Google Assistant is finally coming to the Sonos One and Sonos Beam

https://www.engadget.com/2019/01/09/sonos-google-assistant-demo-ces-2019/More details and an actual demo. Expanded beta “real soon”.

https://www.engadget.com/2019/01/09/sonos-google-assistant-demo-ces-2019/
Yes that’s a better indication that things will work in a very similar way to the Amazon Alexa integration. I’m just not sure that these voice control services from Amazon & Google will be available to the user at the same time. My thoughts are there will perhaps be a switching process, which is not what some customers were perhaps hoping for. We will have to see.

here’s the main limitation you should be aware of: you’re not going to be able to have both Google and Alexa active and listening on a single speaker. You can set one Sonos speaker to Google and another to Alexa, but you can’t have both assistants active on one speaker at the same time.

So, maybe this was the delay. Google refused to allow Alexa at the same time. Honestly, I doubt I’ll be using the microphones on Sonos speakers, so long as they can be set as default targets for the Home Hub. It’s a vastly superior experience, controlling via the Hub, with its full time display of the songs playing. If Sonos speakers can’t be Chromecast targets, I’ll likely move to dumb powered monitors with Chromecast Audio dongles.

https://www.theverge.com/platform/amp/2019/1/9/18174686/sonos-google-assistant-beam-one-beta-demo-features-ces-2019

I'd also say that Google pushing this as a feature to announce at CES is kind of a big deal. I don't recall Amazon doing that for their integration. I wonder if this is a sign that Sonos is thought of as more of player in the VA market. I think that would be good news for consumers in general.

I also think it's interesting if Google doesn't want it's assistant and Amazon to be active at the same time. It's hard to imagine there's a technical limitation, and I can't see how it would be bad for consumers, so you have to conclude that Google doesn't see it as a positive for their bottom line. And that's fine as well, but let's not pretend that Google always has the consumer's best interest in mind.

There is also the “works with Sonos” side, which lets Sonos speakers serve as music endpoints that can be controlled by other Google speakers. In other words, if you have a Google Home and an older Sonos speaker (or a Sonos speaker set to Alexa), you can use your Google Home to start music on the Sonos.

Perfect. This is all I really need. This could have been done a year ago. Grrrrr.

It very very interesting if Chromecast built-in feature will be available on Sonos speakers after Google Assistant will be enabled.
For me it's much more important than voice control.

I'm very much in agreement with all. Imho, I almost never use voice control on the Sonos, and prefer to run them off my tablet or phone. I do have a Google Home Hub, with a few mini's around the home, and cannot wait to add the One's to the Group, or as part of a bunch of different groups to play interface based (Hub/Tablet) music. Asking a Sonos speaker for Google Assistance is about the lowest priority I can imagine as my speaker mics are always off. Any Low-Fi mini can speaker handle that satisfactorily for Pete's sake.

Imho, lets get the Google Speaker Group Integration out there ASAP, and then worry about handling Google Asst requests for recommended nearby restaurants down the road. I mean, it just boils my blood when I hear they are waiting to deliver anything until they optimize the voice control for everything beyond the main objective with supposedly Hi-Fi speakers. Makes no sense??

Well, I’m just concerned that Sonos is getting way outside its core competency, which is great sounding multiroom speakers, and will be unable to keep up in a world of smart speakers, where the underlying technology is very immature, and under constant change.

Just like their CR-100 was instantly and hopelessly outdated with the advent of smart phones. They adapted, quite successfully, and had the good sense to finally obsolete the CR-100 last year, well after its shelf life expired,

I’d be perfectly happy if they left the voice control to the inexpensive and ever changing devices like the Echo Dot, Google Home, and especially the Google Home Hub. Just make sure these devices can connect to and control streaming services now, and perhaps later on play from a local NAS, though that’s less and less important every year.

Currently, Sonos works with pretty much every streaming app from the majors, including via AirPlay, Spotify Connect, Alexa Cast, and Sonos Direct Control. The huge, glaring hole right now is Chromecast, but the article linked above makes it sound like Google will be using the proprietary Sonos API, vs Sonos enabling Chromecast. This may be due to memory constraints on older speakers. Unfortunately, it appears to mean that hundreds of apps that rely on Chromecast to play beyond the crappy phone speakers will still not have access to Sonos speakers. Sad.

Imho, lets get the Google Speaker Group Integration out there ASAP, and then worry about handling Google Asst requests for recommended nearby restaurants down the road. I mean, it just boils my blood when I hear they are waiting to deliver anything until they optimize the voice control for everything beyond the main objective with supposedly Hi-Fi speakers. Makes no sense??

I'm not exactly sure what you mean by "Google Speaker Group Integration", but if means being able to paly Google speakers and Sonos in sync, I think you'll be sorely disappointed. There is no parallel feature with Alexa, and nothing of this nature has been promised or hinted to by Google or Sonos that I'm aware of. Although consumers would clearly benefit from the availability of such a feature, there is no business reason to do this. Sonos for one has intellectual property around multiroom audio that they surely do not want to share.

Honestly, the main objective is to be able to use Sonos One and Beam in the same, or very similar, manner that you would a Google speaker, and to initiate Sonos audio through google voice commands. This has always been stated as the main objective.

Well, I’m just concerned that Sonos is getting way outside its core competency, which is great sounding multiroom speakers, and will be unable to keep up in a world of smart speakers, where the underlying technology is very immature, and under constant change.


While I agree with this in principle, I don't know that staying away from embedded voice control would have played well in the market. All in one devices sell well, and many customers would not really take the time to grasp that you can marry a voice assistant with a multiroom audio system without it all being in the same system.

And yes, Sonos will be caught up in a race for ever increasing/improving features that they will be pushed to support because of this.


Currently, Sonos works with pretty much every major streaming app from the majors, including via AirPlay, Spotify Connect, Alexa Cast, and Sonos Direct Control. The huge, glaring hole right now is Chromecast, but the article linked above makes it sound like Google will be using the proprietary Sonos API, vs Sonos enabling Chromecast. This may be due to memory constraints on older speakers. Unfortunately, it appears to mean that hundreds of apps that rely on Chromecast to play beyond the crappy phone speakers will still not have access to Sonos speakers. Sad.

I don't know how popular Chromecast is or how difficult it is to implement. I would guess there are other reasons why it's not currently in place, as it seems like it could be treated exactly like airplay.

Another hands on review. https://www.androidcentral.com/google-assistant-sonos-just-good-you-hoped-it-would-be