Sonos Voice Control, a voice control system that enriches the experience of using Sonos products

As with Ray, rumors were right about the impending introduction of an in-house “voice assistant” by Sonos, for Sonos. Sonos Voice Control has indeed been formalized at the same time as this new soundbar and three new colors for the Roam. The principle of this new feature is quite simple on paper: unlike an ultra-versatile conventional “intelligent” voice assistant, Sonos Voice Control is intended as a pure voice control system and therefore constitutes a second way of interacting with its fleet of Sonos speakers, in addition to the Sonos smartphone application.

The different requests (controls for managing playback, volume, request for a song, a playlist, an album on a speaker or a group, multiroom management, activation of certain features/listening mode) can be submitted to any Sonos speaker integrating a microphone system, even the oldest such as the Sonos One, and are immediately processed locally by the computing power of the speaker concerned. Thus, Sonos assures us that its system is not only very responsive, but also particularly protective of its customers’ personal data: a point that will undoubtedly reassure the many owners of “smart” Sonos speakers who do not use the voice assistant. Google or Alexa for the latter reason. This local processing can also be verified on the manufacturer’s connected and “intelligent” portable speakers: Sonos Voice Control can indeed be used on the Sonos Room and Sonos Move, even when they are only connected via Bluetooth, and therefore perfectly disconnected from the local network.

Due to its intrinsic limitations, this voice control system has also been designed to coexist with “traditional” intelligent voice assistants such as Amazon Alexa and Google Assistant. In principle, activating Sonos Voice Control will therefore not limit access to these, however, it will only work with Alexa at first. We don’t know the exact cause, but it’s a safe bet that it’s a directive from Google, especially since the rag is burning between the two firms. It should also be noted that search requests and specific playback of songs/playlists from a streaming service are also subject to a limitation: all services supported by the Sonos ecosystem are not affected for the moment. The system is currently only compatible with Apple Music, Amazon Music, Deezer, Pandora and, of course, Sonos Radio.

Sonos Voice Control will be implemented very soon in the Sonos ecosystem, precisely from June 1, 2022. US users will also have the scoop on this new feature for a while, as voice recognition and the voice of the assistant have so far only been optimized for the American English language. For the occasion, the actor Giancarlo Esposito (breaking Bad, Better Call Hall, The Mandalorian…) lent his voice to embody the Sonos assistant. Who will be elected for the French version scheduled for the end of the year? The mystery remains…