If you’ve always wanted Giancarlo Esposito — the actor playing the meth-slinging Los Pollos Hermanos boss Gustavo Fring from “Breaking Bad” — to guide you through your choice of music, ho boy does Sonos have a treat for you. Esposito lent his voice to a Sonos speaker near you, alongside its long-awaited voice control feature set. The new voice functionality will be available as a free update for supported speakers.
The company’s implementation of voice functionality is privacy-forward, and promises to keep the dulcet tones of your top-secret conversations to itself; the voice command systems are entirely on-device, without shipping clips of your voice or transcripts to Sonos. A nice touch in a world where it seems that the other voice-controlled speakers take great pleasure in livestreaming your commands to Google, Amazon or Apple servers.
You can shout at your Sonos speakers to control Apple Music, Amazon Music, Deezer and Pandora at launch, with other services to follow in due time.
Image Credits: Sonos (opens in a new window)
“Sonos is committed to delivering new experiences that effortlessly connect listeners to the content they love,” said Joseph Dureau, vice president, Voice Experience, Sonos. “One of the most natural ways to connect to your music is with your voice, but when we speak to our customers, we hear that many of them have concerns about privacy and are dissatisfied with the accuracy, speed and ease of use of existing voice services. Sonos Voice Control delivers the experience our customers want without compromise — one that puts speed, accuracy and privacy on an equal footing.”
Sonos Voice Control is available in the U.S. starting at the beginning of next month. French customers will see the functionality later this year, and from there the company is planning a gradual global rollout. Keep an eye (well, ear) out for updates!