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Userlevel 1
Ridiculous retro upgrade, fed up with new bright app and awkward interface. Was a huge fan for many years, now thinking of selling my Sonos kit!
Does have its uses. My daughter needed a bright backlight for her tissue paper coloured windows from school. First thought.... the new Sonos app! Perfect. Bright as a beacon, just the ticket!
Still looks terrible though.
Still looks terrible though.
Userlevel 1
It's too bright in a dark room, intrusive, hard too see in a light room, and it eats my battery.
Don't like it.
Users speak up. If enough people ask, maybe the app developer will listen.
Brighter is not better.
Please give us back the dark background theme.
The dark background is never coming back. Supernova mode is the only option. Get used to it - or try Denon, Bose, or Samsung. If you still have your solar eclipse goggles, you could try those - but I'd still limit the time spent looking directly at the app.
The bright background on new SONOS app release is not an improvement.
It's too bright in a dark room, intrusive, hard too see in a light room, and it eats my battery.
Don't like it.
Brighter is not better.
Please give us back the dark background theme.
I agree, plese bring back (or add an option) the dark background for my controllers. Only the white one is horrible!
It's too bright in a dark room, intrusive, hard too see in a light room, and it eats my battery.
Don't like it.
Brighter is not better.
Please give us back the dark background theme.
I agree, plese bring back (or add an option) the dark background for my controllers. Only the white one is horrible!
I agree, plese bring back (or add an option) the dark background for Android controllers. Only the white one is horrible!
Adding my voice to the NO LIKE the new white background. Please either change it back to a black background or give us the option to change it.
Userlevel 1
It's too bright in a dark room, intrusive, hard too see in a light room, and it eats my battery.
Don't like it.
Users speak up. If enough people ask, maybe the app developer will listen.
Brighter is not better.
Please give us back the dark background theme.
The room is unbearably bright due to the white background. I have no choice but to turn off the display completely - waiving the praised new attributes of the software. In this sense, the so-called progress for me means a loss and huge disappointment!
There is another disturbing detail: The font below the CD cover (title, album, artist, etc.) is disproportionately small and barely legible even at a small distance. I therefore suggest to improve the proportions. Maybe I'm not alone with this wish.
I ask for an option for variable font sizes in the title display, because despite my relatively large screen, these notes are quite difficult to read (it is not due to lack of visual acuity).
It would not have to be (other companies live it), that one gets dictated as user the outfit. I urge you to establish self-service elements by the customer.
Userlevel 1
I invested in SONOS shortly after it launched and have found most software updates to be generally speaking, improvements. However the decision to make the app all white and change the navigation of it in such a radical way is the biggest blunder ever. I tend to listen to music in the evening in a slightly darkened room as I'm sure many people do but now I find myself having to constantly adjust my iphone to compensate for the brightness of the app. Up until now the app has been pretty classy, easy on the eyes and a pleasure to use but this update is just dreadful. I haven't read any comments about how wonderful this update is.
So SONOS please please listen to your users voicing their displeasure at this update and at least give us the option to use a Dark Mode. Can't be too difficult can it?
So SONOS please please listen to your users voicing their displeasure at this update and at least give us the option to use a Dark Mode. Can't be too difficult can it?
Agree with all, why not an option Black or White?
Hell yeah. Dark mode is much better.
I strongly agree with this so much it hurts. Just update the app on my iPad and it is now a truly awful experience to use. It's not just the terribly bright white background but the fact that the whole interface has been dumbed down and broken over so many screens. What was shown on a single screen in the previous version, with access to the play controls, volume, album art, queue, and library navigation is now broken into a whole load of separate screens. Just ludicrous with so much of the iPads screen real estate totally wasted and just displaying bright white.
An outcome of this breaking up of the main screen is that to access much of what used to be there now requires several more actions on the part of the user. Shouldn't "improvements" be just that. This isn't one of them. This is a MAJOR step backwards.
I hate changes!
No, wait, I hate changes which are not improvements!
And a 6" smartphone screen at night (or actually, at any time of day) in glistering bright white with a little black line here and there - that is NOT an improvement!
Give me black back, or I am done buying new Sonos gear and will settle for running down what I have before walking away and hating Sonos forever after. They are not unique anymore, in case they have forgotten.
No, wait, I hate changes which are not improvements!
And a 6" smartphone screen at night (or actually, at any time of day) in glistering bright white with a little black line here and there - that is NOT an improvement!
Give me black back, or I am done buying new Sonos gear and will settle for running down what I have before walking away and hating Sonos forever after. They are not unique anymore, in case they have forgotten.
+1 for giving us the option for a "Night Mode" or darker theme. With wall mounted iPads this new change to the bright white background has ruined the aesthetic of an "always on" SONOS app and cheapens the experience.
Another vote for dark background. Or at least offering a choice.
Yeah an update to this new unintuitive and horrible white theme - I thought...
But nothing, no improvement at all!
That's it for me, after many disappointments I definetly won't buy any new Sonos gear...
Sonos just got worse with the years, no more audible support, disabling the usability, only horrible white theme...
But nothing, no improvement at all!
That's it for me, after many disappointments I definetly won't buy any new Sonos gear...
Sonos just got worse with the years, no more audible support, disabling the usability, only horrible white theme...
