Sonos has said for a while its latest Sonos One speakers will support Apple’s AirPlay 2, but now the company has confirmed other speakers in their line up which will also support the wireless protocol.
According to the Mac Observer, Sonos confirmed the Playbase and Play:5 will join the Sonos One in supporting AirPlay 2.
AirPlay 2 will allow speakers to be grouped and also setup stereo pairs. Sonos says any speakers actively grouped will work with an AirPlay 2-compatible speaker. So that means your pair of Play:1s will be able to be paired with a Sonos One.
Any Sonos speaker with touch controls will support AirPlay 2 out of the box, while those with buttons will support AirPlay 2 in a group.
The Sonos One is available for $249.99 and supports Alexa and soon Google Assistant, at half the cost of Apple’s HomePod.
Apple has not released AirPlay 2 yet, but it’s currently part of iOS 11.4 beta, so hopefully it should be out soon.
Update April 26, 2018: Sonos has officially announced this news on their blog, saying:
Today, we’re confirming that newer Sonos speakers like Play:5, Playbase and Sonos One will support AirPlay 2, as will future Sonos products. When you group one of these Airplay-enabled speakers with older Sonos devices, you can bring AirPlay capabilities to your entire Sonos system.
[…]
With AirPlay 2 you can play any sound from an iPhone, iPad, or Mac computer – including YouTube videos and Netflix movies – on Sonos speakers throughout the house. You will also be able to ask any Siri-enabled device to control Apple Music on Sonos speakers.
Want to see more of our stories on Google?
P.S. Want to keep this site truly independent? Support us by buying us a beer, treating us to a coffee, or shopping through Amazon here. Links in this post are affiliate links, so we earn a tiny commission at no charge to you. Thanks for supporting independent Canadian media!
That is just greedy on sonos part.if they think i will buy another spk to access airplay just because they want my money. Well here this. I will get rid of play 1 and 3 and go with a company that listens to cust. They need me more than i need them. Rip-off
Oh, cool – you know the requirements to run AP2? So you are sure that the older play 1, Play 3 devices have the required internals to run AP2 efficiently? Cool
I think its a software update.
Airplay 2 hasn’t even been released yet. Those Sonos speakers that don’t support it have been in the market for ages. Your expectations are a little ridiculous.
I’m saying this because because thats what they had advertised originally.
And why not even if the product is 5 years old. As respect for their customers and the fact that it seems to be only a software update or firmware.
Anyway its my opinion, whatever.
It’s says sonos play and play 5 on the email I’ve received