Just trying this new app on both android tablet and iPad. Still boring but now more difficult to use. Not intuitive or user friendly.
I didn't like the app before now I hate it more. SONOS you need to get better app designers. This app is the only thing that would put me off recommending sonos to all friends and family. HORRIBLE,HORRIBLE HORRIBLE. BORING colours, BORING design, BORING LAYOUT.
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Userlevel 1
I agree that the new app has some major design problems. Need more clics to play songs, search, change rooms, and also need to move around the screen more extensively to finish selection and play. Much less user friendly 😞
Userlevel 1
......
There was a similar furore when Strava changed its iOS app from dark to light. Lots of angry jumping up and down before everyone just got used to it. I guess Sonos could probably implement a night (dark) mode without too much effort if there really is a persistent widespread objection, but I'd leave it a few weeks to see if folks get used to it.
No it's just bad UX/UI.
The fact that it needs "a few weeks" getting used to defy the hallmark goal of good design - intuitiveness.
I'm a flexible tech savvy user and this app keeps annoying and confuse me since the launch.
I'm not a designer so no suggestion other than get some outsourced UI expert firm to help and (as important if not more) get feedback from focus groups, user surveys, etc.
For instance - Much too many times clicking the 'back' button on Android exits the app instead of going to the previous screen... God if wanted to exist the app I would f**** close it alright? Back button is convenient and intuitive for a library app... Why make it close the app?
And many more (like I feel common stuff are way too buried away and uncommon items just always in your face.. but that might be just me. Although my music and audio enthusiasts friends agree).
All very fixable, much less complicated than making something like the 2x Play:5 + Sub sound so darn good 😉
iTunes doesn't use a queue per se. It most definitely plays an entire album, playlist, artist, etc. from the point you choose until the end of the album, playlist, artist catalog, etc. But without a queue, the iTunes function really is more playing from this point on and also replacing the queue, which is exactly what Sonos is trying to emulate. Because of this, the main complaint from many of us when the new queue functionality came out was we hated them making it like iTunes.
I jokingly call this the "play album followed by tracks 2-end of yesterday's listening session" button. It is insane that Sonos a. shipped this, b. made it a default action, and c. have spent 15 months not fixing it. Especially as half of the various "play now/next" at least do a "clear old queue and play new stuff". Intuitive?
So the question (and I'll admit I don't really use alternatives like iTunes or Spotify desktop as music players): if Sonos are copying other players/services, how do they handle the interaction between the "play" button and the queue? Do users really want new stuff inserted into old queue as a default?
Userlevel 7
+17
With that older "PC" interface I used to be able to just hand my IPAD over to guests and let them find and control the music without any instruction from me - they were impressed as to just how easy it was to use.
Now I have to spend ages having to explain its operation to them and most just give up and hand it back. Several have gone on to say they "wouldn't buy one as it was too complicated / confusing!" That should start send nervous twitches down your product development management and marketing / sales teams shouldn't it ?
indeed those were the good old days where instruction was not needed and even the least tech savvy people could get their head around it. Now, as well as the dogs dinner of an interface, you have the continuing worry of someone adding content to the queue and destroying everyone else's' efforts ("I dont understand this - do I cut the green wire or the red wire? Ive had too much wine"....BOOM)
SONOS you have done it again !
Every time you update the design of the controller for the IPAD it gets worse and worse, its more confusing than ever now, it's more fragmented with umpteen screens and drop downs to flow through just to do very basic tasks.
The new "My Sonos" tab is badly thought through - now we have to use My Sonos and Browse in some quirky combination to see and control my music sources and playlists - Why ????
I want to be able to browse every music source so why aren't Sonos Playlists visible under Browse ? and why isn't my Music Library and all its options plus all My Radio Stations available in its entirety under "My SONOS" without having to add individual items such as "Artists" ???
Being able to browse all of my music library is such an obvious thing that one would want to do under "My Sonos" I cant understand why its missing or seemingly only available under browse.
Anyway here is a positive suggestion for your app "designers"
Take a look at the PC version - it is simple and logical to follow and its all in one screen - although you could argue that Music Sources should be on the left hand side 🙂 , followed by "ROOMS" (ie where do you want to play it) , followed by whats in the queue or playing - perhaps that would be an even more logical flow..
Could your next update offer an option to allow people to revert to the PC controller design template on the IPAD ? (ie the old one that we used to have on the IPAD) it was so easy to follow and to find what you wanted to play.
You really must learn not to change things just for the sake of it - you had a reasonable design in the first place (functional not flashy) and then you let it drift away to the fragmented nonsense that you have today. - it might be better for a phone but its a very poor implementation on a tablet.
