Say goodbye to whole home audio: Nest devices can now only be in one speaker group at a time

Remember the Sonos lawsuit from last year where the company blamed Google for essentially stealing its speaker tech to make Google Home and Nest devices? Well, it seems that the ramifications of that may still unfolding. While there’s no direct evidence this is the cause of what I’m bout to tell you, I’m confident there’s a strong correlation.

According to a Google Spokesperson, “In light of a recent legal decision, users will no longer be able to add new Nest devices to multiple groups. There are no changes to existing speaker groups.”

These “Speaker group device limitations“, first noticed by 9to5Google, will affect you if you have any of the following listed pieces of hardware. What this means is that your speakers can only be placed into one speaker group at any given time. if you want to place it in another, you need to remove it from the original group. In the past, you were able to place a speaker in as many groups as you wanted to!

• Google Nest Mini (2nd gen)
• Google Nest Audio
• Chromecast with Google TV (4K)
• Chromecast with Google TV (HD)
• Google Nest Hub (2nd gen)
• Google Nest Hub Max
• Google Nest Wifi point
• Pixel Tablet (Hub Mode)

You probably noticed that the Pixel Tablet and some other newer devices are on this list, which really sucks, especially when it comes to Hub Mode on Google’s latest offering. A lot of people I know turned to this grouping solution with audio devices as a means of overcoming the deal of Chromecast Audio a handful of years ago.

The idea is that folks want whole home audio to rival or replace SONOS, which was one of – if not the – first company to bring this to market. Of course, the fact that Google came out right afterward with the same sort of thing is why all of this nonsense is happening to begin with.

Apparently, you can edit a group before each use to include said speaker, but this sounds like a headache and a half. I wish these companies would think more about the consumer than themselves, but that seems nearly impossible when they are for-profit. It’s a strange dichotomy and the world we live in, unfortunately.