Questions and answers

Quak plays announcements on your Sonos speakers: a text read by a voice, what you say into your phone or computer, sounds and your own clips. From the web app and the apps for Mac, iPhone and iPad, the terminal, Slack, the API and AI assistants.

Quak is what a duck says in German: short, loud, impossible to miss. And party? Announcements should be fun, with robot voices, stadium crowds and a party horn. Everyone's invited: the web app, the CLI, the API and soon many more, all on the same speakers. Like an old party line: one speaks, everyone hears.

Sonos speakers and a Sonos account. Quak connects to Sonos in the cloud, so it works from anywhere, not only at home.

Most Sonos scripts and smart home integrations talk to the speakers in your local network. They only work at home and need a computer that's always on. Quak uses the official Sonos cloud API: nothing to install, no box, and it works from anywhere, from the office, on holiday or from a server.

Sign up with your email, confirm the link we send you, connect your Sonos account and play your first announcement. You get 500 credits to start, no card needed.

No. You log in with a link we email you. The email shows two words, and the same two words appear on the login page, so you can tell the email is really from your login.

Almost all Sonos speakers. After connecting, Quak shows how many of your speakers can play announcements. Only very old devices can't.

It gets quieter during the announcement and keeps playing afterwards. On some older models it pauses briefly.

Yes. Pick any speakers, groups or a whole location. One announcement to many speakers costs the same as to one.

Almost. Sonos has no way to start one announcement on several speakers together, so Quak sends it to every speaker at the same moment. When each one starts is up to Sonos and your network: we usually measure 50 to 100 milliseconds between them. In different rooms you hardly notice it; close together, and loud, it can sound like a short echo.

Yes, for example home and holiday home. Your plan counts locations, not accounts: every Sonos household is one location, also when one account has several.

Text with over 1,000 voices, push-to-talk, more than 250 sounds, your own clips, audio files and links to audio on the web. Voice effects and ambience effects add some fun on top.

Text up to 1,000 characters, about a minute spoken. Push-to-talk, recorded or live (from the Family plan on), files, links and your own clips up to 3 minutes. Uploads up to 10 MB, so an MP3 or M4A rather than a WAV.

Times when nothing plays, 10 pm to 7 am by default. Announcements during quiet hours are skipped and cost nothing. You can change them per weekday or switch them off.

Yes, while it plays, and a delayed one before it starts, then it costs nothing.

Over 1,000 voices in more than 70 languages, from ElevenLabs, OpenAI, Google (Gemini and Chirp 3 HD) and Amazon Polly. Many voices speak several languages, even mixed within one sentence. With the preview you hear a voice in your browser first, without anything playing on your speakers.

Credits pay for announcements, charged once when one plays, however many speakers it reaches. What each kind costs, from a sound to the most natural voices, is on the pricing page. What costs what

No. An announcement to all speakers costs the same as to one. If it reaches no speaker, it costs nothing. The same goes for announcements that fall into your quiet hours and are skipped.

Credits from packs never expire. Credits from a plan are valid for their month, with a yearly plan they also arrive fresh every month. Plan credits are used first, then your pack balance.

We let you know in time, at 80% and at 100%. You can buy a pack at any time, with a plan at a discount. Or you switch to a bigger plan.

No. Free gives you 500 credits to start, after that you buy packs when you need them. All voices, sounds, your own clips, the apps and the API are included without a subscription. A plan is worth it for more effects, scheduled announcements, several locations or people.

Yes, you can try Home, Family and Team free for 7 days, with all features of the plan. The plan's monthly credits come right away and last until the end of your first paid month, then the renewal tops them up. Cancel before the 7 days are up and you pay nothing. One free trial per customer, payment card and Sonos system. Business starts right away; if you have questions first, just write to us.

Yes, any time, no email, no notice period: switch on the billing page, cancel under “Payment and invoices” at Stripe. Upgrades apply immediately, downgrades at the end of the billing period. Monthly plans run until the end of the month, yearly plans until the end of the term. Packs you bought and their credits stay yours after cancelling.

You pay online by credit card, PayPal, Apple Pay or Google Pay. Home, Family and packs include the VAT of your country, the price is the same everywhere. Team and Business are for businesses and come plus VAT, packs bought with them too; with a valid EU VAT ID there's no VAT (reverse charge). The invoice comes by email automatically.

From Family on there's a data processing agreement (DPA). Team and Business have user roles, a promised response time in support and prices plus VAT. More locations or users for Business are available on request, just write to us at hello@quak.party.

In the web app under Profile, “Where you're logged in” lists every browser, app and AI assistant with your login. Log out one of them, or all but this one with “Log out everywhere else”.

Yes. You confirm the new address with a link, until then the old one stays active.

In the web app under Profile: “Delete account”. We email you a link to confirm, only that link deletes. Before that you can download all your data as a file.

Texts and audio only for your audio cache time: 24 hours at most, down to 5 minutes if you like. Until then you can replay an announcement or keep it as a clip. After that the history only shows who announced when and where.

On servers in Germany, audio files stay in the EU. For voices we use specialised providers that only receive the text of the announcement. All of them are listed in the privacy policy.

Yes, a REST API with an OpenAPI schema, and the reference with code samples in the docs. The API is included in every plan, also without a subscription.

Yes, quak for macOS, Linux and Windows. One command installs it, it updates itself.

An MCP server for Claude, ChatGPT and others is on its way. Until then, give your assistant the OpenAPI schema.