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Contributor I
March 27, 2025

What is Sonos' plan for transitioning from Google Assistant to Gemini?

  • March 27, 2025
  • 59 replies
  • 16021 views

With Android phones moving to Gemini, this change interferes with using Google Assistant on Sonos devices. If Google Assistant is not already set up on Sonos, the setup process now redirects to Gemini, making it impossible to connect GA to Sonos. For those who have GA already activated, enabling Gemini on the phone causes GA on Sonos to respond with a connection issue, rendering it unusable.

 

This creates a difficult choice for users either stop using GA on Sonos or avoid switching to Gemini on their phones. Given that GA is likely to be fully replaced by Gemini in the near future, how does Sonos plan to address this transition and ensure continued voice assistant functionality on its devices?

 

 

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59 replies

Lyricist II
March 27, 2025

I also hope to finally receive an official response to this.

March 31, 2025

Apparently, Sonos hasn't and won't (for the time being) include Google Assistant support in newer or future products.

If Google Assistant is no longer available soon, there probably won't be an upgrade to Gemini. This means that older Sonos products will no longer be supported.

Important message to Sonos:
If I were the CEO of Sonos, I'd swallow my pride and finally listen to the customers.
1. Retrofit Google Assistant or Gemini support for all products
2. Chromecast integration

So you lost a legal battle against Google (perhaps rightfully so), but don't you want to treat your customers to something nice again without taking money out of their pockets for new, expensive speakers?
Maintain your ecosystem and software consistently so that customers don't ditch the company, because there are enough other manufacturers that offer "very close" quality.

At the latest when Gemini is not supported and my Sonos Arc or Sub breaks, I will have to look for a good alternative to be able to play YouTube Music properly without the Sonos app.

Let's be honest? You could have also worked well with Google. Your hardware would complement the Nest system (like IKEA). Google would benefit immensely from you, and you would benefit from Google's customers. After all, anyone who has individual Nest speakers might also want a home theater system.

melvimbe
March 31, 2025

So you lost a legal battle against Google (perhaps rightfully so), but don't you want to treat your customers to something nice again without taking money out of their pockets for new, expensive speakers?

 

I get why people assume that Sonos stopped supporting google due to the legal battles, but it seems more likely to me that Sonos looked at the cost of the license and dev support costs to support Google voice and chromecast, as well as the market for the feature, and decided that it wasn’t the way to go.  Maybe that will change, but I doubt Sonos made the decision based off pride, rather than what was good for Sonos.

That said, I do think Sonos needs to make an announcement regarding what will happen to speakers that do have GA onboard already.

Danny
Airgetlam
March 31, 2025

Assuming Sonos knows what will happen, at this point…

Bruce
Lyricist II
March 31, 2025

I don't understand what all this secrecy is about instead of just speaking plainly, and I can already say that those who don't keep up with the times will be left behind.

Airgetlam
March 31, 2025

I am suggesting that Google hasn’t told Sonos yet, so Sonos is unable to make this statement desired. 

Bruce
Contributor I
May 23, 2025

I’d really like an answer on this. I’m thinking about adding more to my Sonos system, but if they can’t sort stuff like this out, I’ll not make any more purchases and go with a brand that can. All manner of devices work happily with Google Assistant - can’t be that hard or that expensive.

Lyricist II
May 27, 2025

I would also appreciate an answer from Sonos on this. I've had to move my Voice Assistant to Alexa post the upgrade but would much rather be using Gemini as its become a disjointed experience.

106rallye
May 27, 2025

At the time Sonos stopped enabling GA on their newer devices Sonos stated new demands by Google made implementing GA unworkable for Sonos, see 

Though in one of the preceding posts ​@Corry P leaves the possibility GA Will return open, I will not hold my breath until this happens. Sonos is still working with Google Nest Mini’s though.

I do hope Sonos will either make GA work on newer devices or go over to Gemini though, because GA is the only voice assistant that work in my native language, Dutch.

My work around for GA on my Arc Ultra for now is that I’ve enabled GA on a Sonos One that I use as one of my surrounds.

melvimbe
May 27, 2025

I think it’s better to separate this in to two distinct features

1 - Using GA/Gemini voice assistant via Sonos voice enabled devices.  I would be surprised if this happens anytime soon.  There is surely some licensing costs and development effort.  That said, Sonos has a new CEO who may view this feature, and the relationship with Google, differently than the old CEO.  If they did want to pursue this, I think Sonos would still take the approach of not making any official announcements till the new feature is fully tested and ready to go.  Sonos had made announcements and a go live date when GA was first promised, but the missed the target date badly, upsetting a lot of customers.

2 - Using Gemini to control Sonos speakers via non-Sonos devices.  This seems like it would be entirely up to Google to develop and enable. The interface is already there for GA, so Gemini would just need to use that same interface.  However, Google could decide that they want an entirely new interface, maybe even for good reasons, which could require work on Sonos part.  I would think Google would want everything that worked with GA to automatically work on Gemini though, without requiring every other company to dedicate develop efforts, at least to maintain existing functionality.

Danny