Sonos speakers are a one-of-its-kind product with excellent sound quality. For people who are not familiar with Sonos, but have a buying interest, then Sonos is a wireless smart home speaker system. It allows you to connect up to 32 units. Being a smart home component, Sonos allows you to control it wirelessly.
If you happen to own an Apple device like an iPhone or iPad, you might want to connect it to the Sonos speakers. For that, you are required to take care of configuration and connectivity. In this article, we’ll guide you step-by-step on how to play music on Sonos from iPhone.
How Sonos Works?
Before you learn about connecting your iPhone to Sonos speakers, it’s worth learning how Sonos works in the first place. This information will help you in troubleshooting and diagnosing errors you may encounter in the future.
Sonos is a complete home music system package. Since its inception, it has changed the way we think about a multi-room music system. You can have one speaker in your bedroom and one in the kitchen. Sonos makes sure the song you were playing in your living room is playable in the kitchen without interruption.
Sonos achieves this feat by secure wireless mesh network connectivity known as Sonosnet. There’s a dedicated Sonos app that acts as a controller for the speakers. As per Sonos’s statement which is to offer all the music on Earth, you can enjoy the endless collection of songs. Also beyond that, you can have services like Apple Music, Amazon Prime Music, SoundCloud, and Spotify to share the library.
How To Play Apple Music on Sonos?
If you have an iPhone, you might want to connect it to Sonos speakers. In this section, we’ll guide you through the process of setting up and playing your favorite music.
Download the Sonos App for iPhone
The first thing you need to do is download the Sonos app on your iPhone. As mentioned earlier, the app acts as a controller for the Sonos speakers. With this app, you can easily and wirelessly control all of your speakers, soundbars, and other components.
Sonos offers dedicated apps for both Android and iOS. You need to get the iOS version which can be downloaded for free from the Apple app store.
The Sonos app is more than an app. It is a complete operating system that unifies hundreds of different services for streaming. Besides that, you have voice control and Sonos Radio
To download the Sonos app, open your app store and search for Sonos Controller. It should be the first result that shows up. Click on Get and then tap Install. This shouldn’t take long.
Once it is installed, you need to log into your Sonos account. If you don’t have one, you need to create it with the correct credentials. Now the Sonos app is up and running and is raring to be connected with a speaker. Let’s do that next.
Set Up Sonos Speakers
In this step, you’ll be setting up Sonos speakers and connecting them to the app. The process will vary depending on whether you’re an existing Sonos customer or using it for the first time. Depending on which category you fall into, you need to follow the particular process.
First Time Customers
- If installed, launch the Sonos controller app in your iPhone
- Press Create Account
- Input your email address, password, and other details asked.
- Using the toggle switch, click Accept/Agree to terms and conditions (while you may skip it, it’s recommended to read the terms and conditions agreement. This will give you an idea of what data the app will be using on your phone)
- You’ll be asked to confirm your account. Switch to your email account to do that.
- Click on the email sent to you. Safari apps may open and display the message automatically which will verify your account.
- Navigate back to the Sonos app and click Continue.
- Tap on Start to start setting up your speakers.
Here you’ll be asked whether you want to set up the network as a Standard network or as Boost. This is an important decision to make. Most users end up selecting Standard. So click that.
- Press Next which will begin setting up your first Sonos speaker.
- Click on Add a New Speaker
Skip the below section and follow up with the Adding a New Speaker section.
Existing Sonos User
- For existing users, the process is a lot simpler.
- Launch the Sonos Controller app
- Navigate into the More tab
- Select Settings
- Select the Add a Player or SUB option
Follow the below section to connect the speaker.
Adding a New Speaker
- Plug your Sonos speaker into a compatible power outlet
- This should light up a green flashing light on your Sonos speaker.
- Move back into the app and click Next and then Continue
- Sonos app will scan for all the available speakers nearby. Once you see the device, click on it.
- On your speaker, locate the pairing button. This should be on the front. (For older models, you may have to use a combination of buttons. Refer to the product handbook)
- Press the pairing button gently and then release it after 2-3 seconds.
- The Connect may ask you for your Wi-Fi password. Provide the credentials and click Next.
- Select the room where you need to set up the speaker
- Click Next.
Congratulations! Your speaker is now successfully connected to the Sonos system. But this alone doesn’t start playing your desired song. You need to finish the process. Here are the additional steps involved:
- The app will check for updates for your speakers. If updates are available, then it is recommended to install them first.
- Click Continue and the speaker will automatically get registered into your account.
- Allow the Sonos’s Trueplay tuning process once asked for.
- Tap on Done to complete the setup.
Connect To Apple Music Service
Since you’re using an iPhone, Apple Music might be your default streaming service. You should connect it to your Sonos speakers. Here’s how to do it:
- Launch your Sonos app
- From the bottom right corner, find More and click it
- Select Add Music Services
- Select the streaming services you want to add, which in this case is Apple Music
- Tap Add to Sonos
- Connect with the service (this may require you to provide verification or authentication like password input. Follow accordingly)
- Authorize Apple Music to access Sonos and vice-versa
This will connect Sonos with Apple Music. To start playing songs, go back to the Sonos Controller app, select the streaming service, and tap Play Now.
Add Content
Now that you’re successfully streaming music on your Sonos speakers, you may want to add songs directly to your Sonos app. Here’s how to add content to the app:
- Launch the Sonos app
- Go to Browse tab
- Select Apple Music
- Select the content you want to add to My Sonos
- Look for the three dots (…) next to it. Click on it to reveal more options
- Select Add to My Sonos
This will add songs from Apple Music to My Sonos library. One benefit of this is you can keep on playing songs even without the internet on your iPhone.
Not only songs, but you can also add entire playlists, audiobooks, podcast content, and radio shows into your Sonos controller app and play through the speakers. All of this is flexible for the end-user.
Play Music From Your iTunes Library
You can play songs directly from your iTunes library. Here’s how:
- Launch Sonos Controller app
- Go into the Browse tab
- Select On This iPhone
- Select the category you want to play. If it’s a playlist, you can select “Play All” and it’ll play all the songs inside of it
- Select the song you want to play (if you want to play just one song)
It’s that easy.
Connecting Through AirPlay
It is only recently that Sonos has enabled AirPlay 2 connectivity to all of its speakers. With this functionality, you can stream content straight from your iPhone.
Most of the steps mentioned above remain the same. Here are the steps to connect Sonos speakers to AirPlay:
- You first need to add speakers to the Apple Home app.
- Select the “+” button which is found on the top left corner.
- Select Add Accessory
- The Sonos speaker should appear under the Nearby Accessories
- Select Don’t have a Code or Can’t Scan? if you’re having a problem.
- Follow the steps that are prompted by the app
This should allow you to connect Apple’s AirPlay service to Sonos speakers. Depending on when you last upgraded your software, the app might ask you to install the necessary updates first.
If your Sonos AirPlay is not working, you might like to explore this video tutorial.
Connecting Apple services to Sonos speakers is just the first step to smart home automation. As we progress into the future, you may start connecting more and more devices to the Sonos ecosystem.
References:
- How to set up Sonos speakers and control them on an iPhone or iPad from imore.com
- Play music stored on your iPhone, iPad, or iPod touch from support.sonos.com
- Play music from iPhone from en.community.sonos.com
- How To Connect An iPhone To Sonos from visihow.com
- Use Apple Music on Sonos from support.apple.com
- How to Stream Spotify from iPhone to Sonos Speaker from osxdaily.com