To better control its own products in a natural way, Sonos is launching Sonos Voice Control, a voice assistant whose sole mission is to optimize the audio experience at the heart of its product ecosystem. With promises on efficiency, speed and above all confidentiality.
You are never better served than by yourself. This is the idea that crossed Sonos’ minds a few years ago when the microphone made its official appearance with the Sonos One before taking hold in the Beam and Arc soundbars, then in the Bluetooth Move speakers. and Roam.
Because the main and sudden interest of this microphone was then to allow users to control their devices by voice thanks to Google Assistant and Amazon Alexa. Enough to also transform these products into a control tower for the connected home, able to control home automation objects. But this is not necessarily to the taste of all users, out of fear for their personal data, ignorance or lack of utility too.
A voice aid as a natural reflex
“We found, by doing preliminary studies with consumers, that many of them did not naturally use the in-vehicle voice assistant. They did not express the need for it for many purposes or feared that their information would be stolen and misused”explains to Frandroid Sébastien Maury, Director of Voice Experience at Sonos.
So, with its new team made up of former employees of Snips, a Parisian startup acquired by Sonos in 2019 and a specialist in voice assistance driven by machine learning, they looked into the question of voice assistance. really useful“. With the mission of responding to three essential points: speed, accuracy and confidentiality. Thus was born Sonos Voice Control, the very first voice assistant created by Sonos to control its connected speakers and sound bars.
” With Sonos, we had the same vision of what voice assistance should be on a connected speaker. adds Sébastien Maury. In charge of the product at Snips at the time, he continued to carry the voice of the startup within the American giant with a desire: the service must be ” private by design », that is to say fully embedded in the device in order to guarantee that the data does not leave it to go to the cloud or any other platform. All the calculation is done locally, nothing leaks.
This is already a reassuring element for many. And in this, Sonos Voice Control stands out from Google Assistant or Amazon Alexa. ” They also want to answer all questions and requests. We focus on the audio experience of our devices and the best way to use them. It’s our only goal and we didn’t want to scatter.” summarizes David Leroy, in charge of machine learning for the Voice experience at Sonos.
Confidentiality at the heart of the process
Sonos Voice Control is therefore presented as a service to be added from the Sonos application to compatible devices (even the first generations of Beam or Sonos One), i.e. those with an internal microphone. The idea is to be able to use your voice for everything you would have done with the application, including using services like Apple Music, Deezer, Amazon Music, TuneIn…, putting music in the living room or the kitchen, even the two, turn down the volume, add songs to your library, and more. Suffice it to say “Hey Sonos” before placing your order. But the result may apply to all the speakers in your audio system.
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Sonos assures that it will not suddenly be the default voice aid for its products. Sonos Voice Control will continue to be offered in the same way as Google Assistant or Amazon Alexa. All of them can even be activated at the same time and used interchangeably. “ We continue to support other assistants, because we chose an open ecosystem and we want to give users the choice to use them if they want, whichever they want says Ted Dworkin, Senior Vice President, Product Management & Customer Experience at Sonos.
Sound and nothing but sound in complete safety
However, at Sonos, we also recognize that the quest to optimize usage ” home ” was at the heart of the reflection. The effectiveness of voice assistants from Google and Amazon is well established, but Sonos wanted a real audio-centric experience, and a lot of work on data privacy, which remains such a sensitive subject.
According to the man behind the home speakers, it’s ” a very important point and differentiating from the Sonos Voice Control offer. ” Confidentiality concerns limit consumers’ willingness to use voice assistance and their confidence in a system. They are sometimes afraid of what will be done with their information, their audio recordings. We wanted to spend time and energy making this transparent to reassure them. The choice of privacy by design is an additional security “, he adds.
From the voice, you will be able to do exactly what you were doing until now with your fingertips. ” We’re going to make voice control great, as natural as possible, intuitive and easy to use every day.“Summarizes an ambitious Ted Dworkin to see the function become widespread among consumers. However, it was Sonos, aware of the fear aroused by microphones, which launched the range of Sonos One SL and Beam SL without a voice assistant…
The Mandalorianto serve you
It must be said that Sonos has more than doubled its user base in three years. The arrival of Sonos Move and Sonos Roam Bluetooth mobile speakers, now available in colors, but also products in partnership with Ikea or even the addition of fashionable sound bars at different prices (while waiting for the even more affordable Sonos Ray , but without a microphone), are no doubt no strangers to the democratization of products. And Sonos wants to see further. There has already been the launch of the Sonos Radio streaming service, which has gone to HD and is constantly being enriched with new artist stations, the latest being to the credit of singer Lorde (SOLARSYSTYM).
And to offer even more appeal to its Sonos Voice Control, the Californian firm has had the luxury of calling on the talents of Giancarlo Esposito to lend his voice to the English version. The actor of The Mandalorian was chosen for his voice “comforting and engaging“. A choice that can make you smile when you know he is also known for his roles as a cold-blooded killer,Usual Suspectsto the seriesbreaking BadandBetter Call Saul,even as a bloodthirsty dictator in the video gameFar cry 6.
Sonos Voice Control will be available on June 1 in the United States and later this year in France.
Our Sonos Voice Control review
We were able to test the French beta version of the Sonos voice assistant – which is basically a voice aid more than an assistant. Here, no voice“star”for the moment on the beta version, but a fairly classic, neutral voice. Setting up on a speaker or soundbar is very simple and is done in the same way as adding Alexa or Google Assistant. You can also use both in parallel without them getting confused.
First observation: Sonos Voice Control is very responsive to the famous“Hey Sonos”. It may lack a small chime to indicate that it listens to you at the first interjection (on the other hand, you hear it if it does not understand you well), but it listens to you quickly, even with a little noise around . Just talk to him naturally and he understands you perfectly.
Sonos Voice Control can be installed alongside Google Assistant and Amazon Alexa // Source: FRANDROID
The Sonos app and the new Sonos Voice Control assistant // Source: FRANDROID
His responses are also just as natural and Sonos explains that he worked on this during recording. The thousands of sentences captured are processed by machine learning algorithms in order to offer a rendering that is not too“mechanical”. And the result is promising. In English, this is even more obvious with the voice of Giancarlo Esposito. If you have his voice in mind, you will have the impression that he is talking to you nearby.
Sonos wanted its Voice Control to be quick and efficient in its responses. This is currently mostly the case. Asking for a specific song on a streaming service is well understood, such as playing in a particular area of the house, turning the volume up or down, and even switching to night mode.
Not insignificant advantage, it works just as well on the speakers connected in Wi-Fi as on the one in Bluetooth like the Roam on which we were also able to try it. You must first pair it to the Sonos system via Wi-Fi to be able to enjoy it on the go. It is perhaps for the moment the situation where the assistant has been the least reactive in understanding the commands.
Sonos Voice Control is already very easy to use. It can even answer a few related questions like your Bluetooth speaker’s battery level, what’s the name of the song it’s playing, what time it is, and even turn your TV on or off if you have a soundbar plugged in. in HDMI-CEC. There is no need to repeat the command“Hey Sonos”if you follow up your questions. It understands the succession well if you don’t delay too long (six seconds after the first activation).
On the other hand, SVC will not replace Google or Amazon to manage your connected home. Sound control is its sole mission. And if you’re wondering what else he can do, well, just…ask him.
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