Sonos has confirmed the planned Google Assistant integration for its smart Sonos One speaker won’t arrive before the end of the year.
The latest update, coming via the Sonos blog, explains the company needs more time ensure the feature works as well as the existing Alexa integration. It now says the update will be coming at some point in 2019, but it is yet to announce the date. So, essentially, we’re back to this being a relatively open-ended situation.
“While we originally planned to have the experience ready to ship in 2018, the reality is that we need a bit more time to get the experience right and will now look to lock down a date in 2019,” Sonos says in the blog post . “We’re very excited to see Google Assistant come to life on Sonos, and we know our customers are too.”
While the official launch is still at least two months away, the company is offering the chance for those Assistant-lovers champing at the bit to use it on their smart speaker. Sonos is launching a private beta.
The firm is looking for a few hundred applicants to test the update, preferably those who’re using at least 10 voice commands a day, and listening to at least 14 hours of music a week.
The company adds: “Our next step will be to start testing the experience in a few hundred homes at first, and a few thousand homes in the coming months. Our intent is to get important feedback from listeners in the real world before we launch.”
A few weeks to screen applicants? Testing over “the coming months” before launch? Sadly the phrasing here suggested it’ll be absolutely ages before the update properly rolls out.
