Smart speaker maker Sonos will soon deploy its own voice assistant, similar to Apple’s Siri. It will let you play and control music on the company’s products, according to a new report.
The new voice assistant, “Sonos Voice,” will work with Apple Music and a handful of other services.
Privacy-minded ‘Sonos Voice’ assistant will work with Apple Music and other services
Sonos is getting ready to unveil its own voice assistant to let users play and control music on the company’s speakers and audio platforms, The Verge reported Wednesday.
One such audio product might be the budget sound bar the company has in the works, according to a leak.
Sonos Voice will arrive as part of an upcoming software update to Sonos devices slated to arrive for U.S. customers on June 1. An international rollout will come later.
The new functionality will be an alternative to Amazon Alexa and Google Assistant. Both of them are supported on Sonos speakers.
Siri is not supported, but you can use a limited number of Siri voice commands with Sonos products that work with AirPlay 2.
The Verge said Sonos Voice will allow users to control music playback on Apple Music, Amazon Music, Pandora, Deezer and Sonos Radio, but not on Spotify or YouTube music.
No recording or cloud processing
Unlike other voice assistants, Sonos Voice will keep everything on the device. It won’t record audio commands or send them to the cloud for processing. That entails a greater emphasis on privacy with this voice assistant than with others.
In addition, Sonos testing apparently showed that the assistant, which you wake up by saying “Hey Sonos,” is quicker than competing assistants at core music tasks.
Sonos did not confirm the voice assistant news. But numerous signs point to the company working on such a platform. Those include job openings for voice-related roles and reports the company is building up its software prowess through upcoming additions like a “Home Theater OS.”
