Picture this: whenever dinner is ready, or you are simply feeling lazy and cannot be bothered to get up, you could reach the others in the household. And you have wanted an easier way to do it. Then I might have the solution for you.
I have made an app for iPhone called Sonos Announcements.
With it you can send messages to all of your speakers or to individual ones.
It looks at the speakers that are connected to your wifi. No extra account is required. And everything that is sent stays local.
The way you send is by pressing and holding the send button. When you let go of your finger, the message is sent.
There is a small sound that indicates a message is coming.
The message is spoken in your own voice.
By default it turns the music down and then turns it back up to the previous volume afterwards. You can switch that off if you just want the music to keep playing, and you can decide for yourself how far down it turns.
You can also choose a fixed volume for the announcement itself, so that an important message does not disappear because someone turned their speaker all the way down.
The maximum length for a message is 5 minutes.
There are also two actions in Shortcuts, so you can send a message without opening the app and use it in your automations.
And the new part, which I would most like to have tested: you can now send announcements when you are not at home. This requires a Homey, and that you install my Homey app, which is also in testing. You can find it here: Sonos Announcements | Homey
I would very much like to hear from you whether that part works or does not work. Please write either way — also if nothing happens, or if something goes wrong along the way. That is exactly the kind of thing I need to know right now.
The app is 100 percent free. And it is currently in testing via TestFlight.
All ideas are welcome. I read everything that comes in and take on board as much as I can.
You can get the app here: Join the Sonos Announcements beta - TestFlight - Apple
I hope you will give it a warm welcome.
