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The Sonos smart speaker with microphone hits the FCC

The Sonos smart speaker with microphone hits the FCC

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Supporting “multiple voice platforms and music services”

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Sonos has been rumored to be putting together a smart speaker for some time now, and we’ve just gotten the biggest confirmation yet that the company is working on its own voice assistant-powered device: an FCC filing that references a “Product model S13” that adds “integrated voice control functionality,” via Dave Zatz over at Zatz Not Funny!.

According to the FCC filing, S13 will have far-field microphones similar to those offered on products like the Amazon Echo to make it easy for the device to pick up and isolate sound from anywhere in a room. But Sonos isn’t just putting all its eggs in the Alexa basket — S13 will purportedly support “multiple voice platforms and music services,” and while details on that are obviously slim, it’s something that would immediately elevate it over its competitors by not locking you in to just one smart assistant ecosystem.

Imagine it: a single smart speaker that supports Siri, Alexa, and Google Assistant. That’s what we might be looking at here.

And if that wasn’t quite enough, the FCC filing also includes an image of a new UI, which prominently features a microphone icon.

Given that Sonos is facing the imminent release of Apple’s HomePod — a device that specifically called out Sonos as a competitor when it was first announced — along with rumors that Amazon might also be looking to get into the multi-room audio game, it’s clear that the company is doing its best to make sure that it’s ready to meet its challengers.