Google Assistant comes to Sonos speakers

Starting today, users can start talking to Google Assistant through their Sonos speakers.

Sonos announced on Tuesday that it has begun rolling out Google Assistant across its product lineup. Sonos customers can start using Google’s voice-activated assistant with their Sonos One and Sonos Beam after a software update.

Even owners of older models of Sonos’ speakers can take advantage of the new feature by simply syncing the device with a Google Home Mini or Google Assistant enabled smartphone.

With Google Assistant on Sonos One and Sonos Beam, users can implement basic voice-activated playback controls when listening to music. They can also make song, album, or playlist requests through services like Spotify, Pandora, and YouTube Music.

Users can also check the weather, ask questions, listen to news updates, make calendar entries, and control Assistant enabled products like Chromecast and Google smart home devices.

There are some Google Assistant features lacking from Sonos devices. Voice match, contacts, and phone calls are a few requests these speakers can’t perform yet.

Amazon’s voice assistant, Alexa, is already available on Sonos One and Sonos Beam. This means Sonos customers now have a choice between using Google Assistant or Alexa on their speaker.

“We value freedom of choice, empowering listeners to choose what they want to listen to and how they want to control it. Adding voice, now with the Google Assistant, has made that control even easier,” said Sonos CEO Patrick Spence in a statement posted on the company’s website.

In its announcement, Sonos is promoting a mixed use case between Google Assistant and Alexa for users who have multiple speakers. According to Sonos, a song can be playing on an Alexa-enabled speaker and a user can ask the Google Assistant one for the song information without interrupting the music.

This is certainly an interesting use case, but the scenario drives home the importance of providing these choices for customers.