HomeKit

Being an avid home management/security (15+ years) Apple (10+ years) and SONOS (newbie), I am really interested in integration/interoperability of these 3.

As we know, in the WWDC announcements, HomeKit acknowledge speakers compatibility from a number of speaker suppliers to interface with homekit and airplay2.
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I am interested to hopefully see SONOS in this list soon. Perhaps we have the SONOS direct sound option with TruePlay and also an alternate use for the SONOS speakers using AirPlay2 or some higher integration options. We already have access to the speakers through Spotify (a little bit of Apple and orange comparison, I realize) which shows that SONOS recognizes standards and industry leading interfaces are important.

I am looking forward to staying tuned to see what comes next from SONOS in this area of interoperability for us.

Lots of good points. But HomePod seems to do the one thing I think is great about Sonos: it streams directly to the device, not via your phone or computer. That's gonna give Sonos a run for their money.

It also does a lot of things that Sonos can't do.

Finally, if the HomePod is successful, you can bet it will eventually come in other shapes and sizes.

If Sonos doesn't start to step up, this could be the beginning of the end for Sonos. (A dire sentiment, but a plausible one.)

I wonder if the Alexa + Sonos solution will change that? My gut feeling is that Apple has not been great at making speakers (don't get me started on Beats!) or even headphones. So if the technology works then they will still be a limited environment not able to serve up the list of music services from competitors. Don't get me wrong - I (and my entire family) use all of Apple's mobile and portable devices.

Best case they will get people who buy without paying much heed... The market is huge, even Bose seems to sell speakers right ?

But I'm an Apple fan AND a Sonos fan. I'd prefer if they stayed agnostic but offered great support for many services/integrations/etc.

Lots of good points. But HomePod seems to do the one thing I think is great about Sonos: it streams directly to the device, not via your phone or computer. That's gonna give Sonos a run for their money.

It also does a lot of things that Sonos can't do.

Finally, if the HomePod is successful, you can bet it will eventually come in other shapes and sizes.

If Sonos doesn't start to step up, this could be the beginning of the end for Sonos. (A dire sentiment, but a plausible one.)

No, I actually don't. My expectation is that Sonos has expressed the desire to work closely with any company who wants to contribute to the process, and Amazon happened to be the first one who did. I expect that Apple had this up their sleeves, and decided not to dedicate the resources.

And yes, I watched the reveal, and the list of companies. What I saw there were only speaker companies, not aggregators like Sonos is. But I have to admit I didn't spend a lot of time looking as the list, other than noting a few of the larger companies who already have Airplay agreements with Apple.

And believe me, I'm not knocking Apple on this either. I want to know how the system is going to work before I can even begin to form an opinion, but my guess is that it won't be supporting anything other than Apple Music (no Spotify, no Pandora no Amazon, no Deezer, no Google, etc).

However, if it can take anything currently playing on the xOS platform and send it to the speaker, including app sounds, then it's going to be a challenge for Sonos. It will become de facto computer speakers, and we will see a greater litany of complaints here. My thought while watching yesterday was "will it work with my iTunes, or is it only Apple Music (which I don't have a subscription to)?

So I'm reserving judgement until I know more about the system. It does look sexy as hell, to be sure, but I don't think I'll be anxious to quickly replace the 16 Sonos products I already own, much less the 3 Amazon/Echo/Alexa devices.

But they haven't come out with a Sub, or a Playbar yet, and its really unclear if a stereo pair is really stereo, or just sounds better. Sonos has a lot of things going for it. This may cut in to some of their revenue, for sure, especially if they can be linked as easily as AirPods can. But you'll still need a good wifi network and signal 🙂

If only it was up to Sonos as a company individually to add it, without requiring any cooperation from Apple. But I don't think it works that way, to my way of thinking it requires cooperation on both sides.

I think the announcement of HomePod yesterday kills the possiblity of HomeKit intergration.

I`m not disagreeing with you but If look at other companies like Phillips Hue, they do support Apple Homekit, Nest, Amazon and IFTT. There is no point in my opinion that SONOS don`t do the same.

I, too, have that hope, but it's likely dependent on whether Apple approaches them, since it would take work on both sides of the fence. And unfortunately, it won't be sooner than later, since they haven't finished the Amazon integration yet, which is probably the long pole in the process. They need to figure out how it works first, then porting it over to other systems would be a little bit more easy, I expect. Not a guaranty, mind you, but at least a significant portion of the concept design would be completed, and a model to compare against would exist.

Could the lack of HomeKit integration have to do with the same issue WeMo is running into with HomeKit integration?

Basically yes. Because HomeKit was built to be secure from the start (quite unlike things like bluetooth door locks) it involves a small hardware component which means that your existing Sonos gear can't be firmware upgraded to have HomeKit support. However, I don't see this as a problem that's unsolvable, in the way that Belkin seems to say it is. Philips solved it by changing only the bridge device from the old model, to a new one with HomeKit support.

Similarly, Belkin, if they really wanted, could produce a HomeKit bridge device, which then relayed the HomeKit commands to their legacy devices. All new switches could be sold with HomeKit built in, so you'd only need the bridge if you already had a bunch of legacy devices. That *is* possible, but Belkin doesn't want to do it, so they tell you something true, while omitting the fairly cheap workaround.

There's no reason why Sonos couldn't do the same thing. Either a new version of the Boost, or another bridge device entirely COULD be produced, which just plugs into the wall and provides HomeKit (and therefore Siri) integration to your existing Sonos setup.

Home automation ecosystems take a long time to develop to the point of ubiquity. Sonos got in early, and they're really enjoying the fruits of being the default multi-room wireless audio choice in the market. I think the seriousness with which Apple is approaching HomeKit reveals that they're in it for the long haul. Apple's customers are also far more statistically likely to invest more money in ecosystem products, unlike Android customers, which means that HomeKit is a good bet for the long-term future of home automation.

For this reason, I wouldn't rule out HomeKit support for Sonos in future, but it won't be soon, because for a relatively small company, bringing out a new device requires a significant investment, and they won't do it until they think they can sell truckloads of them.

But if they're reading this, they should definitely be doodling on napkins, because integration is 'sticky' (to use a marketing term). People LOVE all their stuff working nicely together and it has a lot of wow factor which leads to word of mouth sales. A small 'HomeKit Bridge for Sonos' would allow them to leverage Siri which is in the hands (and on the wrists) of mobile users with the highest disposable income. That's not to be dismissed.

Personally, if I were looking to automate my home, I'd pick the voice control hub which is in the forefront of voice control technology and has a history of accommodating the systems I use, rather than the one who makes my phone, but has a history of being closed off and proprietary. Like chicks alludes to, you may wish to look into Amazon if Sonos integration is important to you.

Not quite sure i understand with "more going on with your post"?? like what? it's not like i'm trying to convert Sonos into a bread making factory! That reference is as odd as yours!

For now i'll try and integrate it into the Lutron app with my lights and shades but it leaves my ecobee3 thermostat out since it's not supported by Lutron but it is by Homekit...so you can see my dilemma where i'm trying to incorporate all these devices into 1 app but so far either i have to compromise quality or convenience, either way you'd think that in this day in age where technology is moving at light speed they can't just make it work.

should i keep investing in a product that i am not sure will meet my wants and needs???

No, I'm with you. Apple just doesn't seem to have much of a future without Jobs, just like the first time he left. I sure won't be investing in their ecosystem; Amazon and Google are way out front, and Alexa/Sonos integration is due soon.