[APP][Pro] Sonos Announcements — send spoken announcements to your Sonos speakers

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.

You can also send announcements when you are not at home. This requires a Homey, and that you install my Homey app. You can find it here: Sonos Announcements | Homey

The app is 100 percent free.

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: ‎Sonos Announcements App - App Store

I hope you will give it a warm welcome.

Handy

Sonos Announcements is now officially released.

The iPhone app is out on the App Store, and it also works on Apple Watch. There is a Mac version as well, where you send an announcement by holding down the right Command key while you speak. And the Homey app is now live in the Homey App Store, so you can send announcements to your Sonos speakers when you are away from home.

A big thank you to everyone who has tested the app. It has helped me a lot. If you have been a tester, please install the official versions, since the test versions will not be renewed. That goes for both the iPhone app and the Homey app.

Everything is free. Ideas and feedback are always welcome, here in the thread or by email.

iPhone and Apple Watch: ‎Sonos Announcements App - App Store

Mac: https://flyveradio.dk/sonos/hent.php

Homey: Sonos Announcements | Homey

Very great app :ok_hand:t4::star_struck:

Sounds great, @tobi8868!
But Android user here. Is there a way to use it feom Android too?
Or possible to create an Android app perhaps?

What is android?:thinking::wink:

Only the mobile device OS with the biggest market share in the world, @Asterix… :winking_face_with_tongue:

Hi Henk,

Thank you! Unfortunately I don’t have an Android device to test on, so I can’t make an Android version right now. If I get hold of an Android device to test with, I will make the app for Android as well.

Thanks, @tobi8868 that would be great.
Fingers crossed… :wink:
And if so; feel free to contact me if you are looking for a tester…

The best mobile OS! :wink:

Why does the app store page say the app can’t reach my speakers when i’m NOT home, but the actually discovers my speakers when i’m not home? (oh my bad lol.. didn’t read that the HOMEY does that work…)

Even if the Homey didn’t (which means you wouldn’t be able to send announcements) I have a VPN on my Deco router so i can send traffic to my router and connect to my home internet. So then i would basically send the announcement through my internet at home..? Does that work?

Good question — yes, it should work. Your phone can’t discover the speakers automatically over a VPN (discovery uses multicast, which doesn’t cross the tunnel), so go to Settings › Network and enter the IP address of one of your Sonos speakers in “Speaker address”. The app will find the rest of your system from there.

One thing to know: the speaker fetches the audio clip from your phone, so the VPN has to allow traffic both ways. With the Deco VPN set to give access to your home network, that’s normally the case. Right now it works best on mobile data. If you’re connected to someone else’s Wi-Fi at the same time, the current version may give the speaker the wrong address. I’ll fix that in the next update.

Thank you to everyone who has downloaded Sonos Announcements.

It has now been 8 days since I released my app, and I have to say it has really taken off.

The app has been downloaded more than 800 times, which I had not expected at all. It has also been covered by Recordere and a German tech site.

Thank you to everyone who has donated to the app. It really means a lot and helps me earn back some of the money for my developer account.

It is because of you that I want to come up with new things that make the app smarter.

As a small anecdote, I am blind. I was a bit nervous that some people would comment on the visual side, since that is not something I can follow so closely, but all the feedback has been positive. At the same time, I think it is great to show that anyone can make apps and give something that everyone can use.

I hope you are still enjoying the app and that you will share it with people you know.

If you would like to donate to the app, you can do so under Settings or via PayPal: PayPal.Me
It is not required to use the app.

If you have not heard of the app yet and would like to download it, you can do so here:

iPhone and Apple Watch: ‎Sonos Announcements App - App Store

Mac: https://flyveradio.dk/sonos/hent.php

I hope you continue to enjoy the app. And if there is anything at all, just write to me and I will take a look at it.

I’ve always wanted a way to speak through my speakers.. Never really thought of a solution or anything.. Just thought it might not be possible. This app is awesome and so many possibilities!

I was just searching up the Sonos apps (Sonos official and Sonos LocalAPI to check something)… Then i saw your app was suddenly there and had to check it out :slight_smile:

Thank you so much, John! That’s great to hear, and it’s exactly why I made it. I’m glad you found it, and that it works well for you.