I love my Sonos kit but I have to say the new release of controller is awful. Switching content and rooms just seems so much more clunky now, I’m never 100% which room or group i’m changing music for. Switching rooms is horrible too, the place I got to intuitively gives me the option only to group not switch.
If this was the app available when I bought my first Sonos 1 I would have exactly one Sonos speaker in a cupboard, rather than over ten around the house.
Favourites is a waste of space too, who lists content like that alphabetically??? Allow customisation or at least list the ones used most often on the home screen.
The old controller was intuitive and worked so well, this one is a disaster. Needs sorting soon, do I continue to invest in the Sonos brand or jump ship now?
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Couldn't agree more - the latest update Version 8 for IOS is by the far the worst yet. I have been a Sonos user since it first came to Australia and have always loved it. But for some reason there seems to be an irresistible urge to change things where no change is necessary. If there is an identifiable improvement then I have no issue, but this version is more clunky and more difficult to manage than previous versions, and not at all intuitive. Please change it back!!!!
Userlevel 3
I agree that it is harder to know which room you are controlling and I hope that improves. But I just swipe down the Now Playing screen, (touch 'Rooms' if that doesn't appear immediately), and double tap the room I want. It only takes a second.
I'm talking about the 'My Sonos' screen. If I can't customise it, it isn't 'mine'.
My biggest gripe is to have to switch screens all the time. For example, I'm on my Kitchen Room, I now have to go to rooms, select Study, now go to browse and select the content. Before it was much quicker.
Userlevel 3
I agree that it is harder to know which room you are controlling and I hope that improves. But I just swipe down the Now Playing screen, (touch 'Rooms' if that doesn't appear immediately), and double tap the room I want. It only takes a second.
I'm talking about the 'My Sonos' screen. If I can't customise it, it isn't 'mine'.
My biggest gripe is to have to switch screens all the time. For example, I'm on my Kitchen Room, I now have to go to rooms, select Study, now go to browse and select the content. Before it was much quicker.
And to do what you wanted before, you would have had to open a new screen by tapping the room name at the top, then select room, then gone to the main menu to select a new source. How was that quicker?
The room buttons are massive so now I have to scroll (I have 5 rooms set-up). The simple list was much quicker to use.
If they brought back the Search button to the individual room screen (not the room list) it would make a massive difference to the usability of the app.
Userlevel 4
+3
No extra features, it's just less intuitive and looks AWFUL! Bring back the black.
It definitely sucks. I was on beta for several months and gave my feedback that it totally, totally sucked - especially room changing. My feedback went into a black hole...no-one ever came back to me to ask for direct feedback. Kind of defeats the purpose of beta. I have 14 different Sonos zones in my house - and like a previous comment made on this thread, if this had been my first experience I would have been a "one and gone" buyer. There is no other description for the latest Sonos App for iPhone other than totally awful and amateurish. Sonos - what were you thinking? The desktop experience remains pretty much the same (and it is fine btw) but the iPhone version (which is what I use) is basically broken. Changing rooms is just a complete nightmare. What used to be a simple, intuitive, one click process is now a complex, multi-click process which fails to work much of the time. If you want to move from one room to another you have to deselect the current rooms and select the one you want......except half the time the app still reverts back to the original selected room. The only way I can make it work is to add the new room to the old room to create a group, and then go into room selection again and deselect the original room from that group.....totally nuts. This morning I was changing rooms, so I deselected the other active room and the app turned the music off in those rooms even though my wife was still listening to music in those rooms. Its like the app thinks "oh, you're moving to a new room and no longer need the old room, I'll stop the music then"......but that's not the point, I just want to turn on music in a new room, not in a group, and leave the old room running totally separate. This is so unbelievably frustrating. If I hear anyone tell me - "you are doing it wrong...you need to do this, this and that and then it works fine".....I answer you "no". I have been using Sonos for 10 years. Everything until now has been intuitive and just worked - that is why Sonos was so awesome - it just worked. Now my wife and teenage kids have stopped using Sonos through frustration because the app is "broken". Regardless of whether or not there is some mason's handshake "correct" way of doing it, not being intuitive means it is broken. Sonos - being simple and intuitive and working first time, every time, is why we like your products - and you just broke that. Please fix this mess or those also-ran multi-room audio vendors will start to get my dollars and probably many other peoples' too.
