After months and months of beta testing, Sonos is finally making good on the promise to bring the Google Assistant to their smart-speaker lineup. The missed the target launch of 2018 but “better late than never” applies as the company has promised the upgrade via a software update sometime next week.
Announced all the way back in October of 2017, the update will set the Sonos One and Beam speakers apart from competitors as it will now support the Assistant and Amazon’s Alexa all in one device.
The news came as the centerpiece of Sonos’ Q2 shareholder’s report with support rolling out in the U.S. first and other markets coming in the next few months.
This feature will truly elevate the customer experience and marks the first time that consumers will be able to buy a single smart speaker and get to choose which voice assistant they want to use. We think giving consumers choice is always the right decision, and we anticipate this philosophy will be adopted in the industry over time.
Patrick Spence, CEO Sonos
The adoption of the Assistant into more high-end audio options bodes well for Google as they continue to push the smart-helper across platform lines and into the home. As the Assistant experience becomes faster and more versatile, I suspect we will see many more OEMs embracing Google’s smart-helper.
Source: Sonos
