Three major voice assistants compete against each other in the smart speaker space. Choose a speaker, and get Amazon Alexa, Google Assistant, or Apple’s Siri. Often the speaker we get is determined by the assistant we want, with Alexa being by far more widely used than the other two.
However, if you own a Sonos smart speaker, you won’t only be relegated to using Amazon Alexa. Once a software update is pushed out to Sonos One and Sonos Beam, you’ll be able to have your choice of assistant: Alexa or Google Assistant, making them the first smart speakers to offer both voice assistants.
Sonos Smart Speaker with Google Assistant
When the company released Sonos One in 2017, they announced that the smart speaker would eventually work with both voice assistants, though it only shipped with Alexa, promising Google Assistant would follow in 2018.
By November 2018, Sonos confirmed to users that Google Assistant would not be available to them until 2019. Nearly halfway through the year, it is now finally becoming available.
Once you install Google Assistant on your phone and also update the Sonos app, you can activate Assistant. While you won’t be able to use both assistants at the same time, you’ll be able to choose which one you want, as some things are better on Alexa, and some are better on Assistant.
But if you own multiple speakers, you can assign individual voice assistants to them. They don’t all need to be using the same one.
The negative to this is that even after this two-year wait for Google Assistant, all capabilities will not be available. The smart speakers will not support Voice Match, purchases, phone calls, interpreter mode, or routines.
They will support third-party actions such as music and controlling other smart home devices as well as Google actions such as Continued Conversation and Broadcast mode. Controlling your TV will be available on a Sonos Beam.
Opening Up the Smart Speaker Market
Hopefully, this will open up the smart speaker market, making multiple assistants available. However, Siri is so proprietary, that it seems rather iffy that they would be opening up to be used on other systems. Alexa tends to be as well, but it is available on third-party speakers such as Sonos and Facebook’s Portal.
Do you own a Sonos smart speaker? Have you been waiting for it to be opened up to be used with Google Assistant? Or are you happy with Alexa? Let us know how you use your Sonos smart speaker in the comments below.
Image Credit: “Sonos One speaker white – vertical”
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