I agree that it is harder to know which room you are controlling and I hope that improves. But I just swipe down the Now Playing screen, (touch 'Rooms' if that doesn't appear immediately), and double tap the room I want. It only takes a second.
I'm talking about the 'My Sonos' screen. If I can't customise it, it isn't 'mine'.
My biggest gripe is to have to switch screens all the time. For example, I'm on my Kitchen Room, I now have to go to rooms, select Study, now go to browse and select the content. Before it was much quicker.
And to do what you wanted before, you would have had to open a new screen by tapping the room name at the top, then select room, then gone to the main menu to select a new source. How was that quicker?
I should say that I am talking about phone app here. It may be different for tablets
I think perhaps a bigger improvement would be to have the new Sonos 'bar', which includes the Search button, visible on the Now Playing screen.
Userlevel 3
Dear Sonos what a big mess you have made!! I get sick of companies changing things and making the experience worse. Do you guys not test updates with real people before implementing, doesn't look like it.
I am currently in my living room watching tv through my playbar. I want to line up music to play later in my den. How da hell can I select another room that I am not in ??!!!!
This is a shambles and if there isn't a fix I am taking this crap back to the shops as I only bought recently!!
I am currently in my living room watching tv through my playbar. I want to line up music to play later in my den. How da hell can I select another room that I am not in ??!!!!
This is a shambles and if there isn't a fix I am taking this crap back to the shops as I only bought recently!!
Userlevel 1
This update should be consigned to the bin. It's Sonos version of Windows 8, the biggest failure of an 'update' you could imagine. How do I view folders on an external NAS drive, it used to be in libraries,Folders. Favourites are a joke, four radio icons showing on an iPad screen, there used to be 10 at least. The layout has gone from being intuitive to damn hard to navigate. Had this been the first time I purchased a Sonos speaker, there wouldn't have been a second. I have 5 spread through the house and find it really difficult to navigate this piece of carp. there is no way I am updating my wife's iPad to this dross. Really disappointed.
If this was the app available when I bought my first Sonos 1 I would have exactly one Sonos speaker in a cupboard, rather than over ten around the house.
Favourites is a waste of space too, who lists content like that alphabetically??? Allow customisation or at least list the ones used most often on the home screen.
The old controller was intuitive and worked so well, this one is a disaster. Needs sorting soon, do I continue to invest in the Sonos brand or jump ship now?
Sonos - PLEASE don't go backwards! I LOVE the new app. Take some time to get used to it perhaps?
Actually, that's not the whole story. "My Sonos" replaces the simple favourites view with "favourites split into categories" which helps. Favourites are still a thing (as up to 32 tagged things that you can add to on navigation pages, and displayed all together on the desktop controller"). Unfortunately, the "edit" option on "My Sonos" actually:
1. Edits favourites, not the "My Sonos" layout (obviously)
2. Edits the "My Sonos" layout if you delete a favourite and bump the next one alphabetically onto the "favourite favourites" list
3. Doesn't let you edit the "My Sonos" layout (other than deleting favourites)
4. Lets you rename favourites, eg. so you can play the "rename your friend's Slayer collection 'One Direction'" game (other use-cases may be found)
So basically, there's no real customisation, and no way to usefully control layout, but you can click "My Sonos->Others->See All" to view your favourite artists.
If this was the app available when I bought my first Sonos 1 I would have exactly one Sonos speaker in a cupboard, rather than over ten around the house.
Favourites is a waste of space too, who lists content like that alphabetically??? Allow customisation or at least list the ones used most often on the home screen.
The old controller was intuitive and worked so well, this one is a disaster. Needs sorting soon, do I continue to invest in the Sonos brand or jump ship now?
