John
[Editor’s note: We start 2018 not with a spring in our stride but with a limp and a news hangover from 2017.]
Connect. For Spotify and Sonos, a means to sidestep Sonos’ own long-in-the-tooth mobile app to keep things green and black, allowing the Spotify app itself to act as a remote control, instructing the Sonos speaker/streamer which music to pull down directly from the Swedish giant’s servers. Neat.
No doubt inspired by Spotify, Sonos have expanded this connect concept to include Tidal.
For Sonos owners, fire up the Tidal mobile app (iOS/Android), hit play on a song, navigate to the Now Playing screen and click the Cast icon 
to locate your Sonos device; press and go. Congratulations – you are now controlling Tidal playback on a Sonos system via Tidal own mobile app and without Sonos own app. Double neat.
Tidal are calling this new feature Tidal Direct Control and for now, unlike Spotify Connect, is limited to its mobile apps.
The good news doesn’t end there: this Connect-like behaviour for Sonos devices is also available on (the once again US-only) Pandora.
Move over, Alexa. There’s life in those digits yet.
