Plan

Premium (though same issue exists with free plan)

Country

USA

Device

iPhone 8, Google Home Mini, Built-in Chromecast, and Chromecast Audios

Operating System

iOS 13.3.1

My Question or Issue

For years I have had my Google Home account linked to various free/premium Spotify accounts. I also have multiple "speaker groups" set up through Google Home. Whenever I would cast to such a group, there would be no problem, but a weird quirk: If I opened the Spotify app on my iPhone, it would say that I was listening on just one of the speakers, when it was clear I was correctly listening to multiple speakers in a group. For example, the app would say I was listening on "Dining Room" and not the "Main Speakers" group that "Dining Room" was just part of. (Side note: using the "Media" menu in Google Home would show that I was listening to the group, not just one speaker.) However, if I tried changing songs or volume through the app, it would correctly make those changes to the entire group, even if it appeared it was being done on just the one speaker.

I never found a solution to the above, but considered it mostly a non-issue. However, for the past week or so, I have noticed that if tell a Google Home device to play music to a speaker group, the GH will announce that it's starting a cast to the group (as it should), and if I open the Spotify app afterward to change the group's volume or change the song, it will again say that I'm listening on just one speaker, but it now will pause the playback almost immediately after opening. I can manually restart the cast to the group, but this is an annoying step I've never had to do before.

I should point out that this latest issue seems to be happening only when I am casting to a group that has a mix of Google Home devices and Chromecast Audio devices. (I haven't spent time confirming this, though.) And, again, this is a new phenomenon. Casting never used to stop upon opening the Spotify app like it is now.