Over the past year, the quality and usability of the Sonos app for both Windows and Android platforms have seriously degraded. We routinely have failures such as "unable to add music to the queue", "cannot find your Sonos system" and the latest one is that we cannot control the volume, pause, play or any functions. Often rooms are missing from the system. I've routinely had to reboot the system to get it to function and this afternoon, even a reboot didn't work. I had to walk into all 5 rooms where we have Sonos speakers and unplug them to stop the music. Even network, device and Sonos bridge restarts didn't work. Our wireless network coverage and signal strengths are excellent.
In addition to those technical difficulties, the usability of the app has taken a serious nose dive. I used to brag about how easy the system and app were to use, then with a major upgrade about a year ago, the app changed dramatically and it is awful now. I realize that there are some change management problems with a big upgrade, however, I would rate the usability of the app at a 3 or at best 4 of 10.
Oh, and by the way, I'm a software engineer and trained Ux designer by trade.
Anyone else have these issues or share my view? Suggestions to resolve? @Sonos, please help with app design. Too much invested at this point to switch.
App Malfunctions - Cannot Control the Sonos System
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It sure sounds to me like you have issues with various things connecting to your network, both speakers and controllers, which would show up as all of the symptoms that you have indicated you are experiencing. I'd take a look at a couple of possibilities, first the wifi interference FAQ has a lot of data that might be affecting your system, despite your good coverage and strong signal.
Or, potentially, you might be experiencing an issue with duplicate IP addresses, which unfortunately isn't commonly able to be "seen" in any reports that most routers show. Try unplugging your Sonos devices, then rebooting your router. Once the router has come back up, plug back in your Sonos devices, starting with your BRIDGE, and wait a minute or two between each one before moving on to the next one to plug in.
If the latter fixes your issues, I'd recommend setting up reserved IP addresses for all items on your network, in your router's DHCP table.
As to the UI/X issues, while I manage several people of that ilk, I'm not qualified to comment. Personally, the system works for me, but I can see things that might be improved.
Or, potentially, you might be experiencing an issue with duplicate IP addresses, which unfortunately isn't commonly able to be "seen" in any reports that most routers show. Try unplugging your Sonos devices, then rebooting your router. Once the router has come back up, plug back in your Sonos devices, starting with your BRIDGE, and wait a minute or two between each one before moving on to the next one to plug in.
If the latter fixes your issues, I'd recommend setting up reserved IP addresses for all items on your network, in your router's DHCP table.
As to the UI/X issues, while I manage several people of that ilk, I'm not qualified to comment. Personally, the system works for me, but I can see things that might be improved.
100% Agree with the original poster. The last two years have seen a significant nosedive in reliability and usability of the Android app. My family can no longer use it without help (I am also a 30+ year software designer who started with UX work), so I know this is not just my perspective.
This article:
https://www.jwz.org/doc/cadt.html
Seems to explain the constant and unnecessary tinkering with the UI. It reached the peak of usability about three years ago and has been going down since then, but the last major redesign was a disaster of usability. I had to call in to support to find out how to change rooms, because the functionality disappeared on certain screens and only appeared on others, which is amazing and an unforgivable UI design error (now changed so the "rooms" button is always visible).
I am also too invested in the ecosystem to change, and I don't know how to get through to SONOS about the damage I feel these changes are doing to the product.
This article:
https://www.jwz.org/doc/cadt.html
Seems to explain the constant and unnecessary tinkering with the UI. It reached the peak of usability about three years ago and has been going down since then, but the last major redesign was a disaster of usability. I had to call in to support to find out how to change rooms, because the functionality disappeared on certain screens and only appeared on others, which is amazing and an unforgivable UI design error (now changed so the "rooms" button is always visible).
I am also too invested in the ecosystem to change, and I don't know how to get through to SONOS about the damage I feel these changes are doing to the product.
Probably the best way to communicate your thoughts to Sonos is via e-mail. Then your message can be easily forwarded to the proper destination without pulling it off the forums or other support sites and bypassing any transcription errors in a phone conversation.
I am in agreement with the decline in app reliability. My freeze problems are well documented - dedicated IP and rebooting as described in this thread and elsewhere work but not permanently at least in my experience. Never had to do these for years. We keep on getting the wifi interference issues excuse but that's not the case - my app freezes but the music keeps on playing without hiccups. Why can't sonos acknowledge and fix these glitches? When alexa and apple capabilities were added usability declined drastically. I too am heavily invested in the system - 7 rooms and tens of thousands of $ in audio equipment built around the sonos ecosystem. I wish the company treats this as a serious problem and patches things up.
It must be very frustrating having these problems, but the best thing to do is to submit a system diagnostic from Advanced Settings, as soon as possible after it occurs again. Post the confirmation number back here.
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