Alexa not doing it for you? Now you can ask Google to help you out via your Sonos speakers instead. The new features landed in an update on Tuesday night.
Alexa has been available since last year for Sonos One and Sonos Beam speakers. And while you can’t have both at the same time on the same single speaker, if you have more than one of either, or both, or whatever combo, you can have both Alexa and Google Assistant in different parts of the house and they can work together relatively seamlessly.
Example: if you start something on a speaker via Alexa in one room, you can tell Google in another room to change what’s happening in the other. OK, that sounds confusing. Basically, what Alexa starts, Google can finish, and vice versa.
I’m a big fan of all things Sonos and have quite a few around my home. I’ve dabbled with Alexa on a Sonos One so far (I don’t have a Beam) but I do feel like Google might end up being a more useful option.
Alexa is the dominant voice assistant platform in the USA, but here in Australia apparently it’s closer to 2/3 Google to 1/3 Alexa. So it sounds like a lot of people will find this to be the option they’ve been waiting for.
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Seamus runs Byteside. You may also have spotted his words at the Australian Financial Review, the ABC, Junkee, Gamespot, The Esports Observer, CNET, Gizmodo and a few other spots over the years. He's very happy that he gets to nerd out for a living.
