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Sonos will let apps and smart home devices connect to its speakers

Sonos will let apps and smart home devices connect to its speakers

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Sonos certification
Sonos certification
Photo by Chris Welch / The Verge

Sonos is making its platform a lot more open next year. During an event in New York City this morning, Sonos revealed it’s creating a “works with Sonos” certification program for third parties to integrate their hardware or software with the Sonos platform. That means apps, hardware, and even smart home devices will be able to more closely integrate with Sonos’ hardware. Sonos has Olutron, Wink, TunesMap, Wrensilva, Alarm.com, Crestron, and iPort all signed up.

While Sonos has supported a number of music services within its own controller apps, the company started integrating Spotify Connect late last year. It allows Spotify apps to connect directly to Sonos, and bypass the Sonos app altogether. Sonos is also expanding this integration to Pandora, Tidal, iHeart Radio, and Audible. The speaker is even adding AirPlay 2 support for Apple’s devices next year, allowing you to stream your content from an iPhone or iPad directly to Sonos speakers without any additional apps.

Sonos smart home integration
Sonos smart home integration

The integration also extends to smart home devices and hubs, like Logitech Harmony or Samsung’s SmartThings. It’s a big extension to what is currently available today, and Sonos’ Alexa integration is also a big part of this new push. A more open Sonos ecosystem will be welcomed by current owners, and the company is also introducing a Sonos One smart speaker with support for multiple voice assistants.