Sonos To Get Spotify Connect Integration And Amazon Echo Voice Controls

There has been more Sonos news to add to the increased compatibility with home automation platforms also announced recently. Sonos has announced that the platform is to be fully integrated with Spotify’s mobile App via Spotify Connect.

This means users will be able to control a Sonos system straight from Spotify; that’s not just track selections, but playback and volume, as well as the ability to group speakers. This can be done either via the home network or via a mobile network too giving the system further reach beyond Wi-Fi infrastructure.

Other functionality includes the Sonos App being able to recognise the songs Spotify is delivering, so if a friend is streaming a song a user does not have, they will be able to add it to their library easily.

The new functionality comes via an October software update.

With this one in the bag, it seems logical that Sonos will try and make deals with the likes of Apple Music, Tidal and Google Play.

Source Of The Amazon

Sonos also continues to add to its relationship with Amazon and from an as yet unspecified time in 2017, users will be able to control their Sonos speakers by voice control using Amazon Echo or Echo Dot.

Who knows, Amazon voice control might actually be available in the UK and Europe by then. Last we heard Amazon was giving its system elocution lessons to enable it to cope with UK ‘accents,’ so perhaps we are getting nearer.

Functionality-wise, it is pretty much as you would expect: users can ask Alexa to play music on specific Sonos speakers and if an unfamiliar track comes up in a playlist, users can ask what it is.

Join all the dots here and Sonos has seriously switched direction, opening up its system and clearly making a play to head off some of its newer rivals, but also stake a place in the ‘affordable’ automated home of the future.

Further evidence of a widening of the net is also suggested with Sonos joining the Open Music Initiative, a non-profit group dedicated to open sourcing access to music. So expect more of the same to come in the not so distant future.