And for Your marketing team to listen to here is a very real example of how damaging this is......
With that older "PC" interface I used to be able to just hand my IPAD over to guests and let them find and control the music without any instruction from me - they were impressed as to just how easy it was to use.
Now I have to spend ages having to explain its operation to them and most just give up and hand it back. Several have gone on to say they "wouldn't buy one as it was too complicated / confusing!" That should start send nervous twitches down your product development management and marketing / sales teams shouldn't it ?
Every time you update the design of the controller for the IPAD it gets worse and worse, its more confusing than ever now, it's more fragmented with umpteen screens and drop downs to flow through just to do very basic tasks.
The new "My Sonos" tab is badly thought through - now we have to use My Sonos and Browse in some quirky combination to see and control my music sources and playlists - Why ????
I want to be able to browse every music source so why aren't Sonos Playlists visible under Browse ? and why isn't my Music Library and all its options plus all My Radio Stations available in its entirety under "My SONOS" without having to add individual items such as "Artists" ???
Being able to browse all of my music library is such an obvious thing that one would want to do under "My Sonos" I cant understand why its missing or seemingly only available under browse.
Anyway here is a positive suggestion for your app "designers"
Take a look at the PC version - it is simple and logical to follow and its all in one screen - although you could argue that Music Sources should be on the left hand side 🙂 , followed by "ROOMS" (ie where do you want to play it) , followed by whats in the queue or playing - perhaps that would be an even more logical flow..
Could your next update offer an option to allow people to revert to the PC controller design template on the IPAD ? (ie the old one that we used to have on the IPAD) it was so easy to follow and to find what you wanted to play.
You really must learn not to change things just for the sake of it - you had a reasonable design in the first place (functional not flashy) and then you let it drift away to the fragmented nonsense that you have today. - it might be better for a phone but its a very poor implementation on a tablet.
And for Your marketing team to listen to here is a very real example of how damaging this is......
With that older "PC" interface I used to be able to just hand my IPAD over to guests and let them find and control the music without any instruction from me - they were impressed as to just how easy it was to use.
Now I have to spend ages having to explain its operation to them and most just give up and hand it back. Several have gone on to say they "wouldn't buy one as it was too complicated / confusing!" That should start send nervous twitches down your product development management and marketing / sales teams shouldn't it ?
Guys did not mean to start a fight :D
I any event I am not necessarily supporting Sonos choice to move the app in this direction but more making the point that it has sought to make it more akin to........... Maybe I should say........ SOME streaming services. I specifically mentioned Apple and Deezer because I use those and can compare what Sonos has done to them. The whole compartmentalized finish with the menu at the bottom is very typical of a few services.
I any event I am not necessarily supporting Sonos choice to move the app in this direction but more making the point that it has sought to make it more akin to........... Maybe I should say........ SOME streaming services. I specifically mentioned Apple and Deezer because I use those and can compare what Sonos has done to them. The whole compartmentalized finish with the menu at the bottom is very typical of a few services.
It certainly seemed like you were invalidating Burt's premise, but you've explained it now. It just seems you have a long running habit of snipping parts of people's posts that do not fit your worldview, you have no answer for, or that disprove your facts, instead of actually answering them.
Burt wasn't stating that Sonos is designing the interface to match some generic ideal, he said they were looking to make it more like other popular streamers like Apple and Deezer. Your reply seemed to be "No they aren't, cause it's nothing like Amazon." Perhaps initially including the analysis that you came up with only after being called on your post snipping would have avoided this.
Burt wasn't stating that Sonos is designing the interface to match some generic ideal, he said they were looking to make it more like other popular streamers like Apple and Deezer. Your reply seemed to be "No they aren't, cause it's nothing like Amazon." Perhaps initially including the analysis that you came up with only after being called on your post snipping would have avoided this.
Except I wasn't debating or challenging or invalidating anything in the post. I was pointing out that my experience was different and therefore their design is not universal and therefore I do not understand how Sonos can use this as justification for their new UI design. And I still don't understand that logic but that is to Sonos, not to Burt.
Yeah, I think when you set out to invalidate someone's premise, you should probably start with . . . uhhh . . . actually debating the points he uses to support his premise, instead of merely invalidating his premise and then conveniently removing anything supporting it from the conversation. Especially when you admittedly have no knowledge to invalidate his supporting points. I'd call that Debate 101.
