Retired Community Manager

Introducing Sonos Voice Control

Related content:Software

150 replies
7677 views

Hi Sonos Community members!

Today, we introduce the first voice experience created purely for listening on Sonos. Designed with privacy at its core, Sonos Voice Control is the simplest way to control your music, offering complete command of your Sonos system using only your voice.

Sonos Voice Control works on every voice-capable Sonos speaker, processing requests entirely on the device.

No audio or transcript is sent to the cloud, stored, listened to or read by anyone.

Available on new voice capable products and as a free update for existing customers, Sonos Voice Control is compatible with Sonos Radio, Apple Music, Amazon Music, Deezer, and Pandora at launch. More services and markets will follow.

Fast, accurate control of your music and your Sonos System

Sonos Voice Control finds the music you want to listen to, processing requests entirely on the device. Local processing delivers faster response times, and effortless follow-ups.

All you need is one “Hey Sonos” and you can follow up without the need for additional wake-words.

Just like the Sonos app, you can control music and speakers in any room, easily move music around the home, save and like your favorite songs to your personal music library and more.

Natural conversation with Giancarlo Esposito

Sonos Voice Control understands the nuance of human communication and will respond to natural commands like “turn it up!”. After a careful search, Sonos chose award-winning actor Giancarlo Esposito - best known for his roles in Breaking Bad, Better Call Saul and The Mandalorian - to deliver a familiar voice for US customers. With careful recording, advanced processing and mastering, the voice is natural, unobtrusive, yet confident and engaging.

Sonos’ first voice will be joined by others over time as Sonos continues to expand the experience to new people and places.

Sonos Voice Control is available in the US starting June 1 and in France later this year, with additional markets to follow.

Read the full press release on Sonos Voice Control here.

Sonos Voice Control

This topic has been closed for further comments. You can use the search bar to find a similar topic, or create a new one by clicking Create Topic at the top of the page.

Show previous replies

Jeffrey_35

Headliner III

This has seemed like a lifetime waiting for (ok a few years anyways). Giancarlo Esposito is the bomb, perfect choice. Thank you Sonos, really excited for this in general. June 1st can’t come soon enough!!!! The end goal for me is to finally kick Alexa to the curb and we are this close. A few quick questions & requests:

Is it only the speaker you are within voice shot of to control or any speaker on your network. For example, can I use a bathroom Roam to turn on the Kitchen (with or without a mic as I have both).

I know everyone and their mother wants Spotify but for me Sirius XM integration would be awesome. Also curious about the Apple Music Lossless question.

Can you trigger or integrate something like Shortcuts where you can say, “Run Patio Party” and it will go thru a series of steps with launching certain speakers, certain music etc..?

Any chance we will get Sonos app voice integration if you are away from voice shot of a speaker (like Alexa can)?

“The true sign of intelligence is not knowledge but imagination.”

arcadelt

Enthusiast I

Designed long before there was knowledge about how such a system would potentially work. Seems like blaming Sonos for not allowing the PLAYBAR to have AirPlay 2.

That’s a pretty I’ll informed response. It’s not like Sonos products didn’t already support voice assistants when the Five [and even the Play:5 (Gen 2] was released.

melvimbe

Designed long before there was knowledge about how such a system would potentially work. Seems like blaming Sonos for not allowing the PLAYBAR to have AirPlay 2.

That’s a pretty I’ll informed response. It’s not like Sonos products didn’t already support voice assistants when the Five [and even the Play:5 (Gen 2] was released.

Pretty sure @Airgetlam is stating that the basic design of the play:5 and Five didn’t change, they only upgraded the memory other parts to modernize it. Sonos didn’t change the speaker layout or the exterior housing to make room for mics and all that that entails...as well as testing, etc. Whether the cost of additional development and such would have been worth it throw in mics, or what Sonos may have planned to address that in the future...I have no idea.

Also pretty sure the Play:5 (gen 2 was released years before Sonos One. It certainly wasn’t after.

Danny

melvimbe

This has seemed like a lifetime waiting for (ok a few years anyways). Giancarlo Esposito is the bomb, perfect choice. Thank you Sonos, really excited for this in general. June 1st can’t come soon enough!!!! The end goal for me is to finally kick Alexa to the curb and we are this close. A few quick questions & requests:

Is it only the speaker you are within voice shot of to control or any speaker on your network. For example, can I use a bathroom Roam to turn on the Kitchen (with or without a mic as I have both).

From the support docs posted early, you can control any room if you speak the room name. So “hey sonos, play music in the kitchen’ would work. My open question is whether or not I can set a default so speaking to the bathroom Roam will play in the kitchen automatically...sort of like Alexa groups work. Sounds strange, I know but there are use cases.

I know everyone and their mother wants Spotify but for me Sirius XM integration would be awesome. Also curious about the Apple Music Lossless question.

I am going to be selfish and say I want them to prioritize adding more music services before adding more countries who can use the service. 😀

Can you trigger or integrate something like Shortcuts where you can say, “Run Patio Party” and it will go thru a series of steps with launching certain speakers, certain music etc..?

That’s a good one. I’m betting the answer is no, but it would be something I would use often.

Any chance we will get Sonos app voice integration if you are away from voice shot of a speaker (like Alexa can)?

