Sonos is about to add a new weapon to its smart speakers that will help make it even more competitive against Apple’s HomePod.
The company revealed today that it plans to bring Google Assistant to its smart speakers later this year. Beta testing for the new feature has already begun, allowing Google’s Siri-competitor to be the main voice input on some Sonos speaker models.
During CES 2019, Sonos announced that the Sonos One and Sonos Beam speakers will integrate Google Assistant. Older speakers without microphones will also get an update to make them work with Google Assistant in conjunction with Google Home.
At the end of 2017, Sonso told fans that it planned to integrate Assistant into its Sonos One speaker by the end of 2018. The company missed that deadline but promises the rollout will happen later this year.
With a private beta already underway, Sonso wants to scale up the beta test to thousands of homes after CES. A spokesperson told Variety that the public rollout will be based on the results of the beta and that a firm date hasn’t been set yet.
Once Sonos adds Google Assistant it will be the first smart speaker to feature Amazon’s Alexa and Google Assistant. Apple’s not totally left out. Sonos speakers currently support Apple Music and have AirPlay 2 integration as well.
