I let ChatGPT run my 7 Sonos speakers – and multi-step commands were the best part

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You can control your Sonos system with an MCP-compatible LLM, but how far can it go?

Read full bio November 4, 2026, 12:56 pm ET

Jada Jones/ZDNET ZDNET’s key takeaways Ahead of Sonos 27voice, AI enthusiasts can use Sonos 27mcp. Sonos 27mcp’s execution of complex, multi-layered commands leveled up my Sonos speakers. If you’re not a chatbot fan, you may want to wait for Sonos 27voice. Alongside announcing the Sonos Ace Ultra headphones and Beam Ultra soundbar, Sonos is also granting its devices several AI-powered upgrades — and one of those is now available. Sonos 27mcp allows chatbot fans to control their system through any MCP-compatible AI.

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Users can link their Sonos system with any large language model that supports MCP, including ChatGPT, Claude, Gemini, and others. ChatGPT and Claude support Sonos as a plug-in, and you can register the Sonos MCP with a compatible server of your choice. Sonos 27mcp is a great way to add context-aware and multi-step commands to your system, especially if Sonos Voice Control, Alexa, or Google Assistant feels outdated.

If you don’t have a penchant for AI chatbots, you can wait for Sonos’ in-house AI-powered voice assistant, Sonos 27voice, which should be rolling out in Early Access in the coming weeks. A recent Sonos blog post details Sonos 27voice’s level of understanding in the context of your Sonos system, and it’s on par with that of ChatGPT, Claude, and Gemini.

That said, I let ChatGPT take the helm of my seven Sonos speakers for a few days. Here’s how it went.

Sonos Voice Control is an extremely simple voice assistant that only responds to “Play X by Y on Z speaker” commands, which can be frustrating when you don’t know a song’s name and artist, or have forgotten exactly what you named a specific Sonos speaker.

Instead of needing to know a specific song title, I could give ChatGPT one or two words from the title I remembered, and it understood what I meant. I could also tell ChatGPT to play a song “in the kitchen” or “in my office,” though the speakers are named “Kitchen Counter” and “Jada’s Office.”

For example, I directed ChatGPT to play “that swan song by BTS” on my kitchen counter, and it began playing “Black Swan,” the song’s correct name. I decided to further test ChatGPT’s knowledge by asking it to find The 1975’s setlist from the band’s last concert in Atlanta, and play my most-played song from it.

Though the AI bot couldn’t access my Apple Music account deeply enough to determine my listening history, it did find The 1975’s setlist from 2023, when they headlined Music Midtown. This performance was indeed the band’s most recent live show in Atlanta.

Next, I tried something more complicated. I asked ChatGPT to “queue up all of BTS’s songs from MOTS:7, in order from most popular to least.” ChatGPT referred to ChartMasters data, accurately listing the album’s track popularity. It also understood that I meant the album, “Map of the Soul: 7.”

However, ChatGPT’s control of my Sonos system prevents it from curating a queue; instead, it asks me whether I want it to play the album in order or create a new playlist based on the command I give it. So this command was possible; I just didn’t want to make a new playlist from it.

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This feature works best when a playlist already exists, when you want to create a new one, or when you’re requesting a specific artist, album, or genre based on the conditions in the prompt’s first half (which we’ll get into shortly). Still, if you often have trouble remembering specific details about an artist, album, or song, or you want to uncover something that a search bar wouldn’t understand, an AI chatbot can help with that.

The best part about my speakers having an AI-powered boost was that I could give ChatGPT multi-step commands. For example, I told ChatGPT, “Play my ‘Oldies’ playlist on all the speakers except the bedroom, and play every speaker at 10% volume,” and it worked like a charm.

Just for fun, I wanted to play around with my speakers’ timers and audio controls. I asked ChatGPT to “set a 3-minute timer on Jada’s Office speaker, and when the timer is up, decrease volume to 5% and decrease bass.”

ChatGPT could easily promise to set a timer and decrease the volume, but Sonos doesn’t grant it access to adjust the bass. I suppose it’s a good thing that chatbots can only have so much access to your speakers, since they’re known to go rogue and do things like spend money or submit false tips to the police.

Sonos 27mcp is a great tool for the AI chatbot enthusiast with several Sonos speakers throughout their home. If you have multiple speakers across several rooms, it’s a great way to keep a bird’s-eye view of your system without tapping around in the Sonos app.

However, if you have only one or two speakers and rarely use ChatGPT in your daily life, you might feel like you’re trying to fit a circle into a square using this feature. Though the music discovery aspect of a contextually aware chatbot with internet access is great, its access to your preferred platform and the Sonos app can be limited.

Also: Sonos Ace Ultra vs. Sonos Ace: Who should upgrade

I found Sonos 27mcp most useful when I had several speakers running at once and wanted to make a system-wide change with a single command. However, I don’t typically have a chatbot open and ready to go, so I’ll wait for Sonos 27voice before I call myself a Sonos-speaker-with-AI-integration fan.

Sonos Voice Control is on-device and quite limited, though Sonos has always stated that its limits were intended to protect your privacy. With several microphone-enabled speakers around my house, I appreciate that. I would guess that Sonos keeps chatbots from accessing certain features out of respect for privacy, but AI power users may be frustrated by the safety barriers.

However, it’s time to get with the times, and Sonos 27mcp (and soon Sonos 27voice) are “the times.” Sonos’ smart speaker competitors — Google, Amazon, and Apple — all have speakers with built-in, proprietary conversational AI powered by Gemini, Alexa+, and Siri AI, respectively. For Sonos to remain competitive, it needs an AI-powered upgrade. Sonos’ flexibility is one of its strengths here, as you can choose from an MCP-compatible server of your choice, or soon stick with Sonos’ in-house 27voice.

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However, if you’re not into AI chatbots, you may not want to start getting into them just to control your Sonos system. If it’s any consolation, it appears that Sonos 27voice should be able to execute the same complex commands as Claude, Gemini, or ChatGPT when connected to your system. If you’re not into AI at all, Sonos isn’t removing Sonos Voice Control, so it’s always an option, too.

After a recent app update, it seems that Sonos is prepping speakers for the arrival of Sonos 27voice, as it was promised to roll out in Early Access in “Fall 2026.”