Wishlist for Sonos Controller Improvements
Userlevel 7
+22
So on the old ask forum wishlist items would get lost. Thought I would post a topic where people could vote their biggest wish for controller software improvements.
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Siri integration
Volume normalization across tracks
Volume normalization across tracks
- Cache album artwork in the app and update when update when updating the music library. Album artwork almost never seems to appear, or when it does, it loads album by album, much more slowly than I'm scrolling, as if it's loading from the iTunes library.
- Meaningful shuffle / or Genius-like function that crosses over various albums, preferably with some information about what songs are likely to be played together.
- More informative error codes. Is the problem that the library isn't on the network, that there are network problems? Errors like [1001] or [1002] are no help.
- More meaningful layout when album artwork is absent. The controller layout on iOS places so much emphasis on the album artwork that the functional elements of the interface are relatively small. This is fine if artwork is showing. But since (see above) artwork very rarely shows up in my app, functional interface items shouldn't take a back seat to a placeholder icon.
- Ability to use Controller app to play library music from mobile device speakers. When out in the yard, or in a room that doesn't have Sonos components, it would be great to be able to play from the music library
- Meaningful shuffle / or Genius-like function that crosses over various albums, preferably with some information about what songs are likely to be played together.
- More informative error codes. Is the problem that the library isn't on the network, that there are network problems? Errors like [1001] or [1002] are no help.
- More meaningful layout when album artwork is absent. The controller layout on iOS places so much emphasis on the album artwork that the functional elements of the interface are relatively small. This is fine if artwork is showing. But since (see above) artwork very rarely shows up in my app, functional interface items shouldn't take a back seat to a placeholder icon.
- Ability to use Controller app to play library music from mobile device speakers. When out in the yard, or in a room that doesn't have Sonos components, it would be great to be able to play from the music library
I would like an auto-regroup so that when my playbar auto ungroups when detecting TV audio, when the audio has gone it can go back in the group it was in, perhaps with settings to control whether it should or shouldn't if the group is currently playing so that the playbar doesn't suddenly play. Maybe that would require some 'permanent' groups that can be named instead of the ad-hoc creation.
Rewind and forward 15 second buttons. Using the progress bar is difficult and for a long podcast (45 minutes or so) requires precision which is not possible on a small iPhone screen
I know of Sonopad. And Zonos is Windows only apparently. So what else is there? For an iPad.
My one wish. I have over 2,000 albums ripped to a music server (Vortexbox). I am old fashioned (and old) and like to listen to albums in their entirety. And I like to just set it to a "shuffle" or "random" play. Would it be possible to add such a function? To be able to just select "albums" ->"shuffle albums" or "random albums" and have one album play then go to another one etc. would be excellent (and one for "random artists", too, although not as important to me). Also, a way to skip an album if I just don't happen to feel like listening to it at the moment. Oh, if there is already this function in your app, I could not find it. Thanks.
Userlevel 7
+22
Have seen it requested before. I'm highly doubtful you will ever see that happen.
Improvement not listed but really want: Parental/password control on zones.
Userlevel 7
+22
Agreed
I voted "roll back" simply because I hate the "play now and obliterate the queue" functionality that came in last year. Great app apart from this horrible regression,
Not sure if it's already on the list, but I'd love it if I could set all players to group automatically when music is played (as opposed to TV). I believe the player can tell the difference, so the logic here isn't all that complex. Essentially this is whenever the optical input on Playbar is NOT the source.
As it stands I have to go to the app every time I play music to first group all players. Having this happen automatically would also improve the usability of the recent Spotify 'direct' control as there would then be no need to group before starting music in Spotify.
Edit: Not sure if this is the same as 'permanent zone combining'. In my case I wouldn't want to *always* hear TV audio throughout the home, so truly permanent zone combining wouldn't seem the same to me.
As it stands I have to go to the app every time I play music to first group all players. Having this happen automatically would also improve the usability of the recent Spotify 'direct' control as there would then be no need to group before starting music in Spotify.
Edit: Not sure if this is the same as 'permanent zone combining'. In my case I wouldn't want to *always* hear TV audio throughout the home, so truly permanent zone combining wouldn't seem the same to me.
...and now my 6.3 controller is bricked and refuses to work with my other 7.0 controllers. Interestingly, I've seen alternative controllers like Sonopad and Zonos also run into the problem of dumping things into a stopped queue. Beginning to think that I'm wrong about wanting to just hit "play album", maybe a "play album followed by the last 90% of what I was listening to last time" button really is what most users want. Oh well, I can always clear the queue manually and remember which "play" buttons do a "replace and play" and which ones do an "insert and play".
Clinging to 6.3 on one of my laptops. Unfortunately, I stupidly updated other PC/iOS controllers. Constantly looking for other controller options that actually get things right. Mostly, I just accept that finding the "clear queue and play" button is the safest move. I actually feel bad about slagging Sonos off - I know writing/testing/designing/debugging software and managing user expectations is really hard - but the user experience of the current controller software is awful, and up until a few months ago it was truly awesome.
Check out the available 3rd party apps. Even if Sonos doesn't fix the 6.4/7.0 interface you may find there is no reason to even use the native app except to set up new components. Folks who haven't already updated can just stick with their current version... at least until a piece of hardware breaks and has to be replaced. Apparently about half of Sonos users don't utilize Spotify (whatever that is) so there is no compelling reason for them to update if they don't want the aggravation of the new interface.
When I tried to raise play-inserts-into-stopped-queue behaviour as a bug with 6.4, the response I got from support indicated that it was by design, not a bug. And maybe extensive user testing has indicated that users want half their play buttons to do a play-and-replace, and the other play buttons to do an insert-and-play. I'd pay money to get back to the 6.3 approach of consistent append-and-play queue management, but I think Sonos are still confusing their intended functionality with the messy reality of the broken 6.4/7.0 user experience...
They haven't given any indication they won't fix it either. No real downside to just hang back and see what happens.
Userlevel 7
+22
Sonos has given no indication they are doing anything to change the functionality for queue users who dislike the play now method introduced in 6.4 version if you awaiting a fix.
Thanks for the heads up. Will stick with 6.2.1 till they get that sorted.
Downloaded the 7.0 desktop controller, still seems to have the same flaws as the horrid 6.4 release. "Play" button does different things on different screens, rarely what you'd expect, but at least now I've learned which "play" buttons do a "play and replace queue". Everyone's favourite feature - the "play album followed by tracks 2-end of yesterday's stuff" button is still there (the bit where hitting "play" inserts into the stopped queue instead of appending / overwriting). It's clear that Sonos don't consider this a bug (which it is), but instead a deliberate design feature. I'd love to see the user testing that went into this...
Userlevel 7
+22
Interesting on poncho. Thanks for sharing.
I'd like to see the possibility for the app to help place devices (especially bridge and boost) for the best mesh coverage. Google wifi has an app that does just that to set up their mesh for the best coverage.
How about adding the ability to like or dislike music from Apple Music ... basic functionality I would think.
Greg
Greg
Adding my wish here that the Android controller would have an option to display the screen for a few seconds at the start of every song. Right now I can only see what is starting to play if I manually wake the screen or leave the screen on full time. The few other controllers I have used, for example on my Denon A/V receiver, do this.
Userlevel 7
+22
Yep for sure
Userlevel 2
The first thing is to REMOVE the Tap to Play feature they just added, people keep starting a new song in the middle of one that is playing and it is annoying, really annoying.
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