FabianIt’s not entirely unlikely that a well-equipped smart home with Philips Hue lighting will also feature Sonos speakers. After all, Sonos is the market leader when it comes to smart control and multi-room functionality. As I have now learned, the two manufacturers are set to join forces soon – at least when it comes to voice control.
Sonos Voice Control is expected to be expanded to include control of Philips Hue lighting before the end of this year. This is exciting news, as Sonos is not currently compatible with any other smart home platform in this way. Philips Hue would be the first partner in this field.
The future voice commands are likely to be relatively obvious. I expect that it will be possible to switch lamps and rooms on and off and regulate the brightness. It should also be possible to activate Hue scenes with Sonos Voice Control. We should find out exactly what the range of functions will be at the official presentation at the latest. Philips Hue has already announced a media event for September 3.
What Sonos Voice Control can do so far
“Hey Sonos” can currently be combined with numerous commands. The focus so far has been on controlling music playback, with support for all major streaming services such as Apple Music, Spotify, Amazon Music, and more. In addition, Sonos speakers can also be controlled, for example to adjust the volume or group multiple speakers.
Apart from that, there aren’t many commands yet. Sonos Voice Control can tell you the time, set timers and sleep timers, and retrieve weather information.
However, there is one important thing to note: Sonos Voice Control is currently only available in US English and French. For me in Germany, this feature is therefore not really exciting, even though it can in principle be used worldwide. What is pretty cool, though, is that the voice commands are executed locally and not sent through the cloud first. In principle, Philips Hue commands should also be able to be executed via the local network.
