As a custom integrator I feel very strongly that Sonos should have an app on the Apple TV device. I understand that Sonos wants to be able to manage every aspect of their ecosystem but since 99% of my installs has an Apple TV, I think Sonos should offer a paid app to stream directly from the Apple TV. Some clients don’t want a universal remote and just want to use the Apple TV remote, and some control systems don’t work well with Sonos (I’m looking at you Control4). So to me it looks like a niche Sonos can profit from. Make it less than $50 per Apple TV device and I guarantee I can sell that as a line item in every bid. Make it possible for me to purchase licenses and install them in-app and we’ll be good to go. Maybe it’s too much to ask for or perhaps Sonos’ licensing deals with streaming services aren’t able to extend to a third-party device, but I’d be very happy to see this developed one day.
+14
Hello
I’ve marked this thread as a feature request and forwarded it to the appropriate teams for consideration.
Thank you for the feedback and the idea, it is much appreciated.
+23
You seem to be confused: the Sonos app doesn’t stream anything, its a remote control. Its the speakers that do the streaming.
If you want to use your Apple TV remote to control your Sonos, then connect an Xbox Series device, enable CEC control on it, and install my Sonos app o the Xbox. I *think* the Apple TV remote will then control my Xbox app (I am away from my system right now so cannot verify).
Or are you just asking for a Sonos app for your Apple TV?
You seem to be confused:
Not at all.
I’m talking about using a Sonos Port on an AVR. I would like an app that turns the Apple TV into a Sonos device, then AirPlay to the other Sonos devices. I understand that it wouldn’t necessarily be able to group over the sonosnet but at best it can airplay to to other Sonos devices. My reasoning is Control4 doesn’t control Sonos outside of favorites. Josh.ai is a similar problem because I have to instruct clients to select the Sonos device on their AVR then have them go to Sonos app, then back again to the remote to control volume.
After thinking about this a bit more, the ideal solution I guess would be to give us a Port that has an HDMI with on-screen navigation. That would solve the sonosnet grouping issue. I’m not a fan of Savant or Crestron Home so I’m not familiar enough with them to see if they have full control over the Sonos.
A reason I spec Sonos over other streamers is 1: client familiarity, Sonos has become the xerox of music streaming. 2: Control4 doesn’t have Apple Music and instructing a client to use a single iPad to AirPlay can become a problem. If they’re airplaying from one iPad, they can’t go to another to change the music. Most people use their phone and was they start moving between WAPs the AirPlay can pause or glitch out and lock up.
Admin, feel free to lock this thread since it’s basically repeating others. Thanks
Moderator edit: added link to other thread
This sounds like a lot, I still just want an AppleTVOS based Sonos App for consumer convenience.
The TV in my living room has an AppleTv and the TV is connected to a Sonos AMP that drives the in-wall speakers. It’s great, works like a champ for TV watching in that room.
However, sometimes, I want to broadcast the game sound to other sonos speakers or sonos enabled speakers (e.g. outside). Not a big deal, I just grab my phone or laptop when I want to do this and group them together.
Other times I want to just play Spotify music ‘everywhere’ and that works great also...but I have to use my phone or laptop to get it going.
it would be nice (in both instances) to manage this from the device I’m already using at the time (i.e. the Apple TV interface). Manage Group/Ungroup/Volume/etc in addition to connections to AppleMusic/Spotify/Etc for streaming music source management.
Have the dev team run a weekend hack-a-thon to see if they can easily port over the new/upcoming mobile app to TvOS.
-K
This sounds like a lot, I still just want an AppleTVOS based Sonos App for consumer convenience.
The TV in my living room has an AppleTv and the TV is connected to a Sonos AMP that drives the in-wall speakers. It’s great, works like a champ for TV watching in that room.
However, sometimes, I want to broadcast the game sound to other sonos speakers or sonos enabled speakers (e.g. outside). Not a big deal, I just grab my phone or laptop when I want to do this and group them together.
Other times I want to just play Spotify music ‘everywhere’ and that works great also...but I have to use my phone or laptop to get it going.
it would be nice (in both instances) to manage this from the device I’m already using at the time (i.e. the Apple TV interface). Manage Group/Ungroup/Volume/etc in addition to connections to AppleMusic/Spotify/Etc for streaming music source management.
Have the dev team run a weekend hack-a-thon to see if they can easily port over the new/upcoming mobile app to TvOS.
-K
Sonos just annouced they will be released a webapp on May 7. This is is supposed to work through every ‘modern browser’. I don’t have an AppleTV, but I assume it has a safari browser that can theoritically be used to run the Sonos webapp. Whether that will display well, and can be control via remote, in a different question. If not now, I think it’s a good sign that Sonos could adapt a version that works well on TVs eventually.
