Bose Home Speaker 300 Revealed As Smart Speakers Add Google Assistant

Bose smart speakers are getting a Google Assistant upgrade today, with the company's connected models adding Google's helpful AI, though you may want to wait until the summer for the newest Bose hardware. The update is being released today for existing Bose models, including both standalone smart speakers and the company's range of connected soundbars too.

That means the Bose Home Speaker 500, along with the Bose Soundbar 500 and the Soundbar 700. Launched in August of last year, the Home Speaker 500 and the two soundbars arrived initially with Amazon Alexa support.

Now, there'll be a second voice assistant option. Just as we saw with Sonos last week, the Google Assistant on Bose will offer most of the same features as we're familiar with from a Google Home. That means the ability to ask for playlists, songs, artist radio stations, and more, yes, but also controlling smart home devices, accessing the calendar and tasks, and of course getting answers to trivia questions.

Like with the Sonos implementation of its dual assistants, the big limitation here is that you can only have one active on a smart speaker at a time. After the latest firmware has been automatically installed, you can choose between the Google Assistant and Amazon Alexa in the Bose Music app. Alternatively, if you're setting up a brand new speaker, you'll be guided through that choice during the initial setup process.

The Google Assistant will also be available on the new Bose Home Speaker 300. That's a smaller version of the Home Speaker 500, with a more compact footprint, and will be released later in the summer.

It's roughly the same size as a Sonos One, and promises 360-degree sound. If you've already got other Bose speakers, you'll be able to link them together for multi-room audio. Controls on the top handle playback, as you'd expect, but also inherit the Bose Home Speaker 500's useful shortcut buttons.

These can be mapped to different streaming radio stations or playlists, for easier access. However you don't get the larger, more expensive speaker's LCD screen. Bose is supporting both Alexa and the Google Assistant, along with AirPlay 2; there's also regular Bluetooth for a direct connection with your phone or laptop.

The Bose Home Speaker 300 will be priced at $259.95. It'll arrive in stores on June 20, Bose says.