Sonos built its platform to offer choice and “currently" supports "multiple voice assistants with the Google Assistant and Amazon Alexa,” a spokesperson emailed Friday, after it bought voice platform company Snips (see 1911210045). Snips “brings a talented group of employees and strategic IP to Sonos that will make the voice experience on Sonos even better. It will enhance customers’ choice, ease of use, control and privacy as we continue to differentiate the end-to-end Sonos experience for customers.” The purchase gives Sonos the added talent and technology to create an “even more differentiated and immersive experience for customers, both inside and outside of the home,” he said. Sonos isn't moving away from Alexa and Google Assistant voice control, he said: “Amazon and Google are long-term strategic partners of Sonos. Together, we’ll continue to deliver great voice experiences for our customers. This is about innovating the voice experience on Sonos, not replicating what general purpose voice services offer."

More than 90 percent of smart speaker and smart display owners have an over-the-top streaming subscription vs. 72 percent of all U.S. broadband households, said Parks Associates Tuesday. The same group is also more connected than the average broadband household, with nearly 40 percent of smart speaker or display users owning 12 or more connected CE devices vs. 22 percent of all households, Parks said. Commenting on the growing importance of voice in technology, Arsham Hatambeiki, Universal Electronics senior vice president-products and technology, said, “Delivering new voice-centric experiences to the large existing installed base of devices in the home, and blending entertainment options across the increasing number of devices, apps, and services, is necessary for improving the monetization opportunities on CE platforms." Meanwhile, Canalys reported last week that Amazon smart speaker shipments crossed the 10 million mark in Q3 to 10.4 million, leading a category that grew 45 percent globally to 28.6 million units. Amazon benefited from strong Prime Day and back-to-school sales. Alibaba regained the top spot in China, placing second globally, while Google slipped from third in Q2 to fourth the following quarter on 3.5 million shipments.

Food ordering platform Olo signed with Google to let customers order directly from restaurant brands via Google Search, Maps and the Google Assistant, it said Tuesday. The integration, using Olo’s Rails platform, covers Olo’s network of more than 70,000 restaurant brand locations and allows users to ask Google Assistant for help. Rails transfers orders directly from Google Search, Maps and Assistant to the restaurants’ point-of-sale and ordering stream, it said, with two-way integration enabling accurate pricing, menu and product availability. Portillo’s Hot Dogs and Checkers & Rally’s were the first Olo brands to offer integration with Google, it said.

Over half of U.S. broadband households find voice control of connected devices appealing and 12 percent see it as a top feature when shopping for a TV, said Parks Associates Tuesday. Voice has had a “sizeable impact” in the smart home and connected device space, with four out of 10 homes using some form of smart speaker, said analyst Dina Abdelrazik. Voice control is extending into appliances, doorbells and smart TVs with nearly a fifth of consumers using voice commands to control connected entertainment devices several times weekly.

Hubble smart home brand iDevices introduced a Wi-Fi smart light switch with Alexa built in, giving it the ability to control the company’s full line of lighting, power and HVAC products, it said. The $99 Instinct switch is designed for situations when occupants have their hands full or need to control devices in other parts of the home, said the company. Users can create routines by app to automate daily tasks, and they can ask Alexa questions via the switch, with audio provided by Soen Audio. Instinct has LEDs behind the rocker panel that form an Echo-like light ring and a customizable night light controllable via Alexa. Far-field mics are integrated; Instinct responds only when it’s the closest Alexa device, said the company. Users can set mute mode from the switch or app.

State Farm is doing a trial using an Alexa skill for Echo Show that’s designed to let seniors live independently longer in their homes by connecting with family and friends, it said Thursday. The Alexa skill connects seniors to their care circle via a State Farm app. An interactive dashboard on Echo Show scrolls through a list of daily activities; tools in the mobile app coordinate tasks for members of the care circle; app suggestions are shared to the Echo Show for activities; music and photos can be sent from a mobile device to the Show; and social features help care group members stay connected, it said. The insurer plans to launch the voice-enabled skill nationally next year.

