If you have a Sonos One ($199) or Sonos Beam ($399), you can now choose Google Assistant as your default virtual assistant instead of Alexa. Sonos initially planned to add support for Google Assistant in 2018, but despite the delay, the free software update finally rolled out and it’s kind of a big deal: Sonos speakers are the first to allow listeners to choose between Google’s assistant and Amazon’s.
You can’t have two virtual assistants in the same speaker at the same time. Instead, you’ll have to choose Alexa or Google Assistant. But even though both virtual assistants won’t work concurrently, you can have both assistants working in the same Sonos sound system if you have a seperate speaker for each, letting your order from Amazon by voice and control the Chromecast attached to your TV with one system. You could even coax the two assistants to interact, playing music with Alexa, and asking Google to identify it at the same time.
The new Sonos software update doesn’t only apply to Sonos’s newer speakers. While older Sonos speakers that don’t have integrated microphones, you can now link them to a Google Home Mini ($29) via the Sonos app and control them by voice nonetheless.
The addition of Google Assistant to your Sonos system brings along a few of Google’s unique voice-controlled perks. Google Assistant supports continued conversations, so you don’t have to say “Hey Google” if you ask it a quick follow up question (or two). You can also take advantage of Google Assitant’s broadcast mode by asking Google to project your message through every Google device on the network with commands like “Hey Google, shout it’s time for dinner” or “Hey Google, announce I’m home.” Best of all, if you have an Android TV or a Chromecast, you can now ask your Sonos speaker to play videos on the TV, too.
If you want to select Google Assistant as your Sonos’s new default virtual assistant, all you have to do is open up the Sonos app and follow the below steps.
• Under Settings, select “Voice Services”
• Select Google Assistant
• Follow the guided setup process
