I’ve been using a Sonos Play:1 in my bathroom for years, but it always felt like a hassle to get my music started. I’d have to pull out my phone, open Spotify, navigate to my favorites playlist, shuffle it, and then connect it to the bathroom Sonos. This process was just too cumbersome, so I rarely used it. My girlfriend used it even less—only once or twice a month.
I decided to make this easier using Homey. I had a KAKU AWST-8802 wireless switch lying around, which has four buttons. I hooked it up to Homey in just a few seconds. My goal was to use the left button to start my Spotify favorites playlist on shuffle and the right button for my girlfriend’s playlist. I also wanted a “Next” and “Stop” function.
Initially, I tried using the Spotify and Sonos apps directly in Homey, but I ran into some issues with finding the playlist ID. After some research, I found that sharing the playlist and extracting the unique ID from the URL worked once, but then I got an error.
I decided to switch to an old Raspberry Pi with Bronos installed. Bronos provided a simple web API that I could control via HTTP requests from Homey. I set up URLs to control the Sonos speaker and playlists, and it worked perfectly!
To make it even more user-friendly, I created custom stickers with icons for “Next” and “Stop” and placed them on the switch. I also added my girlfriend’s playlist to the Sonos favorites and repeated the setup for her. Now, both of us can control the music effortlessly.
The result? My girlfriend loves it and uses it way more often. It’s a huge improvement over the old process. If the Homey Spotify/Sonos integration ever becomes more reliable, I might switch back, but for now, this Raspberry Pi setup is working flawlessly.
This project taught me the power of combining simple hardware with clever automation. It’s all about making technology work for you, not the other way around! 
