Guides
Announcements that play by themselves
Save an announcement once, and your iPhone can play it on your Sonos speakers when something happens: the front door is unlocked, it’s time to leave for school, you get home, or someone taps a sticker by the door. Each recipe here is an automation in the Shortcuts app that ends with Sannounce’s Play Saved Announcement.
How every recipe works
- You need an iPhone with Sannounce on the same Wi-Fi as your Sonos speakers. It plays the announcement, so it has to be at home when the automation runs.
- The announcement plays without Sannounce opening, and the music comes back afterwards.
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Save the announcement in Sannounce
Record it and save it with the star. To choose where it plays, touch and hold it and pick Choose Rooms. Otherwise it plays in the rooms selected in the app.
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Create the automation
In the Shortcuts app, tap the Add button to create an automation, and pick the trigger from the recipe.
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Add Play Saved Announcement
Search for Sannounce’s Play Saved Announcement action, add it and pick the announcement. To play it in other rooms than its own, open the action’s options and choose Rooms.
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Let it run on its own
Set the automation to Run Immediately, and when Shortcuts asks “Don’t ask before running?”, tap Don’t Ask. Your iPhone is usually locked when an automation runs, so tap the Info button, then Privacy, and turn on Allow Running When Locked.
Doors and sensors
Play “Welcome home!” when the front door is unlocked, or “Someone’s at the back door” when a sensor notices someone. Needs iOS 27.
When I receive a notification from Home
Title contains Hallway
Subtitle contains unlocked
Play Welcome home
Turn on the accessory’s notifications
In the Home app, open the settings of the lock or sensor, tap Status and Notifications and turn on Allow Notifications. Then unlock the door or walk past the sensor, and look at the notification you get. The automation listens for its words.
The trigger
Choose Notification and pick Home as the app, so it says “When I receive a notification from Home”. Tap Add Filter and set Title contains to the name of the room: the Home app puts it in the notification’s title. Add a second filter and set Subtitle contains to words from the line below it, such as unlocked.
- unlocked matches every unlock, also when the notification names who unlocked the door.
- For locking, use was locked. On its own, locked matches unlocked too.
- Motion sensors say Motion detected by, followed by the sensor’s name.
- The filter finds the words anywhere in the notification, so Hall also matches Hallway. If you rename the room or the accessory, change the filter too.
- Your iPhone writes notifications in its own language, so copy the words exactly as they appear.
- If the automation doesn’t run, change Subtitle to Message.
Good to know
Every iPhone with the automation gets the notification and plays the announcement, so set it up on one iPhone only: the one that’s at home the most. When you lock the door on your way out, your iPhone may already have left the Wi-Fi.
Automations in the Home app itself can’t do this. They run on your home hub, an Apple TV or a HomePod, which can only run Apple’s own actions.
On a schedule
“Time to leave for school!” at 7:45 on weekdays, or “Time to brush your teeth” at bedtime.
At 7:45 AM, weekdays
Play Time to go
The trigger
Choose Time of Day, set the time, then choose Weekly and pick the days.
Good to know
Set it up on one iPhone, one that’s usually at home at that time. When it’s away, nothing plays.
When you get home
“I’m home!” in the kitchen when your iPhone joins your home Wi-Fi.
When iPhone joins Home
Play I’m home
The trigger
Choose Wi-Fi and pick your home network.
Good to know
Set it up on the iPhone of the person coming home: it plays when that iPhone joins, so everyone can have their own announcement. If the iPhone drops off the Wi-Fi at the far end of the garden and is back within three minutes, it doesn’t play again, as long as Run After Connection Interruption stays off.
Use Wi-Fi rather than Arrive. Arrive runs when you’re near home, often before your iPhone is on the Wi-Fi, and then it can’t reach the speakers.
Tap a sticker
“Dinner’s ready!” all over the house when you hold your iPhone to a sticker on the kitchen cupboard.
When Kitchen is scanned
Play Dinner’s ready
You need
An NFC sticker, the kind sold in packs for a few dollars. NTAG213 or NTAG215 stickers work well.
The trigger
Choose NFC, tap Scan and hold your iPhone near the sticker. Name the tag, like Kitchen.
Good to know
Only the iPhone that taps the sticker plays the announcement, so everyone at home can add the same automation. Your iPhone reads the sticker when its screen is on.
The doorbell
“Someone’s at the door” upstairs and in the garden room, when an iPhone near the front door hears the doorbell ring.
When Doorbell is recognized
Play Someone’s at the door
You need
An iPhone that stays near the front door, like an old one on a charger in the hall. On it, go to Settings › Accessibility › Sound Recognition, turn it on, and under Sounds pick Doorbell, and Door Knock if you like. If it doesn’t know your doorbell, teach it yours under Custom Appliance or Doorbell.
The trigger
Choose Sound Recognition and pick Doorbell.
Good to know
Ring your doorbell to try it: Sound Recognition doesn’t know every doorbell. If Sannounce’s chime is set to Doorbell, pick another one in its settings, or a speaker near the iPhone can set off the automation again. While Sound Recognition is on, that iPhone doesn’t listen for “Hey Siri”, which is one more reason to use a spare one.
Or play it with one press
Siri
Siri learns every saved announcement. Say “Play Dinner’s ready with Sannounce”.
Control Center, the Lock Screen and the Action Button
Add Sannounce’s Play Saved Announcement control and pick the announcement. For the Action Button, go to Settings › Action Button, swipe to Controls and choose Sannounce.
Stuck? The support page has answers to common problems, and my email.