Sonos Delays Google Assistant Support to 2019

on November 2, 2018 at 1:08 pm

Sonos announced in October 2017 when it introduced the Alexa-enabled Sonos One smart speaker that it would include Google Assistant support in 2018. The company reiterated that commitment this past summer in its U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) S-1 filing in advance of its IPO. However, the company has announced in a blog post it will not be able to make that deadline. The post says the company plans to offer another update in early 2019. This announcement comes after a June interview in which Sonos CEO Patrick Spence declined to confirm that the Sonos One smart speaker would support Google Assistant in 2018.

Photo Credit: Sonos

Private Beta Sign Up

In the meantime, Sonos is offering a sign up in order to be considered for the private beta. Applicants will be screened, and beta testers are asked to commit to at least 14 hrs/week listening, use 10 voice commands daily, and respond to surveys within 72 hours.

Our intent is to get important feedback from listeners in the real world before we launch.

Sonos also states the functionality will be testing in a few hundred homes, and a few thousand in the coming months. We are eagerly awaiting the release of a multi-assistant device and recognize that this is a harder task than most people recognize. Sonos has set a high bar for itself.

The company stated in an interview earlier this year that they expect some households will have both Android users that prefer Google Assistant and iOS users that prefer Amazon Alexa or Apple Siri. A clear goal is for everyone in the household to be able to use the device with their favorite assistant without having to change a default setting. That simultaneous, multi-assistant approach has not been implemented elsewhere to date and many people are now realizing the many user experience challenges it introduces.

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