When will Sonos speakers get Google Assistant? CEO sheds new light on missing feature

Aug. 03, 2018 03:37AM EST

Speaker company Sonos said in 2017 that the Google Assistant would be joining Alexa on some of its products soon - but, months later, it is yet to arrive.

Now, as the company floated on the Nasdaq this week, company chief executive Patrick Spence has finally offered a release date, albeit still a vague one.

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Spence says Google Assistant will arrive on compatible speakers, including the Sonos One and new Sonos Beam sound bar, "later this year," according to The Verge.

When asked to elaborate on this, Spence told the website: "We're working as hard as we can and so is Google to get it ready for that time." Spence reportedly stressed that it is important to have Google Assistant working on Sonos speakers in time for the 2018 holiday sales period.

The Sonos Beam is a sound bar with Alexa - and it will soon have Google Assistant, tooSonos

Offering Google Assistant alongside Alexa would put Sonos in a very strong position, as currently no speaker supports both voice assistants. It isn't clear if the speakers would operate both at the same time, responding to both the 'Alexa' and 'Hey Google' hot-words. In all likelihood, users will have to pick which assistant their speakers uses in the Sonos app.

Bringing the Google Assistant to high-end speakers like those by Sonos gives the Google Home Max - the company's most expensive speaker - some stiff competition.

Spence also references Sonos' plans to partner with Baidu or Tencent to bring a Chinese-language assistant to its smart speakers - speakers which currently do not sell well in Asia.

Check out The GearBrain, our smart home compatibility checker to see the other compatible products that work with Google Home and Home Mini.