What you need to know
- Sonos is set to launch its own voice assistant on June 1.
- Sonos Voice will work with most of the biggest music streaming services.
- All existing Sonos hardware that supports the S2 software will also support Sonos Voice.
Sonos is reportedly set to announce its own voice assistant to compete with the likes of Google Assistant and Alexa — two options that are already available on its plethora of smart speakers.
Set to be called Sonos Voice, the new option will be available on all of the company's smart speakers that already run the S2 software, according to a report by The Verge. As for timing, those in the United States will get in on the action on June 1, but other countries will surely follow in due course.
In terms of capabilities, the report claims that Sonos Voice will support the usual array of music streaming services with two notable exceptions in the shape of Spotify and Google's YouTube Music.
At launch, Sonos Voice will work with Apple Music, Amazon Music, Pandora, Deezer, and the company's own Sonos Radio. Spotify and Google's YouTube Music aren't yet on board. In keeping with Sonos' interest in privacy, the feature will not record user audio commands or relay them to the cloud for processing. "Hey Sonos" will be the wake word for Sonos Voice Control, and the company's internal tests show it to be quicker than competing assistant services at core music tasks.
While Sonos itself hasn't yet confirmed the existence of Sonos Voice, job openings do point to such a thing while The Verge notes that the company has been running surveys surrounding such a feature.
Notably, Sonos will offer voice concurrency for Sonos Voice, essentially allowing it to function alongside Alexa for the ultimate in smart home and music control.
Looking to get yourself into the Sonos ecosystem before this new software update, and new voice assistant, arrive on June 1? Be sure to check out our collection of the best Sonos speakers before placing an order!
