HomePod launch: Sonos trolls Apple with Spotify playlist amid smart speaker battle

The two companies have had a close relationship – but are now direct competitors

A customer looks at The Apple HomePod, which is now available in stores in the US, UK and Australia, at Apple Store on Regent Street on February 9, 2018 in London, England (Antony Jones/Getty Images for Apple)

The smart speaker battle is getting a little sassy.

Apple is the latest company to release a speaker with a voice assistant built in for listening to music just by asking for it. And Sonos – which is its closest competitor in the smart speaker market – has definitely noticed.

Sonos has shared a Spotify playlist that includes a message to Apple hidden within it. All of the note is made up of song titles – some of which chain together apparently to voice Sonos's feelings about its partner stepping into its market.

"You're crazy for this HomePod," one part that includes songs by Guns N' Roses and G-Eazy reads. "Remember two is better than one," another part says.

But the playlist comes together to suggest that the two could still work together closely. "No matter what you're told, we are going to be friends over everything," it concludes, with songs by Broken Bells, The White Stripes and Courtney Barnett.

The whole thing can be seen and listened to below. (But only on Spotify: despite Sonos having an active place and profile on Apple Music, and having made playlists for the service, the new message to Apple only appears on its competitor.)

Eventually, HomePod and Sonos speakers are expected to work together, in the theme of the White Stripes song. Apple will later this year roll out its AirPlay 2 technology, which will allow various speakers that include it – including Sonos – to be used from people's phones and integrated with the HomePod for multi-room listening.

As part of the playlist suggests – the playlist includes three songs that make the phrase "something about us together feels right" – Apple and Sonos have worked together in the past. Sonos rolled out integration with Apple Music soon after it was released, and Apple sells Sonos speakers in its store.

But Sonos has taken aim at Apple's HomePod launch already. Just as Apple announced its speaker, Sonos launched a campaign based around the idea that "two is better than one", and offered two of its Alexa-powered Sonos One speakers for the same price as one HomePod.

And at the same time, the company took out a full-page ad in the New York Times, in which it argued that "big tech" was trying to restrict people's choice but that it supported a wide range of platforms. It didn't name Apple, but the HomePod can only natively play music from Apple Music.