Sonos has started a private beta test of Google Assistant on its smart speakers, and is looking to launch the integration to the public this year. Google Assistant will be directly integrated into speakers with voice input, while older models will work in conjunction with Google Home and similar smart speakers.
Google highlighted its partnership with Sonos as part of a broader publicity push for the Google Assistant at the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas Tuesday morning. The company said that Google Assistant would be directly integrated into the Sonos One and Sonos Beam speakers, while older speakers without integrated microphones will receive a software update to make them work with the Assistant.
Sonos first announced that it was working with Google when it introduced the Sonos One speaker in late 2017. At the time, the company said that it was aiming to roll out support for the Google Assistant in 2018. However, in a blog post published in November, Sonos admitted that it was going to miss that deadline.
The company has since begun a private beta test of the Assistant with select Sonos owners, and is looking to scale up the beta test to thousands of homes in the weeks following CES, a spokesperson told Variety Monday. The company will decide on the final schedule for a public roll-out based on the results of that test, she added.
Even with the delayed launch, Sonos would still be the first smart speaker to support both Amazon’s Alexa and the Google Assistant. However, getting those two to work together on the same device is becoming a lot less novel. Just this week, Samsung announced that in addition to running its own Bixby assistant, the company’s new TVs will also work with both Alexa and the Google Assistant.