Bose adds Google Assistant to smart speakers and soundbars already supporting Alexa
While Amazon and Google are battling for first place among the world's smart speaker vendors, the two tech giants remain open to hardware competition from the likes of Sonos and Bose as well, aiming to put their voice assistants on as many third-party devices as possible.
Just a few days after Sonos officially completed its years-long efforts of providing choice to owners of select wireless speakers and soundbars, arch-rival Bose is joining the Google Assistant support party. Like the Sonos One and Sonos Beam, the Bose Home Speaker 500, Soundbar 500, and 700 will let you compare and contrast the strengths of Google Assistant and Amazon Alexa before deciding which AI better fits your needs.
To enable Google Assistant functionality, users of any of the three aforementioned Bose products, which offer Alexa integration out the box, will have to access the "Voice Settings" menu in their Bose Music app, select the newly added service, and follow the straightforward setup process. Of course, first and foremost, you'll need a software update that's being applied automatically as we speak to your costly audio equipment.
By the way, if you're not comfortable coughing up $400 for the Bose Home Speaker 500, $550 for the Bose Soundbar 500, or $800 for the Soundbar 700, a smaller and slightly more affordable Bose Home Speaker 300 with built-in Google Assistant support out the box is coming "later this summer."
Unsurprisingly, the "compact" smart speaker looks a lot like its 500-branded big brother, minus the color screen used to display album art and track information. According to The Verge, the two-pound device will be priced at $259.95, which is much better than 400 bucks, but still a heck of a lot costlier than the Google Home or Home Hub, which probably means a far superior audio experience is to be expected.
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