Apple Music subscribers can now control music playback on Sonos speakers using voice control through Amazon Alexa. The feature works in the US and UK on the Sonos One and Sonos Beam smart speakers, joining Amazon Echo speakers, based on the Apple Music skill in the Alexa app.
Voice control on Sonos speakers with Alexa integration has worked with skipping songs and play/pause, controlling volume, and nearly everything other Alexa skill, but Apple Music control through Alexa required further integration.
Sonos has been able to play Apple Music since December 2015, and Amazon Echo smart speakers picked up playback support using Alexa voice control in December 2018. Amazon promised non-Echo speakers with Alexa would gain Apple Music control in the future.
That future is today. Simply update the Sonos app, enable the Apple Music skill in the Alexa app if you haven’t already, then link your account.
Sonos One and Sonos Beam include built-in voice control using Amazon Alexa (or Google Assistant which doesn’t yet work with Apple Music) so direct voice control is limited to those two models for now. That means less time managing the Sonos app and more time listening to music.
Sonos One and Sonos Beam also support AirPlay 2, Apple’s wireless audio streaming protocol, which works with multi-room audio with other AirPlay 2 speakers including HomePod. Sonos Playbase and Sonos Play:5 (second-gen) also work with AirPlay 2 but lack Alexa integration.
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