No surprise, other than the delays, that Sonos is poised to drop their highly anticipated voice control. And we’re talking weeks, not months. While the connected speaker pioneer had previously suggested integration with multiple services, as they do music, I believe I can confirm Alexa as their sole, initial partner and that the Skill, accessed via Amazon hardware, may launch as a public beta (perhaps given a frustrating early implementation, per one source). Although, like Variety, we also wonder if new mic-enabled hardware is en-route … although it’s seemingly more likely they intend to stick with software integrations. In any event, the competition is about to heat up with the Siri-powered Apple HomePod and a more acoustically-focused Amazon Echo with whole-home aspirations on our fall agenda.
No word yet as to which services Sonos will control and to what extent – sounds like a project given so many moving pieces. Wonder if they’ll be integrating Google voice control (next). We only have one Sonos left at this point – a Play:1 in my daughter’s room that we stream nature sounds and lullabies to when she’s falling asleep or wakes up restless in the middle of the night.
Yay, here it hoping the integration is more intuitive then the Harmony integration. The only Alexa/Harmony skill I remember is “Alexa, tell Harmony to pause.” How about, “Alexa pause TV?
I know I am living in a fantasy world, but how about whole home audio with a mix of Sonos and Echos?
Dave,
Any comment on the new Sonos privacy policy?
It’s probably related to this?
Yeah, related. It’s the way of the world with these connected devices and associated services – agree or ebay your stuff. Kinda dovetails into the broader IoT concerns comment thread on the August lock post.
Hearing from another source that the experience is still rough which could further delay release, although I suspect they’re under significant pressure to deploy by or at the CEDIA show that kicks off September 5th. We shall see!
The Sonos FCC hold on their new device is up on 8/27 which makes sense something new will be at CEDIA.
Don’t say that in too many public locations or they might think to file a confidentiality extension… but, yeah, my calendar has been marked for months. I assume we’re looking at a revised Play:3 to match new Play:5 styling – perhaps with usable mics? Although a source had indicated last year that a portable or outdoor speaker was coming. Hm.
Well that was largely underwhelming… it’s an updated Connect.
Really looking forward to integration with Alexa, although I will probably be underwhelmed. I read somewhere that Sonos has a media event scheduled October 4th where it is expected they will release a new voice enabled speaker. Probably will be releasing the Alexa integration at the same time.