Google Home and Apple team up for multi-room tag team to take down Sonos and Bose

Fans of Google Assistant smart speakers and displays have been missing a key Apple based service for years, but now Google has announced that Apple Music will finally be coming to Google Assistant devices. 

Apple’s music subscription service has been on competing devices, such as Amazon’s Echo speakers, for years making the Alexa based ecosystem the default home for those who use Apple Music.

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But now, with Apple Music coming to Google Assistant devices, users will have more choice when it comes to smart speakers and screens. Even Google’s own Nest devices now support Apple Music. 

Apple Music is available now on smart displays and speakers that use Google Assistant for users in the US, UK, France, Germany and Japan, with further regions expected soon. 

Users can set Apple Music as the default music service on the smart speakers and use voice commands to play music, albums, and playlists, just like with Spotify, Pandora, or YouTube Premium. Music can also be played through multiple speakers at the same time for whole-home audio. 

It has been a long time coming, with Apple Music being available on Echo devices since early 2019, but now Google Assistant smart speakers almost have the same functionality as Alexa speakers. Neither works with their competitor's service, with Echo devices not supporting YouTube Music, and Google devices not supporting Amazon Music, but the only other major difference is the lack of Tidal on Google Assistant based speakers. Meanwhile, Apple’s HomePod smart speakers only support Apple Music, and Pandora. 

Despite scepticism about privacy and usefulness in the early days, smart speakers have become a key feature of many homes around the world. With more and more devices becoming available with smart speaker compatibility, this is an area that is set to continue growing in the future, so it certainly makes sense for Google to want as many music services on board as possible. 

With Apple’s line of smart speakers still lacking some key features, users within that ecosystem have had to choose between Amazon and Google devices. Apple Music users would have been pushed towards Alexa enabled smart speakers until now, but it will be interesting to see if the market shifts at all now Apple Music is available on Google Assistant devices. Of course, hardcore Apple fans will likely just wait for the HomePod line of devices to hopefully be improved and expanded over the coming years. 

Source: The Verge