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Phone Volume Button Control Sonos Volume

  • 13 July 2024
  • 9 replies
  • 123 views

I understand Sonos removed volume control from the IOS app using the phone volume buttons some time back. Are there any plans to bring this back? Right now the volume slider is so small that 90% of time when I touch it to change the volume it doesn’t respond. Very frustrating. One additional way of solving this is add up and down arrows somewhere near the volume - note: they need to be large enough and responsive enough to be useful. 

9 replies

Apple required this change. It won’t come back unless they allow it. 

 

But hopefully Sonos will support Dynamic Island which will ad some convenient controls. Not the same granted. 

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Apple required this change. It won’t come back unless they allow it. 

 

But hopefully Sonos will support Dynamic Island which will ad some convenient controls. Not the same granted. 

 

Volume control buttons do work with the Spotify App playing to Sonos speakers, for what it’s worth.

Because you’re not using the Sonos app, a remote control. The Spotify app is playing the music on the phone and then sending the resulting music to the speaker. The Sonos app just tells the speaker to go get the music from a location, and isn’t actually playing any music in the controller on your phone.

Apple required this change. It won’t come back unless they allow it. 

 

But hopefully Sonos will support Dynamic Island which will ad some convenient controls. Not the same granted. 

 

Volume control buttons do work with the Spotify App playing to Sonos speakers, for what it’s worth.

Yeah and they do work with airplay when casting. But as mentioned above because the Sonos app doesn’t make sound it can’t do it. 

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Sorry folks, I know everybody likes to blame Apple for this one but  I know multiple engineers at Apple and they all say the notion that Apple took this away from Sonos is bunk. 🤷‍♂️

I’ve known my fair share of engineers, and ‘managers’ at Apple, having published many apps on their iOS store. I feel pretty confident in the assertion that Apple removed the ability to use the side buttons on an iOS device to control volume of applications that are not creating sound within an iOS application. 

If, however, the ‘sound’ is being created by / on the iOS device, the side buttons can be used to control volume. This is why they work with AirPlay 2, since the sound is being generated by the iOS device. Sonos used to have a ‘hack’ that allowed them to use the buttons, but Apple apparently figured out that a ‘hack’ was in use, and considered it (I assume) a security issue. My understanding is that they told Sonos (again, I’m not an employee of either company, so I’m reporting what I’ve heard, which is consistent with my own dealings with Apple) that they were both closing the ‘hole’ that the hack used, and if Sonos continued to use any such ‘hack’, the Sonos application would be banned from the store, something I assume would be banned from the Apple iOS store. 

This narrative is certainly consistent with my own personal experience in having apps published on the App Store, I have no particular reason to doubt it. If you have direct information from Apple management, rather than just engineers, I’d be happy to revise my opinion.

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As I’ve said before despite some who say this isn’t true it’s bunk. Not surprising really considering everything Sonos has put users thru tgis past month and a half - of course that and their acolytes would blame Apple. So obvious really. Whatever, there are so many newer and better options to Sonos. Folks, look at Blue Sound. Just got several of their pieces and it’s incredible. SO BETTER than Sonos!

As I’ve said before despite some who say this isn’t true it’s bunk. Not surprising really considering everything Sonos has put users thru tgis past month and a half - of course that and their acolytes would blame Apple. So obvious really. Whatever, there are so many newer and better options to Sonos. Folks, look at Blue Sound. Just got several of their pieces and it’s incredible. SO BETTER than Sonos!

I’m sure your Bluesound will work much better than this new buggy AF app.
But  does the volume buttons on your iPhone work on bluesound?

oh wait 🤣🤣🤣

https://support1.bluesound.com/hc/en-us/community/posts/19051571832983-Please-make-the-volume-buttons-on-my-iPhone-control-the-Bluesound-app

come on man if you are gonna troll us you gotta do better than that. 

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🙄

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