Sonos Is About To Introduce Its Own Voice Assistant

Sonos is preparing to introduce its own voice assistant service within the next few weeks, according to people familiar with the company's plans. The voice functionality will let customers play and control music on Sonos' whole-home audio platform. The Verge reports: It will be part of a forthcoming software update set to arrive first to customers in the US on June 1st, with an international rollout to follow. Sonos Voice will serve as an alternative to Amazon Alexa and Google Assistant, which Sonos already supports on its smart speakers and voice-enabled soundbars. All Sonos products that run the company's S2 software will support Sonos Voice Control. Sonos has recently posted job openings related to the "Sonos Voice Experience," with the company saying its ambition is to "make voice interactions fully private, more personal, and more natural." The debut of Sonos Voice will mark a pivotal moment in Sonos' expansion into services as the company seeks to augment its hardware business. (Sonos Radio and the paid, higher quality Sonos Radio HD were the first such forays into services.) The offering will provide core conveniences that are similar to existing competitors, allowing Sonos product owners to play specific songs, artists, or playlists with voice commands, among other functions. 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. [...] The Sonos Voice Experience will stick to the fundamentals at launch. But if people are able to use Alexa at the same time -- Sonos calls this feature "voice concurrency" -- they'll be able to give the Sonos offering a shot without sacrificing smart home integrations or other more varied features that the Sonos voice service may lack.

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