Sonos is venturing into a new market. It is reportedly launching its Voice Assistant next month.
The company will now break a streak of just launching speaker products. It will now launch its first voice assistant software, despite fully supporting Alexa and Google Assistant on its products.
Sonos is preparing to launch its own voice assistant, which has been anticipated for some time, in the coming weeks. Sonos Voice is supposed to provide voice control for music playback on many of the company's devices, providing owners with an alternative to Amazon Alexa and Google Assistant if they don't want to utilize those virtual assistants.
Sonos Voice Assistance
Sonos will now be able to offer the feature of managing and controlling music in any part of their users' homes using the voice command software they are about to launch.
According to The Verge, a new software update will include this feature, which will be available to consumers in the United States on June 1st, with a global rollout to follow shortly after that. Sonos Voice will compete with Amazon Alexa and Google Assistant, which Sonos already supports on its smart speakers and voice-enabled soundbars, and will be available in the coming months. Sonos Voice Control will be supported by all Sonos products that are powered by the company's S2 software.
During the first launch, Sonos will not yet have Google's YouTube Music and Spotify. However, the voice assistant will be compatible with Apple Music, Amazon Music, Pandora, Deezer, and the company's own Sonos Radio when it launches in the coming months.
In accordance with Sonos' concern for user privacy, the feature will not record or transmit user audio commands to the cloud for processing. Using the phrase "Hey Sonos," users will be able to activate Sonos Voice Control, which, according to internal testing, is far faster than competing assistant services at performing fundamental music tasks.
Users will be able to switch between different voice assistants on a whim, which is another amazing feature that Sonos will have in its product. Alexa and Google Assistant will be activated by using the unique activation phrase for each service.
The company releasing voice assistant software is just as surprising as the release of the product itself. It is public knowledge that Sonos has previously had legal battles with huge digital corporations like Google and Amazon.
As an example, Sonos won a patent case against Google late last year, compelling the latter to remove functionalities from various device manager apps.
Despite Sonos publicly accusing both of unfair pricing techniques and patent infringement, the three companies continue to collaborate as partners. Sonos successfully sued Google over the latter, requiring small changes to multi-room audio playback and volume settings in select Google software.
Sonos Gearing Up for Launch
Sonos has been reportedly working towards this launch for a long time now. According to CNET, code snippets found in its speaker-management app indicated the business was working on a voice-assistant app. Sonos, after purchasing Snips, an AI voice platform for managing connected devices, in November 2019, has been open about building an assistant.
This claim is also supported by the job vacancy posted by the company connected to the "Sonos Voice Experience".
It is expected that the introduction of Sonos Voice will be a breakthrough point in the company's foray into services as it looks to supplement its hardware business. In fact, it was Sonos Radio and the premium, higher-quality Sonos Radio HD that were the first such inroads into the service world.
Using the voice assistant, customers will be able to use voice commands to play specific songs, artists, or playlists, among other tasks. The offering will include key convenience features that are similar to those provided by established competitors.
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