Sonos is opening up.
The at-home connected speaker maker today made two key announcements related to Amazon and Spotify.
Sonos is partnering with Amazon to let people control their tunes via voice command with Amazon devices like the Echo, Dot, and Tap. Currently, users can only control music by using the Sonos app. That will change starting in 2017, with a beta version of the new feature going out later this year.
Sonos and Amazon compete in the at-home speaker arena, but the partnership is not too surprising given what Sonos CEO John MacFarlane wrote in a blog post earlier this year when announcing a round of layoffs.
“Alexa/Echo is the first product to really showcase the power of voice control in the home,” MacFarlane wrote.
Voice control for Sonos is possible today, but requires a bit of manual maneuvering given that the company’s devices don’t have built-in microphones. For example, GeekWire contributor Frank Catalano figured out how to enable voice control for Sonos by using an auxiliary cord to plug in his Amazon Dot device to a Sonos Play 5 speaker.
Now, people will be able to use Amazon devices to control Sonos without any cords — just with their voice.
Sonos also announced today that it is adding third-party app support, meaning users can control their Sonos speakers with apps like Spotify via Spotify Connect. Currently, Sonos users can only control their music from Spotify via the Sonos app. This functionality, which also lets people control music across different rooms through the Spotify app, will arrive in beta in October, Variety noted.
