Redesigned Sonos app and compatibility with voice-over screen reader in IOS

In this Community we don’t know more than anyone else and, like you, we have no experience with the new interface. I have no experience with Voiceover.

Do you use Alexa or SVC (Sonos Voice Control)? I don’t expect any changes to them.

Are you using the desktop SONOS application with Voiceover? If so, I don’t expect any immediate changes, however, many of us are worrying that desktop controllers will fade away at some point. I prefer using the desktop controller for routine SONOS system operation.

I am also a Voiceover user and have been a Sonos user since 2009. I used to Beta test and along with a few other active blind advocates we were able to convince that their products had a large appeal to blind users and that accessibility should be an integral part of the app and become rooted in the Sonos Philosophy just as it is with Apple. I am very happy tot hear that this next big Sonos app update maintains Sonos’ commitment to accessibility and I’ll share what I read here with other blind Sonos fans.

I look forward to it as well and thanks for asking the question on here; when I received the email the other day I was certainly wondering about it, but didn’t even think of asking the community.

Hello, and thank you for this reply. I am hearing some reports of other blind users that have tried both the beta on the iPhone and the web app and reporting a rathre subpar experiene currently. DO you know if the accessibility features have been rolled out into the current betas or if this is something coming later on? As a user of the current and soon legacy Windows app as well as the Android version, I would hate to be put in a position where I need to sell all of my speakers to move to another platform. Are there screen reader and other accessibility users on the beta test group, and are issued actively being triaged? In the meantime, will the current apps still function for a period of time without a forced update?

Thanks for your response, and I hope to try an accessible new app experience soon.

@Jage  sounds like you are referring to the recent article by Jonathan Mosen. 
 

The current app will continue to work for the foreseeable future as long as you don’t update the iOS  app or firmware on your speakers. Jonathan provides instructions on how to ensure you have this locked down near the end of his post, link below. 
 

https://mosen.org/sonos2024/

Thank you for posting on the Reddit thread, the more exposure the better. 

You have an announcement thread on this beta software where you discuss the new features and app. This isn’t the way to handle this. 

Hi Corry, thanks for taking the time to reply, but the reply only amplifies the concerns many blind people are feeling at the moment.

What we know is that in all Sonos’s official communications on the new app, no mention was made of accessibility. Blind people had to come to this community, to Reddit, and to social media to ask the question. After dong so, there was quite a delay until Sonos provided an answer, meaning that accessibility isn’t exactly top-of-mind during this creation process.

Next, we have a user who, yes, while probably breaching NDA, felt so overwhelmed by the user experience for VoiceOver users with the iOS app that he didn’t know where to begin reporting the issues. On my blog post which has been reference in this thread, he had a go at summarising the problems.

Whistle blowing is a perfectly reasonable response when a vulnerable part of the userbase may be adversely affected.

You can of course play the NDA card, but here’s the thing. App updates at least on iOS are a one-way trip. I suspect our Android friends are far better off in this regard and can get the old app back if they need to, unless subsequent Sonos firmware updates require the use of the new app.

So, as the author of a book on Sonos some years ago that got a lot of blind people into the ecosystem, and as the host of a widely-heard podcast in the blind community, I have provided instructions on how to disable Sonos firmware updates and app updates until we get further assurance that blind people are not about to have materially worse access to the hardware they have paid for, and in many cases saved hard for.

I note the NDA card wasn’t played when Sonos produced YouTube videos showing people the new app. If that’s acceptable for sighted people, why isn’t something equivalent acceptable for blind people? If Sonos really has this under control, why not have a capable screen reader user demonstrate that the app has in fact substantially improved since that tester had such an overwhelming, disheartening experience?

Sonos appears so disconnected from the blind community that it doesn’t seem to understand what is happening! I know firsthand that a Government regulator in the United States has already expressed concern to the CEO, as has the leader of the largest consumer representative organisation in the United States, a similar organisation in Europe, a leader in Canada, and individual customers who just want their products to keep working with the same high degree of accessibility that exists now.

So the NDA card is not the right one to play here. At best, Sonos has seriously mishandled quality communication with its blind customers, having not factored accessibility into the coms strategy around the app. At worst, if the released build of the app is as bad as the one this tester used, things are going to get really rocky.

Hi @Bumper & @Jage 

The announcement is for the main release version of the software, whereas experience of the beta version was referred to. I can’t comment on Beta experiences, period.

No worries! I understood that to be the case and was not accusing you of anything.

Hi @jmosen 

I refer you to the post from my colleague which @Bumper linked to above.