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Thoughts please (Controller/Interface/GUI)!

  • November 2, 2022
  • 4 replies
  • 105 views
S

Before I start, I like Sonos a lot - I’ve been using it for more than 15 years and have (too) many speakers, but I’m frustrated with the Controller. 

Given that Sonos is premium brand and has a price point to match, who thinks the Controller is inadequate and unintuitive, to the point of being, quite frankly, pants, and needs an overhaul? 

A few examples:

  • Clunky - no buttons - akin to ‘favorites’ or ‘presets’ (on-screen short cut buttons like today’s cell/mobile phones or Hi-fi systems) - to have to search each time you want to play something is time consuming, and ridiculous 
  • No customisation allowed, for example, your own colour scheme/skin, etc. 
  • No customisable sleep timer - one of the oldest complaints and one of the simplest things to have in an app! 
  • Not to forget and bit too ‘buggy’ - e.g. random volume/mute loss of functionality when speakers are part of a group
  • Ads!?

I’ll stop there but please share your thoughts, and the pain, on the Sonos Controller/Interface/GUI

Sonos CEO Patrick Spence is from a hardware background, maybe he should spend a little more time with arguably the most important part of the car, the tyres (so to speak). 

 

Please @Sonos, listen to your fans! 

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4 replies

J
  • John B
  • 19684 replies
  • November 2, 2022

Hi.  I won’t argue with your particular quibbles, and I am sure the mobile app could be improved, but fundamentally I find it reasonably intuitive and easy to use.

I particularly like the navigation bar at the bottom of the screen.  For day-to-day use, all you need to do is choose a room (or group some rooms), and then choose some music to play in them.  One button on the nav bar takes care of the rooms, and three take care of the three ways to choose music - go to a source (browse), search across sources, or select a favourite.  There’s a button for each of those options

Finally, there is a button for system management and settings.

I do think the organisation and presentation of the My Sonos section is a bit of a mess and could do with an overhaul.  I have been saying that for years.

The app isn’t buggy at all.  I have not experienced the problem you describe in 11 years of using Sonos.  It sounds to me like network latency.

 

Airgetlam
1 person likes this
  • Airgetlam
    Airgetlam
S
  • Spintop5
  • Author
  • Contributor I
  • 3 replies
  • November 2, 2022

Hi @John B - I should’ve said, the volume/mute bug I refer to is a known issue on the Windows app. I use the controller on all OSs regularly and indeed the Windows app is the most in need of some TLC. 

melvimbe
  • melvimbe
  • 9866 replies
  • November 2, 2022
Spintop5 wrote:

Before I start, I like Sonos a lot - I’ve been using it for more than 15 years and have (too) many speakers, but I’m frustrated with the Controller. 

Given that Sonos is premium brand and has a price point to match, who thinks the Controller is inadequate and unintuitive, to the point of being, quite frankly, pants, and needs an overhaul? 

A few examples:

  • Clunky - no buttons - akin to ‘favorites’ or ‘presets’ (on-screen short cut buttons like today’s cell/mobile phones or Hi-fi systems) - to have to search each time you want to play something is time consuming, and ridiculous 

 

 

I honestly am kind of on the lazy side and don’t spend a lot of time trying to dial in the settings on the app just right, but I find that using the past history on the first time is rather easy to pick what I want to play rather quickly.  Or just use voice control if applicable.

 

Spintop5 wrote:
  • No customisation allowed, for example, your own colour scheme/skin, etc. 

 

 

Would be nice, but I think once you get a a bit more complicated with customizations, your going to have more issues when a feature is added.  Maybe just colors and fonts?

 

Spintop5 wrote:
  • No customisable sleep timer - one of the oldest complaints and one of the simplest things to have in an app! 
  • Not to forget and bit too ‘buggy’ - e.g. random volume/mute loss of functionality when speakers are part of a group
  • Ads!?

 

 

Are you talking about ads in your music selection or ads on the app itself.  Audio ads are up to the streaming source your playing, I believe you can opt to not see any notifications in the Sonos app.

 

 

Spintop5 wrote:

I’ll stop there but please share your thoughts, and the pain, on the Sonos Controller/Interface/GUI

Sonos CEO Patrick Spence is from a hardware background, maybe he should spend a little more time with arguably the most important part of the car, the tyres (so to speak). 

 

Please @Sonos, listen to your fans! 

 

Danny
Airgetlam
1 person likes this
  • Airgetlam
    Airgetlam
J
  • John B
  • 19684 replies
  • November 2, 2022

@Spintop5 . The Windows app may well need some TLC; but it isn't going to get it. Around 4 years ago Sonos stripped out most system management capabilities and stopped any further development. It's now bug fixes only (and occasional bug créations).

Airgetlam
Ken_Griffiths
2 people like this
  • Airgetlam
    Airgetlam
  • Ken_Griffiths
    Ken_Griffiths
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