Now you can pick between Amazon Alexa and Google Assistant
Making good on a promise to do so last week, Sonos is today rolling out Google Assistant as a second choice for a voice assistant on its Sonos One and Sonos Beam smart speakers.
After installing the latest app and firmware updates, you can switch over to Google Assistant on either of those devices.
As is the case with Alexa, so long as you have the Sonos One or Beam, your Assistant voice commands will control your entire Sonos multi-room audio system — even if it includes older speaker models. If you don’t have one of the newer Sonos speakers, all it takes is a Google Home Mini to gain the same capabilities, as Google’s lineup of Home speakers can now be linked to your Sonos setup.
You can choose either Alexa or Google Assistant for each individual Sonos One or Beam in your system. If you start playing music with Alexa on one speaker, Google Assistant on the other will be aware of what’s playing and able to tell you song information or respond to requests to skip tracks or play something else instead.
Google Assistant can control your smart home gadgets, ask any number of questions, or start playing content — including video — on any Android TV or a TV with a Chromecast plugged in.
Sonos also supports Assistant features like continued conversation (so you don’t have to keep saying “Hey Google”) and broadcast mode. That said, there are a few things that the One and Beam lack at launch with Assistant. Those are:
Calls
Voice match
Interpreter mode
Setting routines in the Google Home app
Sonos says Google Assistant is launching only in the US for now, but Australia, Canada, France, Germany, the Netherlands, and the UK will follow in July with more countries coming later.