Danny

arcadelt

Enthusiast I

Designed long before there was knowledge about how such a system would potentially work. Seems like blaming Sonos for not allowing the PLAYBAR to have AirPlay 2.

That’s a pretty I’ll informed response. It’s not like Sonos products didn’t already support voice assistants when the Five [and even the Play:5 (Gen 2] was released.

Pretty sure @Airgetlam is stating that the basic design of the play:5 and Five didn’t change, they only upgraded the memory other parts to modernize it. Sonos didn’t change the speaker layout or the exterior housing to make room for mics and all that that entails...as well as testing, etc. Whether the cost of additional development and such would have been worth it throw in mics, or what Sonos may have planned to address that in the future...I have no idea.

Also pretty sure the Play:5 (gen 2 was released years before Sonos One. It certainly wasn’t after.

Fair call on the Play:5 (Gen 2), which was released about two years earlier than the One. However, given the shape and size of the Play:1 and One are similar, and they managed to squeeze in voice assistant support as part of that transition, I maintain there was no reason they couldn’t have accommodated the hardware for voice assistant support in the Five, and I said so at the time:

K

Kumar

Not sure I missed this in preceding posts - is NAS control part of this?

James L.

Retired Community Staff

Can you set default music services? Per system or per room?

Yes, you can set a default music service for your Sonos system. You can activate Sonos Voice Control on all voice-capable Sonos products. You can control all other Sonos products in your system through any of these supported speakers.

Can a room (or speaker) be set to act on a different room by default, similar to Alexa groups. For example, you have a Roam (Room 1) and an Amp (Room 2). Can you set it up so that a request to play music, change volume, etc be made to the Roam automatically go to Roam 2? “Hey Sonos turn up the volume “...and the volume on Room 2 goes up?

Not exactly in the way you described. Sonos Voice Control can control all other Sonos products in the household, but some commands require explicit targeting.

Will the product control commands work regardless of music service currently played? For example, if you’re streaming spotify, and request to fast forward, will it work?

Yes. If you are using other music services, you will not be able to ask Sonos Voice Control to search and start music, or manage your content library. You can still use other functions of Sonos Voice Control such as skip, pause, volume, and grouping.

Is it only the speaker you are within voice shot of to control or any speaker on your network. For example, can I use a bathroom Roam to turn on the Kitchen (with or without a mic as I have both).

You can control all other Sonos products in your system through any SVC-enabled speakers.

Can you request to play music from an aux input?

Can you trigger or integrate something like Shortcuts where you can say, “Run Patio Party” and it will go thru a series of steps with launching certain speakers, certain music etc..?

Any chance we will get Sonos app voice integration if you are away from voice shot of a speaker (like Alexa can)?

Will Sonos Voice Control play music in lossless (ie Apple Music)?

Not sure I missed this in preceding posts - is NAS control part of this?

Not at this time, though I’ve passed these suggestions on to our development teams for consideration. 🙂

Mark good posts by pressing the like button, and select the best answer on questions you've asked to help others find solutions.

Bumper

@James L. Does the Sonos voice assistant only run on the speakers or will you be bringing it to the Sonos app (or as a standalone app) on mobile devices to allow voice control of amp, port etc from a phone?

James L.

Retired Community Staff

@James L. Does the Sonos voice assistant only run on the speakers or will you be bringing it to the Sonos app (or as a standalone app) on mobile devices to allow voice control of amp, port etc from a phone?

You can activate Sonos Voice Control on all voice-capable Sonos products. You can control all other Sonos products in your system through any of these supported speakers.

Control from other devices such as phones or tablets is not possible at this time, though I will be happy to pass this request on to our development teams 🙂

Mark good posts by pressing the like button, and select the best answer on questions you've asked to help others find solutions.

melvimbe

Designed long before there was knowledge about how such a system would potentially work. Seems like blaming Sonos for not allowing the PLAYBAR to have AirPlay 2.

That’s a pretty I’ll informed response. It’s not like Sonos products didn’t already support voice assistants when the Five [and even the Play:5 (Gen 2] was released.

Pretty sure @Airgetlam is stating that the basic design of the play:5 and Five didn’t change, they only upgraded the memory other parts to modernize it. Sonos didn’t change the speaker layout or the exterior housing to make room for mics and all that that entails...as well as testing, etc. Whether the cost of additional development and such would have been worth it throw in mics, or what Sonos may have planned to address that in the future...I have no idea.

Also pretty sure the Play:5 (gen 2 was released years before Sonos One. It certainly wasn’t after.

Fair call on the Play:5 (Gen 2), which was released about two years earlier than the One. However, given the shape and size of the Play:1 and One are similar, and they managed to squeeze in voice assistant support as part of that transition, I maintain there was no reason they couldn’t have accommodated the hardware for voice assistant support in the Five, and I said so at the time:

The One needed to have voice control. No way around it in that case, since they needed a base/flagship device with voice control. And you can’t assume that there was physical space in the Play:5/Five because there was physical space in the One/Play:1. For one thing, the top of the One/Play:1 is flat, which works find for mics. The top of the Play:5/Five is not, which probably isn’t good for mics. They would have had to do more of a redesign. I’m not say that the extra dev costs and such would definitely not be worth it, but way too much stuff unknown to me definitely say it was a stupid move.

Danny

Show more replies

Sign up

Login to the community