Sadly SONOS have enough on trying to get the buggy voice integration software stable and addressing users being disappointed and underwhelmed by the lack of functionality.
The competition are almost upon them....
From CNET this morning...
Sonos executives must be looking at vast tech companies making smart speakers and resisting the urge to hum a dirge.
Amazon launched its latest Echos last week. Google on Wednesday presented its new Homes -- including a charmingly unattractive Max that claims to offer quite a boom. Then there's Apple, whose music-based HomePod comes to market in
Common sense would be to heed the adverse feedback on the new app and revert to the old version, which had few issues being raised. Or at least give the user the choice.
I know that 'Sonos knows best' is value often perceived by customers but carrying on regardless over this issue could be huge distraction and add to what must be a worrying time for the company.
Show some courage Sonos... Withdraw the new App
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Cheers. I might give that a go myself.
It might be worth telling Sonos how much better it is!!
just as an update and to post something more positive than I have been doing over the last few days!!
I'm still not pleased with the new version of the app due to reasons I've already outlined but I am more pleased with Sonos as a company. I'm currently in conversation with a couple of people from Sonos and with their support team.
Because these people have taken the time to reply to my emails I am feeling more like a valued customer and I'm starting to believe that things might get sorted so that the majority of us will be happy again.
I have a bit of a workaround for my problems with the app which, whilst not ideal, do allow me to continue using the app (with fingers crossed for a better version to come 🙂 )
I'm still not pleased with the new version of the app due to reasons I've already outlined but I am more pleased with Sonos as a company. I'm currently in conversation with a couple of people from Sonos and with their support team.
Because these people have taken the time to reply to my emails I am feeling more like a valued customer and I'm starting to believe that things might get sorted so that the majority of us will be happy again.
I have a bit of a workaround for my problems with the app which, whilst not ideal, do allow me to continue using the app (with fingers crossed for a better version to come 🙂 )
I'm still not pleased with the new version of the app due to reasons I've already outlined but I am more pleased with Sonos as a company. I'm currently in conversation with a couple of people from Sonos and with their support team.
Because these people have taken the time to reply to my emails I am feeling more like a valued customer and I'm starting to believe that things might get sorted so that the majority of us will be happy again.
I have a bit of a workaround for my problems with the app which, whilst not ideal, do allow me to continue using the app (with fingers crossed for a better version to come 🙂 )
That's encouraging news.
As to the app itself, this is a solid foundation that we're going to be building on. A lot of basic steps had to be taken, and now with that done, we can work on more improvements. You can expect to see the app change as we continue to work on it. Keep on sending in constructive feedback, we'd love to send it along to the development team so they can build an app that as many people as possible enjoy using.
I don't doubt that the team is trying to improve things. But... the new approach to navigation, especially favourites, has issues (why are the first 8 favourite "others", sorry, "artists", more important and easier to access in a feature that is specifically designed for quick access?). The play/queue interaction is still completely broken and unintuitive, 15 months on - seriously, try explaining "play all"/double-click (replace queue and play) versus "play all->play now/play next" (insert into queue whether running or expired) to a new user. We shouldn't have to learn which buttons to avoid, or whether hitting something as simple as a "play" button is going to add/insert/replace.
I don't doubt that Sonos do user testing. The user is not always right. This user is not always right. I also assume that there's a "new features not bug fixes" approach in Sonos, and getting fixes out is hard, especially given the infrequent waterfall release schedule Sonos stick to. Design is hard. Software is hard. We get it. But people built this thing, and people decided to ship it. Maybe a blog post explaining how to use the software and why it's designed that way (as opposed to what you intended to build) would help us. Of course, if you have to explain your software, you already failed...
The competition are almost upon them....
From CNET this morning...
Sonos executives must be looking at vast tech companies making smart speakers and resisting the urge to hum a dirge.
Amazon launched its latest Echos last week. Google on Wednesday presented its new Homes -- including a charmingly unattractive Max that claims to offer quite a boom. Then there's Apple, whose music-based HomePod comes to market in
Common sense would be to heed the adverse feedback on the new app and revert to the old version, which had few issues being raised. Or at least give the user the choice.
