Sonos steps it up a gear with Google Play Music integration

The world of wireless music streaming is moving at a pace that not even the industry can really measure or control. With Bluetooth speakers at even corner, Airplay being Apple’s weapon of choice and Google launching Chromecast there are just so many ways to send music from one device to another. Google Play has just introduced a feature which will be sure to impress.

If you live and breathe the Apple ecosystem the idea of Airplay is something hard to beat. Apple TV devices, portable speakers with Airplay support, these devices can stream from any app that is pushing out audio just with the click of a button on your iOS device.

However, as is common with Apple products they are part of a solid and closed ecosystem, so if you’ve got a Sonos music and speaker system you’re not pushing audio from your Apple device other than from within Sonos’ own apps.

Those Sonos apps make it possible to play music from your music library, or a range of streaming audio services when activated from within the Sonos app – however as creatures of habit we’re keen to use whatever app we want and at that point perhaps consider where to “push” the sound to.

If you use Rdio or Spotify and other services you’ve also been able stream and control those services directly from the Spotify apps.

One of the biggest gaps in the Sonos system has been lacking Google Play Music support, and all that has just changed.

Google Play Music is now an available source of audio content within the Sonos app – all you need to do is run an update on your app and then sign up.

Where this little integration steps right up a gear is the integration of Sonos support within Android itself.

If you’re in the Google Play music app and want to stream your own music library to your Sonos system – simply click the audio output option button and select your Sonos speaker.

Within the Google Play Music app, it’s as easy as Apple Airplay.

We can only assume this is just the start for Sonos, with this technology now available it makes sense to integrate it further into other Android apps or the entire Android operating system.

This development is small, but for Sonos owners who use Google services and have been interested in Google Play Music – it’s huge.