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Amazon's Echo will be able to control Sonos speakers next year

Several months ago, Sonos revealed plans to bring voice control to its popular home audio speakers. Today at an event in New York City, the company shared more on its approach to letting users play music by speaking commands aloud instead of controlling everything by thumbing through the Sonos app. In short, it's all about Amazon, Alexa, and Echo. Beginning in 2017, anyone with an Alexa-enabled device — right now that's the Echo, Echo Tap, or Echo Dot — will be able to control Sonos speakers with voice commands.

It's a great pairing for both companies; Sonos speakers sound way better than the Echo, and Alexa is quickly evolving as the leading smart home voice assistant. And since everything works over Wi-Fi, all existing Sonos devices are supported; Amazon's Echo is still handling the microphone / listening part and communicating commands to the Sonos gear.

Sonos Bringing Voice Control To Its Speakers With Amazon Partnership

One of the most serious recent threats faced by Sonos, the biggest player in connected speakers, came from Amazon, whose Echo “smart” speaker proved to be a surprise hit.

Now Sonos is embracing its erstwhile rival to bring voice control into its own speakers. At a New York event on Tuesday morning, the company announced a partnership with Amazon that will allow the users to operate their Sonos devices using Amazon’s Alexa technology.

But there’s a catch: Alexa’s voice technology won’t be built into Sonos speakers. Instead, users will have to purchase an Amazon device, like the Echo or Dot speakers, and use it to control their Sonos system.

Sonos will open up a private beta of the integration at the end of this year. The features will become available to all Sonos owners in early 2017.