Sonos has launched its new voice control software that features the voice of Star Wars, Breaking Bad, and Far Cry 6 villain Giancarlo Esposito.
Best known for his roles as Gideon in The Mandalorian and Gus Fring in Breaking Bad and Better Call Saul, Esposito was chosen by Sonos as a voice familiar to US customers.
“With careful recording, advanced processing and mastering, the voice is natural, unobtrusive, yet confident and engaging,” Sonos said in its announcement.
The voice control software will be available in all voice-capable Sonos speakers on June 1, which start at $179 before climbing into the high hundreds.
While Sonos is only launching the software in the US (and France later this year), it said more voices will join Esposito’s in the future, as it expands to more people and places – meaning we may see different actors to match what’s popular in different countries.
The system’s voice control system is apparently designed with privacy in mind, with Sonos making clear that any commands will be processed solely in the device and not transferred to the cloud or anywhere else to be listened to or analyzed.
“One of the most natural ways to connect to your music is with your voice, but when we speak to our customers, we hear that privacy concerns mean many are choosing not to use voice control,” said vice president of voice experience Joseph Dureau.
“Created purely for listening on Sonos and designed with privacy at its core, Sonos Voice control delivers the Sonos app experience using only your voice.”
Various celebrities and characters have already arrived on Amazon’s Alexa, headlined by Samuel L. Jackson but also including Shaquille O’Neal, Deadpool, and R2-D2.
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Ryan Dinsdale is an IGN freelancer who occasionally remembers to tweet @thelastdinsdale. He’ll talk about The Witcher all day.