I know that 'Sonos knows best' is value often perceived by customers but carrying on regardless over this issue could be huge distraction and add to what must be a worrying time for the company.
Show some courage Sonos... Withdraw the new App
I feel I need to add some balance! I'm sure this will infuriate those that don't like/resist change, but....
The new app is great.
The voice integration is perfect.
Sonos have done a great job.
If you are experiencing issues, I'm sure they are working overtime to resolve them. Please, stick with it and stop yer moaning.
The competition are almost upon them....
From CNET this morning...
Sonos executives must be looking at vast tech companies making smart speakers and resisting the urge to hum a dirge.
Amazon launched its latest Echos last week. Google on Wednesday presented its new Homes -- including a charmingly unattractive Max that claims to offer quite a boom. Then there's Apple, whose music-based HomePod comes to market in
Common sense would be to heed the adverse feedback on the new app and revert to the old version, which had few issues being raised. Or at least give the user the choice.
I know that 'Sonos knows best' is value often perceived by customers but carrying on regardless over this issue could be huge distraction and add to what must be a worrying time for the company.
Show some courage Sonos... Withdraw the new App
I feel I need to add some balance! I'm sure this will infuriate those that don't like/resist change, but....
The new app is great.
The voice integration is perfect.
Sonos have done a great job.
If you are experiencing issues, I'm sure they are working overtime to resolve them. Please, stick with it and stop yer moaning.
I’m only moaning because I’ve gone overnight from a system that suited my needs perfectly to one which just doesn’t. It’s hard to accept that hardware you’ve bought over the last 8 years has suddenly become bad due to software. I’m hoping that Sonos will sort it but I just feel it shouldn’t have happened in the first place.
I have zero interest in voice control by the way so that makes it doubly annoying that my working system has been broken due to something i just don’t need or want :)
Having said that, if you read my post above, I have tried to post something a bit more positive 🙂
Does anyone know if Sonopad still works for IOS?
Is there an equivalent Android offering?
Sonopad still works on iOS 10 (yeah, I haven't upgraded to iOS 11 yet). Been jumping between that (for favourites) and Sonos (for browsing) recently. I should really check out the state of Zoneplay too.
I feel I need to add some balance! I'm sure this will infuriate those that don't like/resist change, but....
The new app is great.
The voice integration is perfect.
Sonos have done a great job.
If you are experiencing issues, I'm sure they are working overtime to resolve them. Please, stick with it and stop yer moaning.
I don't doubt that some people love the new app. Some may find it intuitive. Hell, you may even use the "favourites" feature and think it's perfectly fine. Some people on this forum are just moaning because they don't like change. Many of us are however legitimately questioning design choices Sonos chose to make regarding the "user experience", and wondering whether Sonos took the decision to ship an app they were proud of and considered "ready", or just "ship whatever the state of the code was on a designated release date".
Some of us on this forum design and build software for a living. It's really hard. We know the trade-offs involved. We know when you should design for the users (spoiler: almost always), and when other business requirements take priority. Sonos chose to build and ship this product in its current state. Some of us have opinions about this.
I feel I need to add some balance! I'm sure this will infuriate those that don't like/resist change, but....
The new app is great.
The voice integration is perfect.
Sonos have done a great job.
If you are experiencing issues, I'm sure they are working overtime to resolve them. Please, stick with it and stop yer moaning.
I don't doubt that some people love the new app. Some may find it intuitive. Hell, you may even use the "favourites" feature and think it's perfectly fine. Some people on this forum are just moaning because they don't like change. Many of us are however legitimately questioning design choices Sonos chose to make regarding the "user experience", and wondering whether Sonos took the decision to ship an app they were proud of and considered "ready", or just "ship whatever the state of the code was on a designated release date".
Some of us on this forum design and build software for a living. It's really hard. We know the trade-offs involved. We know when you should design for the users (spoiler: almost always), and when other business requirements take priority. Sonos chose to build and ship this product in its current state. Some of us have opinions about this.
Snap - same profession!
absolutely hate the new interface. I loved Sonus for the old one, but if this doesn’t change, I am going to sell all of my Sonus units on eBay and move to a system with a better interface. Alexa et al may not have such good sound, but the UI is so much more important. What do you all recommend?
