Volume Control Tile (Slider or Up/Down Adjustments)

Is there any update to adding the ability to change the volume of a Sonos speaker directly on a tile? Kinda ridiculous to have to open up the details for the speaker just to change volume, a task which I would think people would perform very frequently.

1 Like

Welcome to the community and thanks for the feedback, @Jeffrey_Garrett.

As you noted, you can access the volume control by tapping to expand the details. Itā€™s on our hitlist to add a Volume / Level control tile, but it surprisingly hasnā€™t had as much user-interest as we expected, so weā€™ve prioritized other highly requested features first.

:tada: Update: Check out the new Vertical Range Input custom tile!

Alternative Approach using Variables

In the meantime, you might be able to use Variables to approximate what you are looking for. You could setup a new Number variable then setup a rule such that anytime the variable changes, use it to set the level of the physical speaker:

Note that when using a Device action in a rule, you can tap the <> variable icon to use a variable as the value of a command argument:

image

You can then add the Number variable to your dashboard and enable the Quick Adjust in the Tile Settings which provides up down buttons for quickly adjusting the value:

image

image

Hey @Jeffrey_Garrett - I moved this post into the Feature Requests category so other users can show their interest by voting. If youā€™re still interested in the feature, be sure to scroll up to the first post and cast your vote! :slight_smile:

1 Like

Just added a vote for this - would love to see this

Bumping this is hopes of getting some momentum behind it.

Yeah Iā€™d like to see this too. I ran out of votes though. :smiley:

I just voted. Would like to see an improvement in this area.

It would be great to have a generic slider tile type that could be used for any numeric value e.g. volume, level, target temperature etc.

1 Like

Iā€™ve included this in my dashboard. Good solution until a slider style is available.

Is there a way to make each ā€œup arrowā€ click move the volume variable up by 5 rather than 1?

No, thereā€™s not a ā€˜stepā€™ setting for variables. In theory, you could have a rule that multiplies the variable by 5 using an expression (or any other conversion that you want), but the displayed variable value would still be the raw value.

1 Like

I assume there is no way for the tile to read the actual volume level of the speaker, right? Like if I change the volume with the remote, the number on the tile stays the same. Otherwise, this is a pretty slick solution.
Also, voted! :slight_smile:

Iā€™m accomplishing this by brute force. This example changes the variable by 10 but it could be any value you need.

If you are part of the beta group, weā€™ve put together a couple of new Vertical Volume range inputs powered by the new Custom Tiles: Access to Things and Variables feature thatā€™s in development!

If youā€™re part of the beta group, be sure to check out the following link for more details on how to try out these custom tiles:

[BETA] Custom Tiles: Access to Things and Variables

If youā€™re not part of the beta, I would still love your feedback based on these designs!

Based on the feedback above, weā€™ve added the ability to specify the ā€˜stepā€™ for the volume changes, but are there are features or settings you would be looking for?

3 Likes

Pretty cool!

(1). I donā€™t understand what ā€˜stepā€™ does. I donā€™t see any difference in operation between a value of 1 or a value of 10. Iā€™m obviously missing something.

(2). ā€˜Thingsā€™ are limited to devices with audio. Iā€™d like to use these tiles to control lighting level. Is (or will this be) this possible?

Hi Stan-
Check out the attached video for a demonstration of the ā€˜stepā€™ feature. The slider on the right has the step set to 10, so it only allows changes in increments of 10.

This particular Custom Tile was intended to solve the feature request in this thread for a Volume Control Tile, but I donā€™t see any reason why there couldnā€™t be another variation of it designed for lighting.

I noticed that the slider dragging doesnā€™t work well on iOS, so Iā€™d like to get that working well before making variations of the tile for other device types. :slight_smile:

2 Likes

This would be an awesome feature!

1 Like

Thanks Josh. Itā€™s not working that way for me; step set to 10, but value changing by 1.

I know itā€™s early in the game and updates will be forthcoming, so Iā€™ll wait around for those changes - and hopefully even a version that allows other types of things!

Stan

Hi Stan-
Weā€™ve released a general purpose Vertical Range Input custom tile in the beta thread. Even though it looks almost identical, itā€™s a complete rewrite of the underlying code to provide better cross-browser compatibility.

Check out the details in the beta thread linked above and if things arenā€™t working for you, please post additional details in the beta thread directly.

2 Likes

Thanks Josh!

Almost perfect - for me. I only have room for a tile width of 1 for this control. Using a transparent tile, the usable portion of the control seems to be about 40% of the available width. This makes it too difficult for my fat fingers to manipulate the control. Would it be possible to increase the usable width to 100%?

Update:
Iā€™ve edited the code to get the control sized just the way I wanted. Happy!

Thanks for the update! Did you end up making the width of the bar itself wider?

I started some work late last week trying to keep the width of the bar the same size while making the touch area the full width of the tile, but kept running into complications with each additional step forward I made! :stuck_out_tongue:

1 Like