Most of us can't afford to jump ship, I've got nearly £2k invested now so will just have to suck it up..
Worste bit was it was a forced update after buying another Sonos speaker.
It is forced if you wish to add new a newly purchased unit, as the OP stated.
@Alan6. There is no question that the icons are way too big for the space available. Hopefully that will change
So if Favourites weren't listed alphabetically in the previous app, can you remind me what the order was? And what customisations were available?
I agree that it is harder to know which room you are controlling and I hope that improves. But I just swipe down the Now Playing screen, (touch 'Rooms' if that doesn't appear immediately), and double tap the room I want. It only takes a second.
I agree that it is harder to know which room you are controlling and I hope that improves. But I just swipe down the Now Playing screen, (touch 'Rooms' if that doesn't appear immediately), and double tap the room I want. It only takes a second.
Userlevel 3
The earlier reply says select "rooms", where is that !!!!!!!!!!!
Userlevel 3
And I've figured it out, only took me 30 minutes!!!!!
Why bring in a new app just so you can try and sell the voice activated Sonos one. I'm not interested, I'm Scottish and no electronic device will ever understand me
Test your app on normal people next time and issue better instructions, not impressed at all
Why bring in a new app just so you can try and sell the voice activated Sonos one. I'm not interested, I'm Scottish and no electronic device will ever understand me
Test your app on normal people next time and issue better instructions, not impressed at all
In the bottom black menu bar! There is:
"My Sonos, Browse, Rooms, Search, More"
Yeh, I can see the confusion - good point.
People, just press the little 'v' in the top left if you're on the now playing screen, you'll see the black nav bar at the bottom of the screen.
[quote=sgrinnall]
I'm talking about the 'My Sonos' screen. If I can't customise it, it isn't 'mine'.
Try clicking 'edit' top right hand corner...
I'm talking about the 'My Sonos' screen. If I can't customise it, it isn't 'mine'.
Try clicking 'edit' top right hand corner...
I too hate the new layout of the Sonos app. I install Sonos all the time as part of my job, it’s way more complicated to explain to people now and I find myself fumbling around often trying to find what I’m looking for. The previous layout of the app was significantly easier to navigate and if nothing else, it was as it has been. Sonos has done sort of the same thing that Microsoft did with windows 8 where they changed an interface that has worked in basically the same way since windows was first invented and everyone hated it. Different isn’t necessarily good (often it isn’t at all) and I really would rather they keep the app working the way it did before myself.
As far as editing the Sonos favorites list, I couldn’t find a way to change the order, only delete stations I put in there. I did tap edit, but it just gives me the red minuses to remove them and no way to move them up or down.
As far as editing the Sonos favorites list, I couldn’t find a way to change the order, only delete stations I put in there. I did tap edit, but it just gives me the red minuses to remove them and no way to move them up or down.
If this was the app available when I bought my first Sonos 1 I would have exactly one Sonos speaker in a cupboard, rather than over ten around the house.
Favourites is a waste of space too, who lists content like that alphabetically??? Allow customisation or at least list the ones used most often on the home screen.
The old controller was intuitive and worked so well, this one is a disaster. Needs sorting soon, do I continue to invest in the Sonos brand or jump ship now?
Probably best you jump ship
Another quick point about favourites - the 32-item limit makes sense not just because "1000 favourites is an oxymoron" but because there was a limit to how many you could usefully fit on one or two screens without excessive scrolling. The old iPad screen-and-a-bit full of 32 tiles just worked. My current "My Sonos" two-screens of "one album, first-eight-alphabetically artists, two favourite playlists, first-eight-alphabetically non-favourite playlists" is really poor use of space. But I guess most people split their 32 favourites more evenly between three groups of eight...
@Keithmac. Was it a forced update? Sonos itself can be srt not to update automatically and the app update will depend on your general app update preferences, will it not?
It is forced if you wish to add new a newly purchased unit, as the OP stated.
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