speakers group is the issue.