Sonos Ups its Voice Game with New Updates

Sonos has announced an update that enables owners of the Sonos One smart speaker and Beam soundbar — both Sound & Vision Top Picks — to use Amazon’s Alexa voice assistant to access and control Apple Music.

Setting up Alexa control is simple: Update the Sonos app, enable the Apple Music skill in the Alexa app, link your account, and you’re ready to begin streaming from Apple Music using voice commands like, "Alexa, play Best of the Week on Apple Music." Sonos owners can also use Alexa through an Amazon Echo device connected to the system.

For more information on using Alexa with Sonos, visit sonos.com.

Josh.ai, the Denver-based home-automation company specializing in natural-language voice control, also announced that its VoiceCast feature is now compatible with the Sonos One smart speaker, Sonos Amp, and Play:5 wireless speaker. VoiceCast enables the Josh smart-home voice control system to broadcast its voice responses through other speakers in the home instead of relying on the tiny speaker built into the Josh Micro control device (shown above next to the Sonos Amp).

To activate the VoiceCast feature, system integrators have to make a configuration change to the Micro settings in the Josh web portal and select the Sonos device designated for a particular room.

For more on how VoiceCast integration works with Sonos speakers, watch this video:

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