Transfer your Roam’s audio to another Sonos speaker in your network
When Sonos first introduced its Roam Bluetooth speaker to its offering in 2021, it was the second Sonos speaker to feature Bluetooth capabilities. The first was Sonos Move, which was succeeded by the Sonos Move 2 in September 2023, while the Roam also saw a successor arrive in May this year, the same day the Sonos Ace headphones were announced.
Bluetooth capabilities are no longer a unicorn feature for Sonos speakers these days, with both the Sonos Era 100 and Sonos Era 300 speakers offering it. The Sonos Roam has always had a slight advantage over the Sonos Move and the other speakers in the Sonos portfolio though, in it has a feature called Sound Swap. This is everything you need to know about Sound Swap, including how it works and what speakers are compatible.
What is Sonos Sound Swap?
Sonos Sound Swap is a feature that launched on the original Sonos Roam in 2021 and is now available on both the Sonos Roam and Sonos Roam 2. It allows you to transfer music or audio playing on the Sonos Roam or Roam 2 to the closest Sonos speaker in order to carry on your listening when you come home.
The Sonos Roam or Roam 2 need to be on Wi-Fi and it requires you to press and hold the play/pause button for around five seconds. This will transfer the music to the nearest compatible Sonos speaker rather than grouping it with that speaker. The latter is another feature you can perform on Sonos speakers by pressing and holding their play/pause button to bring them into an existing group.
With Sound Swap though, the idea is that you could come in from the garden with your Sonos Roam or Roam 2, press and hold the play/pause button for five seconds, and whatever you were listening to would transfer to the closest Sonos speaker, whether that’s a Sonos Five in your living room, or the Sonos Era 100 in your kitchen.
How does Sonos Sound Swap work?
When you press and hold the play/pause button on your Sonos Roam or Roam 2, it will prompt other Sonos speakers on your network to emit an ultrasonic frequency sound. You won’t hear this sound with your human ears, but the Sonos Roam and Roam 2 will pick it up with their microphones and they will use the frequency to identify which Sonos speaker is closest based on signal strength.
The music will then transfer from your Sonos Roam or Roam 2 to the closest speaker in around five seconds.
It’s important that you press and hold the play/pause button on the Roam or Roam 2 beyond the first sound that you will hear. This first sound happens after around three seconds so that’s why you need to hold for around five. That first sound is to group the Roam or Roam 2 with a group of Sonos speakers already playing inside your home. In order to move the Roam’s music to another Sonos speaker, rather than the other way around, you need to continue holding the play/pause button for those extra few seconds.
What speakers does Sonos Sound Swap work on?
Sonos Sound Swap is currently only compatible with Roam and Roam 2. For some reason Sonos hasn’t included it on the Sonos Move or Move 2, despite both being prime speakers to offer the feature. It also didn’t add it to the Sonos Ace headphones even though the feature would again have made sense for that product.
For Sonos Ace, there is a feature called TV Audio Swap but this is about transferring music between the Sonos Ace and Sonos Arc soundbar, rather than transferring the audio of the Sonos Ace headphones to other Sonos speakers on your system.
What speakers don’t work with Sonos Sound Swap?
Most Sonos speakers work with Sonos Sound Swap and will be able to emit the ultraflrequency sound and receive the audio being played from Roam or Roam 2, but there are a couple that aren’t compatible.
The following speakers cannot be used with Sonos Sound Swap:
- Sonos Play:3
- Sonos Play:1
- Sonos Port
- Sonos Connect
- Sonos Connect:Amp
- Sonos Boost