The logic I don't follow is not the explanation of how the Sonos design aligns with Apple and Deezer but rather how this is a justification for the changes Sonos is making since not everyone uses those services and other popular services like Amazon clearly do not work like that. An additional paragraph of exactly how Apple design aligns to the new Sonos UI does nothing to address that point but if you think it is clearer to include the entire quote and let folks parse out the bits relevant to my comment then I can certainly start doing that.
I would also note I was not invalidating anybody's logic or observations. I just questioned if this was a valid basis for Sonos to be making the design decisions they are making. In other words it is Sonos' logic that I am have a hard time understanding.
I would also note I was not invalidating anybody's logic or observations. I just questioned if this was a valid basis for Sonos to be making the design decisions they are making. In other words it is Sonos' logic that I am have a hard time understanding.
No, you didn't do anything of the sort. You stated "I have a hard time following the logic here" after snipping the actual logical explanation of his initial premise, i.e. that the new interface was like the popular services offered by Apple and Deezer. You didn't say your experience was different from his or that your service may be different from Apple or Deezer (which you admittedly have no idea of), you simply invalidated his logic and swapped in yours, without having to debate his actual logic because you snipped it. It's something you do often, and it's as transparent as cellophane.
Good grief you love to snip context. You quote the opening premise of his post, conveniently snip the part where he cites the specific "popular streaming services out there" like Apple and Deezer which support his premise, then list a single music service that seems not to support his premise and, again conveniently, seems to resemble your beloved 4.0 Sonos app?
Well, color me surprised. But again, he said nothing about Amazon's app, he specifically mentioned Apple and Deezer.
Yes I snip long quotes to make it clear what part of the quote I am responding to. I took Apple and Deezer to be examples of "popular streaming services" and pointed out that this did not match my experience with the "popular streaming service" that I use. Why would Sonos seek to emulate Deezer and the both loved and hated Apple Music services but not other popular services like Amazon? Serious question since I don't use those other services and don't know anything about them.
Good grief you love to snip context. You quote the opening premise of his post, conveniently snip the part where he cites the specific "popular streaming services out there" like Apple and Deezer which support his premise, then list a single music service that seems not to support his premise and, again conveniently, seems to resemble your beloved 4.0 Sonos app?
Well, color me surprised. But again, he said nothing about Amazon's app, he specifically mentioned Apple and Deezer.
Ultimately this is in keeping with Sonos moving to make its app resemble and, to an extent, behave like the popular streaming services out there. It started with the queue management changes.
If you are a user of Apple Music you would definitely see a great similarity in how the App is now laid out and even the look with all the white. I personally saw no real need for that change but at the same time because I have been using Apple Music and Deezer I am fairly comfortable with that set up. But I understand that persons preferred an approach that was not so compartmentalized and with more things seemingly reachable from one screen.
But sorry, queue management changes were plenty more violating to me and I got used to that. Still look back at it with some annoyance but I was able to move on. I also do not really believe that the new app is unintuitive. I figured virtually everything within a few minutes and it is logically laid out. Over time I concluded that I really didn't mind the way it was. But it is far from a deal breaker....very far from.
Bt the way PS Sonos I still cannot believe that you guys have not fixed that ridiculous situation where a listener has finished listening to the queue and resumes later via the"Play Now" option and it adds the track after the first track instead of at the end....now that is unintuitive and illogical. But Sonos insists on not fixing. That is quite poor.
If you are a user of Apple Music you would definitely see a great similarity in how the App is now laid out and even the look with all the white. I personally saw no real need for that change but at the same time because I have been using Apple Music and Deezer I am fairly comfortable with that set up. But I understand that persons preferred an approach that was not so compartmentalized and with more things seemingly reachable from one screen.
But sorry, queue management changes were plenty more violating to me and I got used to that. Still look back at it with some annoyance but I was able to move on. I also do not really believe that the new app is unintuitive. I figured virtually everything within a few minutes and it is logically laid out. Over time I concluded that I really didn't mind the way it was. But it is far from a deal breaker....very far from.
Bt the way PS Sonos I still cannot believe that you guys have not fixed that ridiculous situation where a listener has finished listening to the queue and resumes later via the"Play Now" option and it adds the track after the first track instead of at the end....now that is unintuitive and illogical. But Sonos insists on not fixing. That is quite poor.
All the hate comes from 3 minutes to turn on the radio, which used to be 2 clicks favorites, station.
Userlevel 3
There was a similar furore when Strava changed its iOS app from dark to light. Lots of angry jumping up and down before everyone just got used to it.
Those of us who use our player primarily in dark rooms/bedrooms are not going to get "used to it," since it completely changes the light level in the room. Other threads dedicating to unhappiness with the new UI have mentioned SonoPad/SonoPhone for folks in the Apple ecosystem. I've been using SonoPad since the day after the update and am quite happy with it - not quite as elegant as the old Sonos UI, but a much more tolerable background.
