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Lock Screen Controls (Android)

  • May 9, 2025
  • 1 reply
  • 81 views

A year on since the “new app” launched and the Lock Screen Controls feature has still not been restored.  Has Sonos given up on a feature that practically every other media player has by default??

Best answer by Airgetlam

Not sure what ‘all other media players’ means, but Sonos is relatively unique in its app isn’t a media player itself, but a ‘remote control’ that provides a window in to what the system is doing on the Sonos devices, and not your controller. In the iOS (Apple) world, this means Apple has deemed that it can’t use on device controls. Both Apple and Google have said that ‘on this device’ files can’t be used. I don’t know, off hand, if Google has said that ‘Lock Screen Controls’ are available or not, perhaps someone else more familiar with that aspect of Google’s control of Android can comment. 
 

If it’s possible, it’s likely on Sonos’ list of things to implement in the future. Just last month, they finally got local management of playlists implemented on the mobile controllers. There’s forward progress being made, it’s just not as immediate as we’d all like. My guess is that Sonos engineers feel the same way, but aren’t sitting on their hands. 

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1 reply

Airgetlam
  • 44832 replies
  • Answer
  • May 10, 2025

Not sure what ‘all other media players’ means, but Sonos is relatively unique in its app isn’t a media player itself, but a ‘remote control’ that provides a window in to what the system is doing on the Sonos devices, and not your controller. In the iOS (Apple) world, this means Apple has deemed that it can’t use on device controls. Both Apple and Google have said that ‘on this device’ files can’t be used. I don’t know, off hand, if Google has said that ‘Lock Screen Controls’ are available or not, perhaps someone else more familiar with that aspect of Google’s control of Android can comment. 
 

If it’s possible, it’s likely on Sonos’ list of things to implement in the future. Just last month, they finally got local management of playlists implemented on the mobile controllers. There’s forward progress being made, it’s just not as immediate as we’d all like. My guess is that Sonos engineers feel the same way, but aren’t sitting on their hands.