The two year battle between Sonos and Google over patent infringements is over. There has been When there are disputes like this one, there is always a winner and a loser; unfortunately Google and its users lose.
The specifics of the ruling related to speaker setup, groups and casting. We’ve seen multiple accusations and results of the battle in the past with the initial early 2020 legal proceedings. Later in 2020, during the YouTube Music transition casting capability to Sonos speakers was removed.
A Blog Post in the Google Nest Community outlines the necessary changes made resulting from the outcome:
- To adjust volume on your speaker groups, you will need to adjust each speaker individually instead of using the group volume controller. You’ll also no longer be able to change your Speaker Group volume using your phone’s physical volume button.
- Most Speaker Groups should continue functioning as expected unless you have a speaker group containing other brands of Cast-based devices, like JBL or Lenovo, they need to be on 1.52.272222 or higher Cast firmware version. Check out this article on how to find your device’s firmware version or contact your device maker.
- A small set of users will need to use the ‘Device Utility app’ (DUA) to complete product installation and updates. You may receive a prompt to download and run DUA, and it will ensure that your device is connected to Wi-Fi and receives the most updated software version.
While the changes are — in the big picture — pretty minor, if you use speaker groups and/or have non-Google speakers will be noticed.
The patent’s are quite vague (typical American patent trolling behaviour). So it’s just a desperate move by a dying obsolete company to try remaining in the spotlight. I’m glad Google didn’t cave and pay royalties though. Hopefully Sonos go bankrupt in the near future.
Lol, Sonos is definitely not a dying or obsolete company