Sonos App controls no longer appear on your lock screen

From what's been said, Sonos was likely using a capability that Apple didn't commit to support to provide the lock screen controls, and the Apple ecosystem does not allow lock screen controls for devices not playing on the device. Sonos was using a workaround to give us the capability, and adding Airplay to Sonos took that API hook for Airplay. The community has been complaining about Airplay for months, then blaming Sonos when Apple delayed releasing it, and they released it pretty damned once it was available from Apple. Sonos had to decided between two things - getting rid of a feature that was based upon undocumented Apple API hooks, meaning any update from Apple could have killed it, or saying, sorry we can't give you something because it will break this feature. They looked at customer demands and surveys, and likely this community. They made a decision, and some people don't like it.

Now, Sonos probably should never have used the undocumented interface (if that's what happened). That set this up to happen at any point in the future that Apple changed something.

I'm not a rabid defender of Sonos, I've criticized them when it's been due, but this is a rock and a hard place issue - which set of customers to tick off?

This is total and absolute BS on behalf of Sonos and if they don’t return my lock screen controls I’ll be looking for another solution!

I do not have any AirPlay devices. Despite this fact, I cannot get the controls back on the lock screen.
An Airport Express or similar device would also count as an AirPlay device. If you open up AirPlay from one of your apps, does anything on the network show up?

I have nothing showing and I don’t use AirPlay. Still can’t get the lock controls back? Shambles.

“Which set of customers to tick off”? If, when releasing a product update, that is a question you really have to consider, then there’s something fundamentally wrong with your product strategy.

I, for one, have not been clamoring for AirPlay support. I thought I was buying into the Sonos ecosystem, not into something that would be intimately tied to Apple’s (and Amazon’s, and eventually Google’s), and at the expense of the Sonos experience.

Sonos’ product strategy is now a bloody mess. If you have this, then you can do this but not that, and if you have this, then this is possible but only if this is enabled. But if you were used to this, it’s now gone unless you do this untenable thing to a completely different product.

I think losing the lock screen capability is horrible, especially for Apple Watch users. It was such a joy to control music playing on my sonos from my watch. Definitely a step backwards!

Same here. I do not use AirPlay at all. My Pioneer Elite receiver has it built in so I had to take it off my network so it doesn’t broadcast AirPlay. I have a Logitech RF remote so I can control the receiver from a remote area but it would be nice to have it networked for all of the features that use the internet.

I suspect this an Apple permission thing BUT can’t Sonos just give us the option to turn OFF AirPlay in our Sonos system???

My Sonos Connect runs through an AV Receiver which has AirPlay built into it - this cannot be switched off.

This situation should not have occurred and the contempt that Sonos have shown to users by dismissing their concerns is worrying. They have withdrawn a key feature.

What’s next? Remove the ability to connect to a NAS? “Oh yeah, we decided to remove that feature - get over it”

I have 2 Sonos Play:1 speakers in the garage. As most people, if a favorite song starts to play, I raise the volume. Previously, I did this by just just rolling the crown on my Apple Watch. It didn't matter if I was washing the car or trying to fix the lawn mower with greasy hands. Now, I have to fish my phone out of my pocket but first either drying or cleaning my hands.

I know this might not seem like a big problem but sometimes you miss the little things.

Sonos...please make things simple again! Get a little customer feedback BEFORE taking away options from the application. Didn't you learn anything from the Dark Mode deletion just a few months ago?

Fingers crossed that you do right and fix this quickly. Customers remember this sort of thing and will take it into account when it comes time to upgrade/add to their audio system or recommending one to friends and family. There is a lot of competition out there.

Sonos. As others have stated, multi-device audio control from multi-user devices on the lock screen was a HUGE differentiator for Sonos. Removing it removes one of the key benefits of Sonos. (Likely why Apple is making it difficult!). Other apps seem to have found a workaround and you need to as well. Ideally let users choose whether or not to enable airplay support. As so many have stated. We bought Sonos because of airplay deficiencies. Not a good plan to make Sonos more like Airplay!!!

I have a work around for this. While I’m not impressed by the roll out and got very confused with ‘turn Airplay’ off comments as I have Mac’s, Apple TV’s, Sky Q all with airplay .... anyway .... I have changed from playing music using the Sonos app to playing music on the Spoitify app and then selecting the speaker to use. I can now use my iPhone hard buttons from the lock screen and my Apple Watch to change music and the crown to control the volume. I know this won’t be the best solution for everybody my at least it will work for some and I know my phone is now playing the music which again is not great. I do hope this changes back to how it was AND allow airplay2 as I’m sure there is a thread where people wanted this.

Sonos you really need to fix this. You cant give new products/futures that affect futures you have allready implemented and are functioning vel. Remember that a large portion of your customers have products from you that are not airplay 2 compatible. You should make it possible to turn off the airplay 2 functionality inn your app and devices and not the other way around. We should not have to disable airplay 1/2 on our other devices for lockscreen controls to come back. This is your problem and you need to fix it not us. If i dont use airplay on sonos i should be able to disable it so that i get the true sonos experiance that you talk about and want oss to have. I think you should talk to spotify about how they do there lockscreen controls that functions or talk directly with apple and find a solution together så that people get there lockscreen controls back and apple watch controls back. You should implement apple watch control inn your app regardless. Spotify has it natively supported in there ios app.
Airplay 1/2 should be an extra function i should be able to disable if i want to. You need to think of your properatary sonos system first that functions extreamly well and airplay that is apples secound.