Why is Sonos discontinuing support for iOS devices?

My question would be, as you have a Sonos One, why aren't you playing YouTube, or music stored on your phone, using Airplay 2?

I'm out. This is absurd. I've been verging on replacing Sonos for years. I originally bought into the system because I loved the idea of playing music on good speakers remotely from my computer and phone. I liked the idea of being able to control volume of speakers remotely and even select different rooms with different music. A friend of mine also told me the actual audio on the speakers was good.

But every time I wasn't able to stream audio from my phone or computer that wasn't provided by one of Sonos's partner companies (Pandora, Spotify, etc), I hit a brick wall. That has meant that I can't play my own music audio unless it's embedded in iTunes, I can't stream a song from YouTube, I can't listen to any other web-based audio unless it's packaged by one of Sonos's partners.

Now most of my friends use high-end audio blue tooth speakers. At this point it's become a big duh! You can do everything with those that Sonos can do (and more) with the possible exception of separating rooms. But I almost never do that anyway.

Now this? I can't even play my own music on Sonos?!?!? WTF? This is idiotic. And, yes, I've read all of the work-arounds listed above and elsewhere. Do you really think a large client base will bother? No doubt some will. But most of those simply because they're already invested so much money into this system. That's the whole business model. Pretty sketchy. Pretty lame to hold us hostage and encourage us to throw good money after bad.

Nope. This is the final straw. I'll try to sell my speakers.

Later Sonos.

This announcement thread should answer your questions about why the change is occurring.Sorry but no, it doesn't really answer anything. All it tells me is that Sonos can't be bothered doing the hard work of making their app useable for a large number of people and that they have been caught out by Apple.

You made a lot of assumptions/generalities with that statement?


"Can't be bothered" - The were actually working trying to fix the issue for a year prior to this decision.

"doing the hard work " - So you're assuming that hard work can eventually fix the issue?

"large number of people" - In total numbers? Percentage of Sonos users? Do you know what either of these numbers are?

"been caught out by Apple" - What does that mean?

But that is not our problem - it's Sonos's problem.

It's both. Sonos has to deal with bad customer PR and such while you have to deal wiith finding another way to get your music.

I'm selling my speakers for whatever I can get. Missold and a total waste of money. Probably better off with 4 Sony bluetooth speakers for the money. The sound is not as good but you can play whatever you feel like from your phone (including phonecalls, videos from the phone, etc., which Sonos never could). Pathetic for a supposedly premium product. Think about it this way, Sonos,if you're spending half your time explaining what customers need to do to get your product to work, you messed up.

How do you know Sonos is spending half the time explaining things to customers?

Good luck with your replacement product. I'm sure you will be quite happy with Bluetooth speakers.

I'm not happy with apple either if I didn't need there equipment for work
I would not own any of it .
Sonos uses there equipment as a controller and recommends using apple air 2
Their stated reason for making this change is because apple ios is unreliable .
I think they are in the same camp .
again just my opinion .


I loved this stuff for the first few years I had it
bought it because of it ease of use and ios friendly .
now definitely out as I have ranted enough to last me till the next decade

You are missing the point
I bought this system because it worked with ios
Now sonos is taking that away
What else will they take away in future ?
And yes I did rail against those company's and will only buy what I absolutely need to in the future from them .
I think your opinion is wrong but I'm not jumping down your neck for having it.
Fine by me if you just want to lay there and take it.
What I'm saying is all these company's should get there 💩 together .

And turning off your updates doesn't help anything as you can't get into the menus to change your settings unless you upgrade .
YOU HAVE NO CHOICE

Now I am completely done with this forum as all some people want to do is argue
Sonos has done this people don't like it the are not going to fix it
I'm going to spend some cash to fix it so I can use it till they do something else to it .
Mirroring wifi dongle hooked to my TV will do the trick .

Stuart I think nik can speak for himself
and you have made over 4000 replies to posts I could ask you if you work for sonos if you don't you should .

Also maybe I don't want to be forced to update my phones or ipads as well
because that causes problems with other pieces of equipment that I own .

Nik I already know how I'm going to handle it .
Maybe my plan to just hook a wifi mirroring device to my TV will help someone as well .

1 more thing usually people who call people names like childish on the internet are people that wouldn't
have the guts to do it face to face .

I am not responding anymore on this topic .

My opinions are mine
Yours are yours

Mine is turned off if you don't update you can't access any of your controls
like room settings etc .
But I think you would know that as you seem to be on here everyday .

Do you work for sonos ?😉






Not true. Controls are lost when the speakers are updated and the controller isn't or vice-versa. You need to ensure your mobile device doesn't automatically update as well - that isn't a Sonos setting as I'm sure you know.

Also. The childish "Do you work for Sonos"? No, he doesn't. Sonos employees are indicated as such under their name. Just because somebody challenge;enges your post doesn't mean they are a paid shill.

There should be an option that lets you decide whether you want to upgrade or not and
it should be explained what you would gain .


Can’t you just turn Off Automatic Updates?

Each new Sonos update strikes fear of losing support. Their products are very expensive, and when they limit or prohibit use through updates is sickening. When they work properly they are about the best on the market.
But, people should be aware that, one day, the large investment they made in Sonos products may become a total waste of money.


I think this depends on your point of view. If you're the type of person who doesn't want things to change, then Sonos might not be the best solution for you. If you want to be able to adopt and change as newer tech is available, then Sonos can be a very great option.

As @nik9669a pointed out, when new features became popular and available, competitors like Bose opted to shut down their current line of smart speakers and start a new one. That would have made people who don't want the new features happy as it would preserve there speakers longer....until Bose drops support anyway and it no longer works with the current smart phones. It made many customers upset since they now saw their current investment as outdated and useless.

On the other hand Sonos has gone from a closed system that didn't even have smart phone apps, to incorporating apps, streaming services, voice control, TV audio, etc, while dropping very little products and features from the line. While this surely has bothered those who wanted nothing to change, it's a huge blessing for those who want the more current features without having to buy everything new.

For me personally, I almost always want the new features, and am glad that i can still use the connect:amp I bought about 8 years ago along with speakers I bought last Christmas. Absolutely money well spent.

You could switch to Bose: Surely they wouldn’t drop a whole hardware range to introduce some new features 😜

Each new Sonos update strikes fear of losing support. Their products are very expensive, and when they limit or prohibit use through updates is sickening. When they work properly they are about the best on the market.
But, people should be aware that, one day, the large investment they made in Sonos products may become a total waste of money.

Good grief people!!!

Housing your music collection on a PC or Mac DOES NOT MEAN YOU CAN ONLY PLAY MUSIC USING THE PC OR MAC!!!!

Are you saying you can set up a “Music Library” and select music from an app on your iPhone? Wow! That would be useful! 😀