Jordan O'BrienThe Sonos One was supposed to be the first smart speaker to support more than one voice assistant, but those who invested early, will have to be prepared to wait a little longer. In an interview with The Verge, Sonos’ CEO admitted that his company is working on it as quickly as possible in partnership with Google, and hopes to have it ready by the busy holiday season.
Google will be keen to release Google Assistant support on the Sonos range of smart speakers, as Amazon continues to dominate in the voice assistant space. In fact, Amazon is said to command more than 50% of the smart speaker market, with Google in a distant second place of just over 25%. The longer Sonos One and Sonos Beam owners spend using the Alexa voice assistant, the more likely they are to stick with Amazon’s offering.
Sonos will also be keen to get Google Assistant support. During its IPO, it was revealed that Amazon could pull support for Alexa on Sonos’ range of smart speakers at limited notice. That could effectively render Sonos’ ‘smart’ speakers dumb at a moment’s notice. Sonos CEO Patrick Spence doesn’t see that becoming a problem, however, describing the deal between the two companies as ‘mutually beneficial’.
Right now, Sonos is working on a deadline of December 31, although that doesn’t mean it’ll land that exact date. Sonos One buyers have had to wait over a year for Google Assistant support, and will likely be itching to get it sooner rather than later.