Sonos iOS update is shockingly bad - first impressions

Agree - what a crock of crap. The saying "if its not broke dont fix it" comes to mind. After this people will flock to Amazon Alexa for the simplicity ....with the new sonos one that could be why they've done it?

You know, I'm not crazy about this new look and feel of this update. I can get used to it, but worse is the non functional, frustration inducing room grouping feature that has been changed. Sonos made several steps backwards in what looks like an attempt to fix something that was really not broke. But now it really is broke and is crushing (in the negative meaning) the whole sonos experience. It will not switch rooms no matter the sequence of rooms deselected and rooms selected. it just doesn't work . Come on Sonos, say something... Something this bad needs attention rightaway! Just own it and let us know you are fixing it immediately...

I have to agree with the masses-I have been an avid Sonos user for about 4 years now. I have 19 units and have always recommended them to friends.

Until now.

This update is just brutal. It’s absolutely Horrible. I don’t understand why something that worked so well had to be scrambled just for the sake of an update. My wife won’t use it anymore. I’ve had about a week to play around with it now and it’s a real pain. So UN-intuitive. I’ve had major updates to my iPhone, Mac, TVs etc...never have I had to struggle this much to try to navigate.

The look and feel of this version is a huge step backwards.

PS. It had been about 2 years since I’ve wrote on this forum and it took this garbage to make me hunt down my password to comment.

I must agree, that the app has some usability issues - like most App users, I have a high expectation that it should be intuitive. A few things I would share. What is my flow for playing music ? For me, it is 'Room' then 'Source' - I know where I want to play it and then I chose what to play. But the app starts with My Sonos, with large icons for 2 playlists and 2 Sonos Play Lists. At the bottom of the screen, I have to use the small central icon ' Rooms'. Then I have a white on near-white experience, and I have to remember this is a list of rooms & select one. Then I go back to the small icon bar at the bottom, to chose either My Sonos or Browse, both which are to the left of Rooms. I'm accustomed to moving Left to Right, so this is discordant. My preference would be for the home page to give me a flow of Room, then Source / Favourites on a screen that supports what I'm trying to do.
The other area for improvement, is the arrow-head-up and arrow-head-down that open & close dialogues. They're so insignificant on the page, that I don't notice them. The down arrow in the top-left corner is so close to the Mobile /Wifi details, that I just don't see it as part of the screen dialogue. Make it much more prominent

It IS familiarity and muscle memory.

Not it's not, it's about a redesign that significantly less efficient and user friendly than the previous one, which - let's be clear about it - wasn't all that great either. Don't think a single controller in the history of sonos every was. But at least they were relatively reasonable to use.

People that use now playing as their default screen for example - and their appear to be quite some of us - need to click a lot more than before, while often jumping from top of the screen to the bottom and vice versa.

Take the case of switching to another room. In the past that ment clicking on the little dropdown of the current source and selecting another source. Eh voila, you are good to go. Want to change the configuration while you're at it. you can do that too.

In the new model I suddenly have to click the little arrow at the top, then select 'rooms' at the bottom, and from there start scrolling to the speakers of interest, to achieve the exact same thing. That's not an improvement.

Regardless of people knowing how to do it or even getting used to it, it's stil a lot less efficient than simply using that dropdown on the now playing screen. And turn and twist it like you want, that sucks.

And in regards to that scrolling. How is fitting only 2,5 instead of 5 speakers in a single screen an improvement? We don't need to see what's playing first before we can select the right speakers. That can done afterwards. Instead we now need to scroll to do sowhere previously we didn't.

The white design sits in the same boat. Not only does it pose issues in with dimmed lighting, it's also less clear which items are most important or belong together. On that same speakers screen for example. I currently have a bigger block at the top telling me 'no music'. Underneath it, it says kitchen, but that those 2 things go together is hardly visible.

Again, that sucks and it a typical example of form over function. And that for a rather questionable form at best.

That you fail to acknowledge all this as well as several other elements, and instead constantly blame people for pointing this out, is pretty sad.

I am using DAILY the new app since it has been released and EACH time I struggle to find my way to group speakers or switch room...
This is clearly not intuitive and the UEX/design is AWFUL.

You need to reduce using a small chevron to access the menu
The bright light colour
No quick link to settings
The bookmarks aka My Sonos where you spent your time scrolling left right to find something
The flow to group
The flow to switch room...

I installed the "heavy" client on my laptop to be able to stop using the app!
This is a joke...

I'm a first time poster, so it's got to be bad. The interface for iPhone iOS is horrible. Please give me back the old interface. I like to see "ALL" my favorites not just some and hate clicking on see all, and is so confusing from switch music from room to room. The white interface is no good either. I have been a long time Sonos owner and it's never been this bad. Trust me I've tried to get use to it, so has my wife...but it's not intuitive. I give up!!

I’ve posted this elsewhere but will post it here as well because I’m so annoyed. Every time I start the app up it causes my NAS drive to spin up. It’s looking for the artwork for my library playlists every bloody time. I really want the old version back.

"It's new, you just need to get used to it." YEAH RIGHT! This update is horrible. How did it get the OK to be released? My Connect Amp keeps dropping off the Rooms Setting list. When it does appear after a power cycle, I can start playing music. But after a short while the Connect amp will drop off then Room Settings list and I lose control of it. The buttons do nothing on the Connect Amp at this time, no pause and no volume control. I have to power cycle it to get it to turn off. Can I roll back to the previous versions? Does Amazon run SONOS now?

There is an old adage that if it ain't broke then don't fix it. Unfortunately I have noticed over the years Sonos pumping out updates for the sake of it. This one takes the cake and echo everyone's sentiments. The fundamental underlying product hasn't changed at all yet the Sonos marketeers are tying to have us believe that they are giving us an improved experience. Well they ain't.

Change back please Sonos.

If you want ideas for ways to improve your product don't look inhouse, just read these bloody forums!

I have to agree with the masses-I have been an avid Sonos user for about 4 years now. I have 19 units and have always recommended them to friends.

Until now.

This update is just brutal. It’s absolutely Horrible. I don’t understand why something that worked so well had to be scrambled just for the sake of an update. My wife won’t use it anymore. I’ve had about a week to play around with it now and it’s a real pain. So UN-intuitive. I’ve had major updates to my iPhone, Mac, TVs etc...never have I had to struggle this much to try to navigate.

The look and feel of this version is a huge step backwards.

PS. It had been about 2 years since I’ve wrote on this forum and it took this garbage to make me hunt down my password to comment.

I have 15 and feel the exact same way. A friend who just bought a couple for his new house called to ask me what was going on with the software.

All I can say is it took me half an hour to feel comfortable with it and use it with ease. I just go back to the Sonos bar and thereafter nothing much is different from before. Leaving aside the colour scheme, the Rooms screen looks like the old version, the Browse looks like the sources bit of the old main menu, and 'More' has the rest of it. The search works the same and looks the same.

'My Sonos' I'm not so happy with, but it's OK.

All these familiar screens are just a button press on the Sonos bar away.

I am utterly baffled as to why people are finding this difficult.

There is a reason you are the ONLY one saying one thing while everyone else is saying the exact opposite

It takes way more work to do the same thing

Also if you were to give a Sonos newcomer the old version and the new version-are you seriously saying that it would be better or faster with the new version??? Didn’t think so