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I like the light background.
I absolutely hate the new interface. The dark one was much more appropriate when one is using SOnus in a party or diner party - or just a dinner at home. I loved Sonus for the old interface, 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?



You mentioned that here



https://en.community.sonos.com/controllers-software-228995/show-some-courage-sonos-withdraw-the-new-app-6791584?postid=16154138



Oh, and here



https://en.community.sonos.com/controllers-software-228995/the-new-ui-user-interface-for-ios-released-in-10-2017-is-a-step-backward-6791513?postid=16154137



You might want to invest in some Sonos gear, i've heard it's pretty good.
I also prefer the black background. White is too bright.
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.



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.
I am not a fan of the newest Sonos app for iPhone. In its efforts to simplify things, they’ve done the opposite. My biggest gripe is the bright white eye sore background. It has the same look as current iTunes app, which I also hate. Most album art looks terrible against it. Using the app at night is murder on my eyes. PLEASE make a dark mode ASAP. Good thing is that for the years I’ve been a Sonos customer, they’ve always listened to their customers. I have no doubt they’ll do the right thing. They always do.
Don't Sonos take any notice? I haven't found a single comment that likes the new app, and even accounting for reporting bias (unhappy people complain more), that has to mean something. It's gone from hero to zero in one update.
Please let me “UPDATE” to the previous version. This is just awful.
I agree!
Don't Sonos take any notice? I haven't found a single comment that likes the new app, and even accounting for reporting bias (unhappy people complain more), that has to mean something. It's gone from hero to zero in one update.



I like the new app. It logically arranges things instead of the mish mash approach ofnthe previous incarnation. Much easier to use.





Maybe I am a very strange and oddly behaved Sonos user in that I listen to music instead of exercising my overblown sense of entitlement that the world should conform to my ideals about a screen and how dare companies not bend to my will.





Now then, if you whined and whinged about the behaviour of the queue, aka something sensible to critique, then your world would be a much happier place that much quicker. Or do you think the queue behaviour is perfect for you?



Update, just fine, problems with the queue, still there.
TBH, I can tolerate the fact that there’s no new features and they’re harder to find, if only it wasn’t so butt ugly! Bring back the black!
It's a shame when you've spent nigh on £2k on audio gear it can all be ruined at the flick of an update. Tried going back to 7.4 but lose a lot of setting options.



I wonder if us Android users chuck enought money at the the Sonospad developer he could do an Android version?.
Another vote for 'Back to Black'...
My 4 Ipads are mounted on walls and at night they light the rooms, making it impossible to sleep in the same room when the App is open. Please give us a background option.
Truly un-inspired 'upgrade'. The white background is far too bright and left to right scrolling of favourites more clunky than up/down scrolling. I suspect this is just change for change's sake with no real end-user testing.



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.
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.
Sadly, sonopad is only for Apple products. Anyone know something for Android phone? Need a useable controller, the original one is now terrible!



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.
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.
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.
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!
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.
dpnfinance - I think you have the wrong man! Try BoredofBalham earlier in this thread (who made the whining sense of entitlement comment).
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.
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.
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...
Another vote for dark background. Or at least offering a choice.
+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.
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