Sonos’ voice assistant might work alongside Alexa but not the Google Assistant

When Sonos purchased a privacy-focused voice assistant Snips in 2019, it strongly implied that it planned to build an assistant that would “add to our customers’ ease of use and control” instead of going head-to-head with bigger assistants from other big tech companies. Nearly two years later, we might be close to being using the company’s homegrown assistant, as a Reddit user found code in the Sonos app that appears to show voice commands for Sonos Voice Control (via Protocol).

According to the code strings, you’ll be able to do things like play and pause music, adjust the volume, and check your Sonos’ battery. The Reddit user also found what looks to be the logo for Sonos’ assistant and evidence suggesting you’ll be able to have it assistant enabled alongside Amazon’s Alexa but not alongside the Google Assistant. You can see the icons in the images below (Sonos’ voice assistant icon looks remarkably similar to the one for Alexa).

Image: u/michary

Image: u/michary

This isn’t the first clue that a Sonos-made voice assistant might be imminent: the company posted a survey earlier this year regarding a “potential new product offering” called (you guessed it!) Sonos Voice Control. According to the survey, to activate the assistant, you’d just have to say “Hey Sonos,” and all commands would be processed locally on the device. Sonos Voice Control and Alexa would work on the same speaker, the survey said.

Sonos is also locked in a legal battle with Google, suing the search giant in January 2020 for allegedly copying its speaker tech. In addition, Sonos also says that Google is standing in the way of letting Alexa and Google Assistant be used side by side on Sonos speakers. By making its offering its own voice assistant, Sonos might be able to let customers have multiple assistants at once.

“We don’t comment on rumor or speculation but as we have stated previously, our team is working on ways to improve the voice control experience on Sonos,” a company spokesperson said to The Verge.