Sonos speakers can now be controlled through Spotify

While Sonos makes some decent speakers, many feel that its apps are lacklustre at best. If you fall into this camp, you’ll be pleased to hear that Sonos hardware is now starting to play nice with Spotify Connect. If you sign up for the Sonos public beta, you’ll be able to control your speakers from inside the Spotify app. That includes multi-speaker and multi-room setups — change one or change the lot, it’s your choice. If you have friends over that want to play DJ, they can also queue up songs and playlists from their own Spotify app, instead of downloading the Sonos equivalent.

The Sonos app isn’t going anywhere, so if you prefer the company’s own software you can continue as normal. Teaming up with Spotify, however, is a smart way to make its speakers more flexible. The company is fighting on two fronts; in the hardware game, it’s up against a deluge of home speakers, including the Assistant-powered Google Home and Alexa-integrated Amazon Echo. On the software side, it’s tackling Google Cast and the oft-forgotten AirPlay. To keep its speakers attractive, Sonos needs to work with dominant and emerging services — if doesn’t, the company’s hardware will feel uncooperative, rather than seamless in the home.