Hate this new app 8.0

I understand the logic but why not then put MusicLibrary under MySonos, what's more uniquely 'mine' then my library. I think we agree that all sources should be grouped, separated by 'true ' sources and customised i.e. playlists and favourites oh wait we had that it was called v 7.4. All I'm sure it is as a 6 year user of Sonos no version of the app has been as counter-intuitive as this one I'm still working my way around it. My wife was very comfortable with 7.4 but hates this version and I've never before complained about an update so either I'm getting old or something's wrong

I am not fundamentally disagreeing with you but my point is that playlists are derived from elements in other Sonos sources, the music library isn't.

What we actually had in 7.4 was absolutely everything chucked onto the same menu, whether for day to day music playing or rare uses like adding music services. OK you prefer that, I don't. Let's agree to differ.

I think the new UI is an improvement. I like the buttons always available at the bottom, very much like the new dock configuration on iOS 11. Simple, intuitive, fast navigation. One thing I’d suggest is to allow personalization of the background with a photo. I use a picture I took of several hundred Sandhill Cranes gathering at dusk for my iPad’s background. Very soothing.

chicks wrote:

I think the new UI is an improvement. I like the buttons always available at the bottom, very much like the new dock configuration on iOS 11. Simple, intuitive, fast navigation. One thing I’d suggest is to allow personalization of the background with a photo. I use a picture I took of several hundred Sandhill Cranes gathering at dusk for my iPad’s background. Very soothing.

I will agree with you totally when the Sonos bar really is always visible, including on the Now Playing screen.

Still on 7.4 here and don't know what to do!, I have a new Play 1 to add so presumably this will force an update to 8.0..

Wife has just got over the price of my Playbar, 2 Play 1's and Sub. She likes the 7.4 so might be shooting myself in the foot going to 8.0..

New iPhone version is awful....so bad it prompted me to leave my first complaint of any app ever. Does anyone work on ui ux over there? Two weeks in and still can’t figure out how to use it. The old saying “if it ain’t broke don’t fix it” applies here. And to the converse, since it’s now broke please fix it.

I agree. I think the new UI is a huge step bacwkard. I have a large system, that is pushing the limits to the number of units. It is complicated to operate and move across the system. Any good 3rd party apps we could switch to?

Keithmac wrote:

Still on 7.4 here and don't know what to do!, I have a new Play 1 to add so presumably this will force an update to 8.0..

Wife has just got over the price of my Playbar, 2 Play 1's and Sub. She likes the 7.4 so might be shooting myself in the foot going to 8.0..

Do not update-I repeat-DO NOT upgrade.unless, that is, you want software that is more complicated then the previous. It is horrible. You will have marriage trouble if you have a misses with 8.0

I also have 19 Sonos and regret updating. I do wish I was in the position you are in-still being in the old software 😞

Chirosono wrote:

Keithmac wrote:

Still on 7.4 here and don't know what to do!, I have a new Play 1 to add so presumably this will force an update to 8.0..

Wife has just got over the price of my Playbar, 2 Play 1's and Sub. She likes the 7.4 so might be shooting myself in the foot going to 8.0..

Do not update-I repeat-DO NOT upgrade.unless, that is, you want software that is more complicated then the previous. It is horrible. You will have marriage trouble if you have a misses with 8.0

I had a forced update when adding a new Play1 this morning.

Reading all these posts and thinking to myself "it can't really be that bad", well it deffinitely is!.

My Sonos page is just badly laid out with very poor use of screen, everything is now another swipe or two or three away from where it was before..

Think the wife is still on 7.4, I've found the APK so will see what happens later, hopefully won't brick the whole lot.

Just can't understand why Sonos thought this was an improvement, wonder if anybody actually used it or if they just got carried away with shiny big icons..

Agreed! Please change or revert back. Or give us the option for an easy reinstall of old version

smerrill wrote:

New iPhone version is awful....so bad it prompted me to leave my first complaint of any app ever. Does anyone work on ui ux over there? Two weeks in and still can’t figure out how to use it. The old saying “if it ain’t broke don’t fix it” applies here. And to the converse, since it’s now broke please fix it.

Never buy a new tv. You will never work out how to use the remote.

LinkMan wrote:

I agree. I think the new UI is a huge step bacwkard. I have a large system, that is pushing the limits to the number of units. It is complicated to operate and move across the system. Any good 3rd party apps we could switch to?

Why is it complcat d.
There is always a trend of complaint but no back up of why. Some complaints are resolved by simply looking at the screen. Erm...well set out, quite intuitive etc. It is different though. Does different mean rubbish. Odd that exactly the same sentiments were expressed with the previous update. Different ergo rubbish.

Keithmac wrote:

Chirosono wrote:

Keithmac wrote:

Still on 7.4 here and don't know what to do!, I have a new Play 1 to add so presumably this will force an update to 8.0..

Wife has just got over the price of my Playbar, 2 Play 1's and Sub. She likes the 7.4 so might be shooting myself in the foot going to 8.0..

Do not update-I repeat-DO NOT upgrade.unless, that is, you want software that is more complicated then the previous. It is horrible. You will have marriage trouble if you have a misses with 8.0

I had a forced update when adding a new Play1 this morning.

Reading all these posts and thinking to myself "it can't really be that bad", well it deffinitely is!.

My Sonos page is just badly laid out with very poor use of screen, everything is now another swipe or two or three away from where it was before..

Think the wife is still on 7.4, I've found the APK so will see what happens later, hopefully won't brick the whole lot.

Just can't understand why Sonos thought this was an improvement, wonder if anybody actually used it or if they just got carried away with shiny big icons..

Yep. It may be in a different place. So what?

EnduringArsenal wrote:

Agreed! Please change or revert back. Or give us the option for an easy reinstall of old version

I agree. Take away the Alexa integration...it’s different and therefore complete rubbish.

stefano_t wrote:

Yeah, I wish I hadn't updated. The look is ugly and it doesn't use space well at all. Now instead of seeing all of my radio stations in a compact list I can see only two at a time. Come on, can't you do better than this?

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.

Troykm wrote:

Wow so much hate. I actually like it. It’s much faster for me than the old app. Better layout. Yes a dark theme would be nice though. But I don’t get all this hate.

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.

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.

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 ...

John B wrote:

chicks wrote:

I think the new UI is an improvement. I like the buttons always available at the bottom, very much like the new dock configuration on iOS 11. Simple, intuitive, fast navigation. One thing I’d suggest is to allow personalization of the background with a photo. I use a picture I took of several hundred Sandhill Cranes gathering at dusk for my iPad’s background. Very soothing.

I will agree with you totally when the Sonos bar really is always visible, including on the Now Playing screen.

Agree

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.

I really hate the latest software update. What were they thinking?

pwt wrote:

The choice of light/dark is a matter of taste. Light appears to be more common in modern mobile apps.

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.

All the hate comes from 3 minutes to turn on the radio, which used to be 2 clicks favorites, station.

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.