It’s been a long time – nearly 18 months – since Sonos announced support for Google Assistant. But it is finally coming after Sonos CEO Patrick Spence confirmed the company’s plans to launch during a quarterly earnings letter to shareholders.
The rollout of the Google Assistant update will start in the US next week, with Spence mentioning the feature will go live in “more markets to come over the next few months.” Its introduction means users of Sonos products can now choose between Assistant, Alexa and Apple’s Siri (via AirPlay 2).
Spence also went to say that [Google Assistant] “will truly elevate the customer experience… we think giving consumers choice is always the right decision, and we anticipate this philosophy will be adopted in the industry over time.”
Sonos first announced Assistant was on the way when it announced the Sonos One speaker in October 2017. An initial target was set for 2018, but for whatever reason that promise proved tricky to keep and the release date came and went with no sign of the feature.
Google Assistant integration arrived back on the agenda when Sonos showed its products working with Google Assistant at CES 2019. The Sonos and Beam are both expected to carry the voice assistant technology, though Google mentioned at CES that it expected earlier models – Play:1, Play:5, Playbase and Playbar – could be updated to be compatible.
While that doesn’t appear to have been fully confirmed by Sonos yet, owners of those products could receive it later down the line.
A UK release date for Google Assistant on Sonos is yet to be confirmed, but we’d hope for a release sooner rather than later.
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Editorial independence means being able to give an unbiased verdict about a product or company, with the avoidance of conflicts of interest. To ensure this is possible, every member of the editorial staff follows a clear code of conduct.
Professional conduct
We also expect our journalists to follow clear ethical standards in their work. Our staff members must strive for honesty and accuracy in everything they do. We follow the IPSO Editors’ code of practice to underpin these standards.
