When will the Sonos controller for MacOS be updated to run natively on Apple Silicon?
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Apple Silicon Support
Best answer by Airgetlam
As I indicated, Sonos doesn’t release that type of information in advance. You’ll know probably if you’re in their beta group, or find out like the rest of us when they release it publicly.
I wouldn’t expect it anytime soon, though, there wouldn’t be a significant benefit involved, since the controller is essentially only a display layer to the actual process running on the speakers. There is no significant computational effort being expended by the controller.
And, for that matter, Sonos isn’t expending much energy on desktop controllers at this point, having stripped most of the set up functionality out in favor of mobile controllers.
I’m sure your request will be added to a backlog list somewhere, but I suspect it won’t rise to the top anytime soon.
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controlav wrote:
Matsfan85 wrote:
Apple Silicon has been available in production for been over two years, it is simply a lack of focus now.
64-bit Windows has been available for over a decade, but there is still no 64-bit Sonos app for it, despite almost no-one running 32-bit Windows these days. Windows on ARM has existed for longer than “Apple Silicon”, still no version for that either.
Why is there no version for 64-bit or ARM Windows? Well #1 because the desktop controllers are in life-support maintenance mode only, and #2 because the emulation layers on all these platforms work well enough. Apple is no different in this regard.
You are right and this makes sense overall. Companies face these development decisions all the time.
Catch 22? No desktop app for Apple Silicon or W64, and the stats say no one uses desktop app. Funny that.
They stopped ‘development’ of both desktop apps several years ago, and stripped out all ‘set up’ functions. The desktop controllers are now just receiving bug updates, but Sonos has said that the mobile apps are what should be used moving forward. I use my desktop app for music playback, but any time I need to do anything substantial to my system, I use the mobile controller.
+23melsea wrote:
Catch 22? No desktop app for Apple Silicon or W64, and the stats say no one uses desktop app. Funny that.
I can’t speak for Apple users, but I’ll wager most Windows users cannot tell the difference between a 32-bit or a 64-bit app. The WOW (Windows-on-Windows) subsystem has long made the difference invisible.
Author of the leading independent Sonos app for Windows, the only Sonos app for Xbox, and a Sonos app for iOS
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Yah, no more sonos $$$ for me. The lack of M1 desktop support, general DT apathy, and speaker priorities don’t really align well with a lot of what I value. Maybe fewer lawyers and a couple of engineers who can recompile code for M1?
controlav wrote:
melsea wrote:
Catch 22? No desktop app for Apple Silicon or W64, and the stats say no one uses desktop app. Funny that.
I can’t speak for Apple users, but I’ll wager most Windows users cannot tell the difference between a 32-bit or a 64-bit app. The WOW (Windows-on-Windows) subsystem has long made the difference invisible.
Right. Let the DT software just rot in place. Ask pandora how that’s working out for them. Mobile controllers are nice, unless i’m sitting at my desk in front of my computer.
I really haven’t noticed any rotting of my Mac controller on either my M1 or older Intel Macs. Both perform flawlessly, as they should. Slightly annoyed by the lack of setup functions, but I have my iOS devices, it’s just not that onerous on the extremely rare occasions that I need to deal with a setup function.
You might be over reacting here. I get your point without the dramatics.
Bruce
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Apple makes it stupid easy to port these things over though, all it usually takes is a recompile. I hate that desktop software is now just a second class citizen.
Not since they announced several years ago that all development, except for bug fixes, for both Windows and Mac applications had stopped. I would have to assume that includes any recompile process for ‘new’ hardware that the OS runs on.
No.
The Sonos desktop controllers -- Mac and Windows -- are on the ‘sustaining maintenance’ list, and have been for some years. We’re highly unlikely to see any significant feature development work on them now.
+23The only chance for a native controller is if Apple stop supporting Intel code generation in XCode, but I haven’t seen any timeline for such a step. Would likely be after the last MacOS update for Intel devices.
This really sours me on Sonos. I have damn near every product they make apart from the newer Era stuff, but this might be the end of the line for me. The mobile apps are starting to show their age as well!
If your device of choice doesn’t have much market share you won’t see a lot of interest at Sonos in spending money to support it.
For me it is Linux. Fortunately I have found a couple options from outside developers that meet my needs. Go looking, you might find something for your Mac.
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