Sonos Launches Affordable Ray Soundbar, Standalone Voice Control

pcmag.com:

Sonos has offered speakers that support voice assistants for a few years, such as the Sonos One, the Sonos Beam, and the portable Sonos Roam. Until now, however, the company has been content to leave the actual voice features to Amazon Alexa and Google Assistant. On Wednesday Sonos has announced its own voice control system, with a familiar and pleasantly robust voice driving it.

Sonos Voice Control is the company's new standalone voice command system, providing hands-free music search and playback control to compatible Sonos speakers. It's accessible by speaking the wake word "Hey Sonos," and can support multiple consecutive commands within six seconds of each other without repeating the wake word; for example, you can say "Hey Sonos, turn it up," and follow that with a simple, "louder," if that initial boost isn't enough.

The new voice control system is contained completely locally within a given speaker. No voice commands are processed by the cloud, and no recordings are stored on Sonos' servers. This is welcome news for anyone concerned about privacy with other voice assistants. This limited scope means that Sonos Voice Control isn't as broadly powerful as Alexa or Google Assistant, though; it can play your music and control your Sonos speakers, but don't expect it to control your smart home or tell you what the weather is.

What you can expect from Sonos Voice Control is a rich, charismatic voice responding to your commands. The system's voice is provided by Giancarlo Esposito, best known as Gustavo Fring in Breaking Bad and Better Call Saul, Moff Gideon in The Mandalorian, and Lex Luthor in Harley Quinn. While the voice controls are limited to music, the Sonos speakers you talk to will confirm your commands in