It has been said for a few months that Sonos wants to launch its own voice control. Now it has become known that the plans are gradually becoming more concrete. Below you can find out everything you need to know and whether “Sonos Voice Control” can provide an alternative to Alexa and Google Assistant.
Many speakers and soundbars work via voice control. The most common are the Google Assistant and Alexa from Amazon. The Sonos devices also support this, but the manufacturer now wants to present its own voice assistant “Sonos Voice Control”. The starting signal is already planned for June 1, 2022.
However, the service should not serve as a competitor to the voice assistants Alexa and Google Assistant that are already in use, but rather complement them – at least for the time being. However, it is conceivable that “Sonos Voice Control” could establish itself as an alternative if voice control is accepted by customers.
Sonos Voice Control does not support all music streaming services
Music playback should be controlled by shouting “Hey Sonos” and should work on all Sonos devices that have a microphone. The products support well over 100 streaming services, but the new voice control will initially only be compatible with selected music streaming services. These include Apple Music, Amazon Music and Deezer, among others. Spotify is not included for the time being, reports The Verge.
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But there should be a big difference to Alexa and Google Assistant. Sonos does not want to offer its own voice control “Sonos Voice Control” in a cloud-based manner. This means that the spoken word will not end up in a cloud but will remain completely anonymous. However, this could become a problem as the data stored in the cloud could improve the services. In short: useful for data protection reasons, but possibly a shortcoming in terms of further development.
Not in Germany for the time being
Initially, the loudspeaker manufacturer will probably only offer its own voice assistant in the USA. All Sonos products with the S2 software should receive voice control via an update. The international rollout is expected to follow a little later. When exactly that should happen is still unclear.
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So far, Sonos has not wanted to comment on the rumors, but there are some indications that “Sonos Voice Control” will be coming soon. Among other things, the company has published a job advertisement in which it is looking for a software test engineer with “Voice Experience”. More details could emerge in the coming weeks.