I really hate the latest software update. What were they thinking?
To mimic other comments, I tend to agree, I've been a user for 12 years now and this is not a good version of the app at all.
The UI is too bright, my favourites are now all over the place, it's now a chore to use it how I once did, when all favourites grouped in a convienient clear menu. Now it requires extra clicks and scrolling just to get to the same outcome.
Much like simply changing rooms, which now requires extra clicks, yet when you are viewing what a zone is "now playing", the zone grouping function is always there with no additional option to change what is currently playing or change which zone you want to control?! There should be a method of selecting which room you want to use, to then select what you want to play, whilst within a "now playing" view of the zone and do away with / add to the purely grouping only menu.
To be honest, this app just seems to take away from the enjoyment of the system for me, I'm sure that if we have to, people will get used to it, but it seems the app is being dumned down with pretty pictures and icons, whilst ironically being fairly unintuitive to use and also blinding bright for night time use. Also having 9 Sonos zones, the zone menu looks so cluttered and scrolling is a must to find the zone you require.
I'm not against change at all when it's for the best, I've liked all previous updates from Sonos to be honest, but this one I really do not like at all, hence the reason I've written this negative feedback about the app for the first time ever. Hopefully someone will take some note and make some alterations.
Regards, Ed.
The UI is too bright, my favourites are now all over the place, it's now a chore to use it how I once did, when all favourites grouped in a convienient clear menu. Now it requires extra clicks and scrolling just to get to the same outcome.
Much like simply changing rooms, which now requires extra clicks, yet when you are viewing what a zone is "now playing", the zone grouping function is always there with no additional option to change what is currently playing or change which zone you want to control?! There should be a method of selecting which room you want to use, to then select what you want to play, whilst within a "now playing" view of the zone and do away with / add to the purely grouping only menu.
To be honest, this app just seems to take away from the enjoyment of the system for me, I'm sure that if we have to, people will get used to it, but it seems the app is being dumned down with pretty pictures and icons, whilst ironically being fairly unintuitive to use and also blinding bright for night time use. Also having 9 Sonos zones, the zone menu looks so cluttered and scrolling is a must to find the zone you require.
I'm not against change at all when it's for the best, I've liked all previous updates from Sonos to be honest, but this one I really do not like at all, hence the reason I've written this negative feedback about the app for the first time ever. Hopefully someone will take some note and make some alterations.
Regards, Ed.
Agree
Userlevel 1
Me & my wife both hate the colour of the new app & find it annoying to use, we have now both spent time using it & feel the update was a pointless exercise.. Can the team behind changing the userface & colour of the app change it back or at least give the option to change it back ... I havent paid over £1200 to have an that looks this bad.. I use Android if its any help ...
Well not surprised by these reactions. Change usually brings strong reactions on this forum. I will say though I do not necessarily find it unintuitive. I will usually only deem an app unintuitive if if feels completely unnatural in the way it is meant to work and it feels that way for say more than a few days. This was a change but I got used to it quickly. Do I prefer it to the previous version. The answer is no. But it does not bother me too much or certainly not to the point where I threaten to not recommend etc. Some things better like room grouping. Over time I just find it felt a touch compartmentalized and choppy. Again not a deal breaker for me.
I think this is all in line with a trend to make the Sonos app more akin to that of the typical streaming service. Much like the changes made to queue management, which incensed me greatly, I feel these changes are geared more to future users than current ones.
In any event besides resistance to change there is good feedback coming out here. The size of icons in the my Sonos section,the use of too much space in the rooms tab or the disappearance of the shortcut tabs at the bottom in full “Now playing” mode are actually good observations.
I think this is all in line with a trend to make the Sonos app more akin to that of the typical streaming service. Much like the changes made to queue management, which incensed me greatly, I feel these changes are geared more to future users than current ones.
In any event besides resistance to change there is good feedback coming out here. The size of icons in the my Sonos section,the use of too much space in the rooms tab or the disappearance of the shortcut tabs at the bottom in full “Now playing” mode are actually good observations.
Userlevel 1
I do understand very well. I've spent 2500 euro's on something I do not like to use anymore.
After so many days, I still couldn't manage the rooms without struggling, more clicks for basic operations, less readable (can't use it without my reading glasses), ... Sad, very sad.
Userlevel 1
I came back to the 7.4 version. The apk is easy to find and so far it works well on the 8.0 firmware for which I did not find a down grade solution.
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