Your Sonos hardware is about to become a lot more useful.
Sonos has announced that the company will be opening up to Spotify Connect beginning in October, allowing you to control your music from within the Spotify app. This is a huge change from the way that Sonos has operated to date by pushing all music management through its own controller app. Using the Spotify app on both mobile and desktop, you’ll soon be able to select the songs you want to play, the speakers you want to play them through, without having to bounce between various apps.
You and your guests will now be able to open the Spotify app and change the music instead of having to download the Sonos controller.
Sonos says that more than 50% of its users are also using Spotify with Sonos hardware. With people having friends over and entertaining using their Sonos speakers, guests will now be able to open their Spotify app and change the music instead of having to download the Sonos controller and set it up. As part of these changes, a future update will allow you to no longer need to be on the same wireless network as your speakers to control it. You’ll be able to control what is playing, and how loud it plays, from a cellular connection as well.
[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NFJ7O7N5Yok?modestbranding=0&html5=1&rel=0&autoplay=0&wmode=opaque&loop=0&controls=1&autohide=0&showinfo=0&theme=dark&color=red&enablejsapi=0]
In addition to opening Spotify Connect, Sonos has announced that its speakers will work with Amazon’s Alexa in 2017, allowing you to complete various tasks using just your voice. Alexa will be able to play the songs you want to hear on specific Sonos speakers in your setup, and if you hear something you aren’t familiar with you can ask Alexa what the song is. The integration is set to arrive in private beta later this year, and hit all users sometime in the new year. You will need to have an Amazon Echo, Tap or Dot in order to gain the Alexa functionality.
More: Sonos speakers buyers guide
With Sonos moving from a closed platform that required you to use its app to control your music, it makes it even more appealing to the masses. Competition to the platform and hardware has been moving in over the past few years, and with options like Google Cast (Chromecast) giving you the ease of managing your music from existing apps with a cheap hardware addition, Sonos needed to make some changes. Sonos will also join the Open Music Initiative, which could indicate that the company has plans to open the platform even further.
If you haven’t already started your Sonos system, now may be the time. Sonos offers small speakers, larger speakers, sound bars and subwoofers for all of your household musical needs.
Do these announcements excite you? Let us know what you think in the comments!