Worth nothing though that this is stull just a controller, and not what the original OP is asking for. The app isn’t going to turn your AppleTV into a Sonos device, and any audio from the AppleTV would need to be wired to a TV and Sonos speaker, not wireless.
+23
Sonos just annouced they will be released a webapp on May 7. This is is supposed to work through every ‘modern browser’. I don’t have an AppleTV, but I assume it has a safari browser that can theoritically be used to run the Sonos webapp. Whether that will display well, and can be control via remote, in a different question. If not now, I think it’s a good sign that Sonos could adapt a version that works well on TVs eventually.
Apple TV has no web browser. TVOS is basically iOS with a very different interaction model (remote instead of touch). I attempted to port my Sonos app a while ago, but it was too painful.
Sonos just annouced they will be released a webapp on May 7. This is is supposed to work through every ‘modern browser’. I don’t have an AppleTV, but I assume it has a safari browser that can theoritically be used to run the Sonos webapp. Whether that will display well, and can be control via remote, in a different question. If not now, I think it’s a good sign that Sonos could adapt a version that works well on TVs eventually.
Apple TV has no web browser. TVOS is basically iOS with a very different interaction model (remote instead of touch). I attempted to port my Sonos app a while ago, but it was too painful.
That’s unfortunate. I meant to check android tv last night, but a quick search this morning shows that it does exist. Roku does not, Samsung TV OS does.
With AppleTV and Roku, it looks like you could do a screen mirror, but that defeats the point.
I’ve never met a web app that I liked, so I’m a bit saddened that Sonos is moving that direction. One of the nicer things about the iPad app vs airplay is its responsiveness, which I fear will be the most likely thing to suffer.
But having said that, with a web app it should now be a simple task for Sonos to put together an AppleTV interface. If nothing else, it would be a nice way to display album art.
*cough* when it loads *cough*
From what I’ve read, the web app is an option, not a requirement. There is still going to be the mobile app. Which, as I understand it, will need to be used for ‘admin’ functions such as setup. I perceive the web app as more of a replacement for the desktop apps (Windows/Mac) that have been in ‘maintenance mode’ for many years now. It just a convenience (for some) that it will run on a mobile device as well. My personal plan is to continue to use the mobile app, which will likely look extremely or exactly the same in most cases as the web app. This is merely, from what I’ve seen reported so far, an update of the UI/UX, and not really that much on function.
From what I’ve read, the web app is an option, not a requirement. There is still going to be the mobile app. Which, as I understand it, will need to be used for ‘admin’ functions such as setup. I perceive the web app as more of a replacement for the desktop apps (Windows/Mac) that have been in ‘maintenance mode’ for many years now. It just a convenience (for some) that it will run on a mobile device as well. My personal plan is to continue to use the mobile app, which will likely look extremely or exactly the same in most cases as the web app. This is merely, from what I’ve seen reported so far, an update of the UI/UX, and not really that much on function.
This is basically my thoughts as well, but I will experiment with a couple ways I could use the web app. For example I’d like to start up music while a way from home and that monitor the home cameras to see how my dogs react.
Yes, from the FAQ section of the new app,
The web app is designed only for playback and grouping control.
With the Sonos mobile app, you can:
- Add or remove products from your system
- Configure home theater setup
- Create alarms
- Preset groups
- and more...
The iOS app will continue for the phone, obviously, but from the preview page, it reads to me as if the custom iPad app is going away - meaning that you will either have to use the upscaled iPhone version, or the web app.
Hopefully I’m wrong, or who knows, the web app may surprise. Certainly it will be nice to have control from my desktop again.
The similarities between iOS and iPadOS are so much, it is hard to perceive that the iOS controller won’t operate on both. I, too, mostly use the iOS controller on my iPad, although the need for admin capabilities is fairly rare, I’m mostly starting/stopping music.
+23
The similarities between iOS and iPadOS are so much, it is hard to perceive that the iOS controller won’t operate on both. I, too, mostly use the iOS controller on my iPad, although the need for admin capabilities is fairly rare, I’m mostly starting/stopping music.
The code might be the same, but the UX layout is very different. And from my (limited) understanding of iOS coding, that makes the apps quite different. Plus greatly reduces testing requirements as the app only has to work on portrait-oriented phone screens.
It’s a fair point. We’ll have to see on May 7, barring any update from Sonos folks before hand. If I recall properly (and it has been years), the coders I used to interface with would talk about relative layouts (in iOS clients for games), rather than layouts per pixel…but you have more knowledge in this area than I.
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