Bose introduced the Portable Home Speaker, a $349 Bluetooth smart speaker with Amazon Alexa and Google Assistant built in. Previous Bose SoundLink Bluetooth speakers required connection to an Echo or Google Home speaker for voice assistant capability. A proprietary Bose pickup system handles both voice engines, allowing users to access playlists, podcasts and other content, Bose said Thursday. AirPlay 2 allows Apple customers to play music directly from an iPhone to the speaker; Spotify Connect enables direct listening via the Spotify app, it said. The Portable claims 12 hours' battery life per charge via USB-C; a $29 charging cradle is optional. Responding to our question on the extra load “always-listening” puts on battery life, Ben Burns, senior product manager, emailed us that company engineers optimized battery usage “not just for always-listening voice control, but also for the powerful amount of bass the speaker produces, which consumes a lot of energy.” The 12-hour battery life rating is the number of hours consumers will see when the speaker is always listening for voice, Alexa is being engaged throughout the day, and the speaker is playing at a “reasonably loud volume,” he said. If the speaker is on and listening for a wake word but not playing music, it will last over 24 hours before needing to charge. Consumers who decide not to add Alexa or Google Assistant functionality to the speaker will get even more battery life, he said. Top buttons include a mic-off feature that cuts power to the microphones to give users privacy; other buttons control power, volume, play/pause, Bluetooth source and track advances. With the Bose Music app, users can browse content, switch music services and create a multiroom system with other Bose smart speakers and sound bars, said the company. Later this year, Bose will issue a software update enabling voice control of SoundLink speakers via the Portable; a 2020 update will allow pairing of two Portables to create “360-degree” stereo playback, it said. Availability is Sept. 19, said the company.

ScoreStream, a crowdsourcing platform for local sports coverage, is teaming with Amazon to bring “hyper-local” high school football scores from thousands of games across the country to Alexa users in “real time,” starting this fall, said the companies Friday. Users need only speak the names of their favorite teams for Alexa to deliver updates on various local games in their area, they said.

Smart speaker manufacturers shipped 30.3 million units worldwide in Q2, nearly doubling shipments from the year-ago quarter, said Strategy Analytics Wednesday. Amazon’s share fell from 29.1 percent in Q2 2018 to 21.9 percent on shipments of 6.6 million vs. Google’s 5.6 million shipments, which grew 74 percent for 18.5 percent Q2 share, SA said. Apple’s HomePod sales grew 81 percent, but its share fell to 4.7 percent from 5.1 percent, behind Baidu, Alibaba and Xiaomi. Smart speaker demand “shows little sign of plateauing, even in more mature markets like the US where ownership has now reached 30% of households,” said analyst David Mercer. The arrival of language-localized devices in large markets including Russia, Mexico and Brazil will support further demand growth in coming years, Mercer said. The continued surge in demand for smart speakers in China led SA to boost its 2019 forecast to 148.8 million units; it upped its forecast for the global installed base of smart speakers to 260 million units, said analyst David Watkins.

Apple’s $299 HomePod continues to lag the smart speaker market leaders, holding 5 percent market share in Q2, behind Amazon, 70 percent, and Google Home, 25 percent, blogged Consumer Intelligence Research Partners Thursday. Continued “aggressive pricing” of entry-level models appears to encourage new customers to try a smart speaker and lure existing owners to consider adding more devices,” said CIRP analyst Josh Lowitz. Amazon and Google are trying to capture households that will be loyal to the Alexa or Google Assistant platforms, said analyst Mike Levin: “The next frontier is monetizing those platforms.” The smart speaker category grew by 9 percent sequentially in Q2 to 76 million units and by more than 50 percent year on year, CIRP said. Findings were based on a survey of 500 U.S consumers July 1-10 who owned a smart speaker as of June 30.