How to control your Sonos speakers with your Apple Watch

Sonos doesn't have an Apple Watch app yet, but don't let that stop you. {.intro}

Unfortunately, the large portion of my music at home is played through my Sonos Playbar—and Sonos doesn't currently have a Watch app.

But never fear, Sonos lovers: the third-party app ZonePlay has your back.

On the iPhone, the $3 ZonePlay app works by tapping into your Sonos rooms, letting you play your current queue as well as queue up anything from your Music library or TuneIn Radio. (Sadly, ZonePlay can't access new material from your other Sonos sources—you have to first queue them on your iPhone or Mac.)

On the Apple Watch, those controls are further simplified: You can choose from favorites or your current source and play the currently queued song, advance to the next or previous song in the queue, and change the volume. There's also a ZonePlay glance, which displays the current song and gives you a shortcut to the main app.

Sure, I'd love to have my queue available on my watch, too, but just being able to control my Sonos speakers at all is a huge step up—and it softens the pain of Sonos not currently offering an Apple Watch app.

Big ups to @alba on Twitter for alerting us to ZonePlay!

Apple TV: The alternate route

If you have a Sonos Playbar, as I do, you can skip the ZonePlay route altogether and just play music through your Apple TV using the Remote app — assuming your Playbar's been properly hooked up to your television, any of that music should come right through. Unfortunately, this generally requires being in the same room as your Apple TV for the initial setup, as you need to be able to properly select your music source.

Serenity Caldwell

Serenity was formerly the Managing Editor at iMore, and now works for Apple. She's been talking, writing about, and tinkering with Apple products since she was old enough to double-click. In her spare time, she sketches, sings, and in her secret superhero life, plays roller derby. Follow her on Twitter @settern.