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Bose smart speakers add Google Assistant to Amazon Alexa

Bose follows Sonos in announcing the ability to use multiple voice assistants on its smart speakers.

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Ty Pendlebury is a journalism graduate of RMIT Melbourne, and has worked at CNET since 2006. He lives in New York City where he writes about streaming and home audio.
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The Bose Home Speaker 500 now allows a choice of either Google Assistant or Amazon Alexa

 Bose

Bose  fans, the days of your company's smart speakers supporting only one voice assistant are officially over. Following the footsteps of Sonos, select Bose speakers now offer a choice between  Google Assistant and Amazon Alexa .

Bose has announced that its Home Speaker 500 , Soundbar 500 and 700 and the forthcoming Home Speaker 300 will offer Google Assistant. All are also compatible with Amazon's Alexa system. 

The Home Speaker 300 will be available for preorder from June 4 and while it lacks the screen of the 500 it also features 360 degree sound.

bose-home-speaker-300

The Bose Home Speaker 300 offers both Google Assistant and Amazon Alexa and will be available for pre-order on June 4

 Bose

The company is rolling out a software update starting today that introduces Google Assistant as a voice assistant option. You can add it by going to "Voice Settings" in the Bose Music app, selecting the Google Assistant and following the guided setup process.

Competitor Sonos was the first to announce support for both assistants back in 2017 but it only enabled dual-voice capability last week.

Both Google Assistant and Amazon Alexa allow you to request songs, control smart home appliances and perform web searches using your voice and a wake word, such as "Alexa" or "Hey Google."

We have yet to test Google Assistant on Bose speakers but we expect that, like Sonos, both assistants are unlikely to be usable at the same time. You'll probably have to choose one or the other using a toggle in the app.