Sonos headphones have been circling round the rumour mill for awhile — and now they’re one step closer to becoming a reality. Sonos has just been awarded a patent for its first ever set of wireless headphones.
Sonos headphones are basically confirmed now
According to Protocol, the Sonos headphones patent was awarded last week. While it’s not a surprising development, it’s a long-awaited one.
Back in 2019 Bloomberg reported on Sonos headphones being in the works. The reported stated that the cans would cost over $US300 and would support Amazon and Google assistants.
“As a company founded in innovation, we’re always working on different ideas and innovations that can help the world listen better,” a Sonos spokesperson said at the time.
“We continue to make investments in our strong patent portfolio with dozens of new patents each year. We do not have additional information to share at this time regarding our future product roadmap.”
Since then, Sonos has proven its efforts in expanding its product range outside the home. It launched the Sonos Move, its first portable speaker, at IFA in Berlin last year. It’s quite the beast, but certainly a step in the right direction.
And now it seems like the brand is trying to get a little more personal.
The patent
For the most part the Sonos headphones patent sure does describe wireless headphones. In addition to two possible over-ear designs, it also mentions the possibility of controllable noise cancellation, microphones, touch sensors and a USB-C charging port.
But what’s unique here is the likely integration with existing Sonos speaker networks. Anyone familiar with the brand with know that its MO is connectivity. Sonos is big on positioning its products as an ecosystem of speakers that work together seamlessly.
And it seems like the Sonos headphones will be apart of that ecosystem.
The patent mentions ‘swap’ functionality that would allow whatever you’re listening to go from the headphones to the Sonos speakers on your network.
“For example, if a particular piece of content play is currently playing on the wireless headphone, a swap changes the playback to play that piece of content on one or more other playback devices on the local network,” the patent reads.
We’d be surprised if this feature doesn’t end of in the final product, if it ever happens. It could still be years away, but will be waiting with bated breath for these shiny Sonos headphones in the meantime.