Bose has started rolling out AirPlay 2 support to selected smart speakers and Soundbar models. The announcement was made by Bose earlier this week in which it confirmed that the Home Speaker 500, Soundbar 500, and Soundbar 700 will receive an update to gain AirPlay 2 functionality.

The announcement comes as a surprise to many since neither Bose or Apple hinted at bringing AirPlay 2 support to the former’s soundbar and smart speakers. Nonetheless, the move

The Bose Soundbar 500/700 and Home Speaker 500 all feature Amazon Alexa integration as well. With the addition of AirPlay 2 support, iPhone/iPad users will be able to easily playback music on them from Apple Music without getting into the hassle of connecting to them over Bluetooth.

Bose also confirmed that it is working on bringing AirPlay 2 functionality to its SoundTouch speakers, though there’s no word on when that’s going to happen.

Our Take

After announcing that AirPlay 2 is coming to TVs from Samsung, LG, Sony, and Vizio, Apple has really opened up the AirPlay 2 ecosystem by ensuring that it is also supported by smart speakers and other devices.

Up until the end of last year, AirPlay was nowhere near in terms of reach when compared to Google Cast. However, Apple is now making rapid progress in terms of expanding AirPlay 2 coverage which is important given that the company will be releasing its own streaming service Apple TV+ later this year.

[Via Bose, HomeKit]

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