There have been previous threads addressing voice calls on Sonos; however, it has been two years since any threads regarding voice calls have been open. I think with the addition of the generation 2 Sonos One device that inherently supports Google Assistant and Amazon Alexa it is time for the development team to take a look at enabling voice calling on the Sonos devices that support Amazon Alexa or Google Assistant. I think the community and consumers would react very positively to the addition of that feature, but would also appreciate justification if it is not possible for that feature to be developed at this time.
The line in/out issue is quite vexing to me with both Sonos and Amazon, actually, seeing that it is the simplest way of getting incompatible devices to work together. If the play 1 had line in, it would be a real champion in my book; I use my play 1 pair+ Sub with an Echo front end because I am able to insert a redundant Connect in between. Sonos has stuck to offering the line in feature only on its higher priced speakers/units, so one cannot, for example, use a turntable with a play 1/One pair. Amazon on the other hand offer line outs now only on its cheapest product, the Dot. Which means that when my Echo Show has to replaced in future, only a Dot will work for me, which is silly. Google of course has never offered line out on speaker quipped devices, as far as I know. Mysterious strategies all around.
On the thread topic of voice calls, I have disabled these on all my Echo devices, so I am in the nay camp. But for those that must have the feature, perhaps Hey Sonos when it lands could offer this on Sonos?
Echo devices are getting better and better in terms of sound quality
I have as many Sonos devices that predate the as many Echo devices I have, and from a features point of view they do all that Sonos does for me, at much lower price points, and just as reliably.
But I have to disagree on the sound quality front - there is nothing there that matches even the now superseded Sonos play I for sound quality, and none of my Echo units, except one in the bathroom, use the built in speakers to play music. All are wired via their audio out jacks to either Sonos kit or to Studio monitors with built in amps.
Which is why it is also disappointing that the latest Echo Show devices no longer have these audio out jacks that are essential to bring sound quality to listenable levels for my music listening. At the same time, there has been no progress towards standalone sound quality improvements from these devices for some years now. Amazon seems to be pursuing other priorities.
I think it’s pitiful that they don’t support more features. Echo devices are getting better and better in terms of sound quality and Sonos will eventually fold due to non-competitiveness.
If this were the case, than that would be reflected in Sonos financial statements. It absolutely isn’t the case. And echos have had quite a few years to come up with sound quality to match or better Sonos, but they haven’t done so. It’s not like Amazon has to figure out how to improve sound quality, they have chosen not to. It doesn’t seem to be the direction they want to go. That could change, but no reason to think that’s going to definitely happen.
It’s not an apples to oranges comparison anyway, since echos just stream music. They cannot play aux sources and TV audio wirelessly, change groups dynamically, use other voice assistants, etc.
I think it’s pitiful that they don’t support more features. Echo devices are getting better and better in terms of sound quality and Sonos will eventually fold due to non-competitiveness.
(for the record I own 9 Sonos speakers…. I’ll get rid of them quickly after a few more generations of echo with improving sound quality are released. Sonos is finicky, feature-limited and expensive).
Sonos make multiroom audio systems which can be controlled by certain proprietary voice control systems: Google, Alexa and to a much more limited extent, Siri. Sonos do not make Google, Echo or Apple devices. Anybody who expects to find all the features of the ‘native’ voice assistant devices on Sonos speakers has misunderstood the nature of the product and is destined for disappointment.
You have to look at the whole package, including sound quality, flexibility, range of services etc. And accept that they all have certain limitations.
I don’t know for sure, but I get the impression that Sonos has made an internal decision not to chase after voice assistant features that are not related to music playback. These features are always changing and adapting and set at a pass that Amazon and Google can keep up, but Sonos cannot. They will forever be behind on features. Even if Sonos did get voice calls going, Amazon and Google could change how it works the next week and would not at all be concerned about it working on Sonos. They did try and keep up for awhile with features like annoucements, but I don’t think they have adding anything else in the past couple years.
Perhaps Sonos development efforts are better spent on their own products and services, and voice assistant if the rumors are true (although that surely won’t have voice calling either).
For balance on this thread, I’ll say that it’s not something I want or would use.
I completely agree that we need Google Assistant voice calling. I used this all of the time on my Google Nest, and was very disappointed it didn’t work on the Sonos One 2nd gen that I just set up.
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All of those it-would-be-nice-to-have-features require memory. Since Sonos is a speaker manufacturer first I’d rather see further development in their core area. Say for instance a modified Sonos One SL with upward firing speakers to compliment the Arc and Beam Gen2 for Atmos.
2 years since any new threads on the subject tells me it's not that pressing an issue for the vast majority of users. I know I'd never use it.
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