It seems like they fired the previous team and hired all new people who have never actually used the system before. Some of the stuff is pure style over substance like not having a list view of favorites instead of those worthless icons.
The new app has its flaws (more on that in a minute) but basically it is really simple to use. New things take a bit of getting used to. Most of those who have slammed the new app seem to have based their views on 2 minutes effort. The Sonos bar is key. I want to pick a room? Tap the Rooms button. Then a source? Tap Browse. The one inconvenience is that the bar doesn't appear on the Now Playing screen, but I hope that will change. But I just swipe down and there is the bar (and usually either the Rooms or Browse screen, saving me one of my button presses).
I came in this evening and in less than ten seconds of opening the app had my music library playing in the Living Room. How disastrous is that?
It is logically organised. Instead of a jumble of things on the main menu, Browse contains just sources (wish they had called it Sources), More contains the things I need much less often, like Settings and Setup. Search and Rooms are self evident. 'My Sonos' contains the things I have chosen myself and want to get at quickly. What is so ****** difficult?
Yes, the icons are too big. Yes the Sonos bar should be on EVERY screen. I'd like to see Playlists on the Browse screen and just selected playlists in My Sonos.
But come on guys. Get with it and make a bit of an effort. With a few tweaks this is going to be way better than 7.4. If you want to be left behind, that's your call.
I came in this evening and in less than ten seconds of opening the app had my music library playing in the Living Room. How disastrous is that?
It is logically organised. Instead of a jumble of things on the main menu, Browse contains just sources (wish they had called it Sources), More contains the things I need much less often, like Settings and Setup. Search and Rooms are self evident. 'My Sonos' contains the things I have chosen myself and want to get at quickly. What is so ****** difficult?
Yes, the icons are too big. Yes the Sonos bar should be on EVERY screen. I'd like to see Playlists on the Browse screen and just selected playlists in My Sonos.
But come on guys. Get with it and make a bit of an effort. With a few tweaks this is going to be way better than 7.4. If you want to be left behind, that's your call.
I commented fully in another post-just want to say that I haven’t commented on this forum for 2 years-it took this HORRIBLE update for me to search and find my password.
I am bewildered as to what Sonos was thinking to put this pile of garbage interface out to replace something that worked so well
My wife also thanks you- she will not be struggling with this anymore.
So much for recommending Sonos to anyone else I know.
I am bewildered as to what Sonos was thinking to put this pile of garbage interface out to replace something that worked so well
My wife also thanks you- she will not be struggling with this anymore.
So much for recommending Sonos to anyone else I know.
Exactly (ish). With some tweaks this could be awesome (imagine if the "My Sonos" screen just showed all our favourites and all our playlists?). But it's not awesome. I don't judge software by "what the vendor wanted to ship". I go by what they actually shipped. Thankfully, there are workarounds (ignore "My Sonos" screen and browse for favourites or use 3rd party controller, avoid the mis-labeled "play" buttons, etc).
Thanks for that. Glad to have my sanity back when using my sonos.
@Sonos
Why oh why oh why did you do this? You only made things more difficult, especially the most common stuff.
When using my Sonos there's basically 2 things I do, and both of them you just made harder
1 change what's playing in the current room
2 switch to another room
and maybe
3 add another room
On the now playing screen, both of these features used to be available
1 To change what's playing, I could just tap the top left and from there go back up, or access the overview menu. With your new system I now have to click on the top to minimize the now playing, then go to the bottom to click browse and there I only have one option, instead of 2. That's not easier, that's harder.
2 To switch to another room (or add one) I could simply use the drop down at the top. But now I need to minimize the now playing and than click on rooms to do so, because if I use the dropdown, I can only add a room. How's that an improvement?
For the graphics, I'm personally ok with the white even if it's rather bright, especially at night. These big visuals however are really annoying. I used to be able to have 3 rooms on a screen, but with the new version I only have 2 because you added visuals for the now playing, also making it harder to see which room you are going to click on. And if it's not selected and you have some sunlight on your screen it's even worse.
Just revert this to the previous version and try again, because annoying your customer every time they use you app is kiling their loyalty. It sure is with me.
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