I thought I’d provide some feedback on the new app using iOS devices, not covering absent features that are in the roadmap, and mentioning points that I’ve not seen covered elsewhere.
- Whenever I start the app I receive a ‘Turn on Bluetooth to Allow “Sonos” to Connect to Accessories’ message. A minor annoyance.
- I like the fact that the search box is always available on the home screen.
- I like that I can choose a Preferred Service which then appears first in the list. Even better if we had full control over this sequencing.
- ’Recently Played’ shows most but not all of what I have played. For example, if I play Radio Paradise Main Mix through the Radio Paradise service it doesn’t appear in the list of recent items. Also, nothing played from my local library appears in the recent list.
- ’Sonos Favorites’ appear to be ordered by how recently they were added. And on the Home Screen the two rows are somewhat unintuitive in ordering top left, bottom left etc. Much better if the items appeared alphabetically as before with the ability to edit titles to bring items forward as required. I can’t edit the titles of favorites at all now.
- A single press used to play the favorite selected. Now it takes me to a second screen where I have to press play. A single click is much better.
- I really miss having some favorite stations, albums, and playlists on the home screen. Now I have to click through from the home screen and then scroll down to stations. This detailed favorites screen can’t be managed at all. The end result is that where I used to have a single press to play a favorite, I sometimes have to go through four presses to achieve the same thing. I think this might be my least favorite aspect of the new app.
- In the ‘Your System’ view, I think the little icons represent speakers, and they all look like the Move. Shouldn’t these all be different? My Playbar should look very different (though obviously this is somewhat minor).
- The lack of volume number indicators, alphabetical search shortcuts, and a mute button are all minor frustrations but not showstoppers for now. I do find the lack of alphabetical shortcuts most impactful in my local library where I have a large number of artists and albums.
- Some of my album art in my local library appears corrupted in the album list and now playing screen. This didn’t happen before, and it does sometimes resolves itself.
- Local album art population is slower than before when I scroll quickly.