Userlevel 1
So the first update (8.1) - nothing. still only white. i am using my rdp session on my server with the desktop controller, and the color inversion in my phone so i don't get crazy after 2min at night browsing music in the Sonos App.
I agree with Flatliner: I can deal with the poor choices made in changing the app if they would just get rid of the white. It's fracking annoying particularly at night.
Userlevel 4
+3
dpnfinance - I think you have the wrong man! Try BoredofBalham earlier in this thread (who made the whining sense of entitlement comment).
Flattliner- it's not a whining sense of entitlement- this isn't government doll or free restaurant meal coupons. We've all paid thousands of dollars for hardware and expect the software to be well vetted and beta'ed before release- and well serviced. Plus- it goes beyond our needs- most of us love Sonos and want to ensure it lives on and prospers- caution and warning to any business that has a development team and executive management that evolve into "Yes Men". Focus your energies there.
So glad to discover that I'm not the only one who feels this way - I use AirPlay Mirroring from my iPad to show the Sonos UI on my large screen TV and the glaring bright white UI is a super buzz kill in my living room. Please add a toggle to select light/dark modes for the UI!
Its so bright on my tablet. How can one relax with the lights dimmed. I might as well be holding a flashlight. Good thing I use Spotify's app.
I think that the user should always have options within an app, and as someone who has spent a small fortune on Sonos equipment, I do think that I am entitled to at least an OPTION to toggle back to a sleek darker interface with blurred artwork in the background, because that's what I prefer, and the option should be mine. Regardless of what you've spent or how many Sonos speakers you own, you should have options and preferences to suit your personal aesthetic.
This 'everything white and sterile look because that's what's in now, and no, you can't change it' attitude is obnoxious from Apple, but downright ballsy from Sonos. If you like a white garish interface where song/album artwork looks ridiculous in a sea of white, and black text that gets drowned out by the white background, then it should be YOUR option.
The Sonos App is a necessary accessory to Sonos speakers/hardware, not something a customer chooses as a music player, so I don't think the overall design should only be in the eye of a handful of developers who felt like copying Apple's UI design. When I decided to jump into the Sonos world (leaving an AirPlay based Bowers & Wilkins multi room system behind), the app design was attractive, and helped my decision.
A white user interface simply doesn't make sense as a music player (it looks like the artwork and icons are sitting in a Finder or Explorer window). A darker interface helps blend into the device that the music is playing from, therefore offering an attractive addition to any room that this device is in. It made that device look like it was just the music player, and it was. Now, it looks like just a plain App playing music to state of the art equipment.
Changing the app drastically without user options feels as though Sonos has changed my overall music playing experience, especially when various iPads act like virtual and visual players throughout my home. Sonos and their developers need to realize that the Sonos App IS our hi-fi system, our rack system and our bookshelf system of past decades, so let us decide what it looks like.
This 'everything white and sterile look because that's what's in now, and no, you can't change it' attitude is obnoxious from Apple, but downright ballsy from Sonos. If you like a white garish interface where song/album artwork looks ridiculous in a sea of white, and black text that gets drowned out by the white background, then it should be YOUR option.
The Sonos App is a necessary accessory to Sonos speakers/hardware, not something a customer chooses as a music player, so I don't think the overall design should only be in the eye of a handful of developers who felt like copying Apple's UI design. When I decided to jump into the Sonos world (leaving an AirPlay based Bowers & Wilkins multi room system behind), the app design was attractive, and helped my decision.
A white user interface simply doesn't make sense as a music player (it looks like the artwork and icons are sitting in a Finder or Explorer window). A darker interface helps blend into the device that the music is playing from, therefore offering an attractive addition to any room that this device is in. It made that device look like it was just the music player, and it was. Now, it looks like just a plain App playing music to state of the art equipment.
Changing the app drastically without user options feels as though Sonos has changed my overall music playing experience, especially when various iPads act like virtual and visual players throughout my home. Sonos and their developers need to realize that the Sonos App IS our hi-fi system, our rack system and our bookshelf system of past decades, so let us decide what it looks like.
Userlevel 3
Just google 'Sonos 7.4 apk' and install the old version again
Thanks for the tip. However, once a user installs the older version, they'll be nagged to update forever. That reminder will be in their notification shade for eternity. If they turn off reminders, they'll miss all their other app updates and will have to check for updates manually and do them one by one, skipping Sonos. Reverting to a previous iOS version is even worse than Android. If you install the previous version (from a pre-8.0 backup), Sonos will nag you relentlessly until you update.
Userlevel 3
Doesn't Sonos realize that people listen to music at home in the evening? And with PLAYBAR, people are watching TV, often in a pitch black room. Now I'm looking into a tablet-sized flashlight. When we have get-togethers, we have the iPad set to stay on the whole time Sonos is playing, so folks can see what they're listening to. With the white background, the Sonos app is a major atmosphere-killer at a party. For movie viewing, it's an affront to the eyes.
Userlevel 3
Sonos proved with the previous update that they don't care what users think. The version 7 software was widely derided for replacing people's entire playlists with a simple tap on a song, and Sonos never even compromised on that by giving people a choice. We're not asking for users to decide everything; we're just asking for options. But you're right--it appears that Sonos sees the same interface every day and simply gets bored with it; they then blow it up seemingly for the hell of it. That would be cool if they would improve it, but they just FUBAR it even more each time.
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