Having just upgraded to the new app, I’m utterly amazed at how poor it is from a user perspective.
How did this get through any UAT? These are basic features every Sonos user has enjoyed for years.
Absolutely ridiculous, please add this functionality back ASAP.
I had 30 or so URL radio stations that I had manually added via the Tunein app. Added them all to my Sonos Favourites.
I installed the new App on my Android phone and the original Tunein isn’t listed as a service. All my favourite radio station are still included on the first screen but are greyed out. There is a Tunein (new) listed but they are wanting £39 a year and I’m not paying that until I know I can still manually add URLs.
The other pain is I have to keep opening the new app and closing it again before it finally recognises my system.
Thankfully the web app still allows me to play my radio stations set up in the older Tunein… but for how long will this last?
I really wish I hadn’t updated this App. I’m so peeved!!
Can I suggest we all dial in and share our ‘feedback’ with the lovely designers and product owners at SONOS…
I had 30 or so URL radio stations that I had manually added via the Tunein app. Added them all to my Sonos Favourites.
I installed the new App on my Android phone and the original Tunein isn’t listed as a service. All my favourite radio station are still included on the first screen but are greyed out. There is a Tunein (new) listed but they are wanting £39 a year and I’m not paying that until I know I can still manually add URLs.
The other pain is I have to keep opening the new app and closing it again before it finally recognises my system.
Thankfully the web app still allows me to play my radio stations set up in the older Tunein… but for how long will this last?
I really wish I hadn’t updated this App. I’m so peeved!!
Sorry, I meant “ Thankfully the Windows Desktop app still allows me to play my radio stations set up in the older Tunein… but for how long will this last? “
Terrible app update, possibly the worst so far. If you haven't yet installed the new version, hold off until the fixes come in. The missing features are well documented in other posts here. Overall the UI / UX is muddled and confusing and seems to defy modern conventions. Not in a ground breaking and helpful way but like it was inspired by a UX fever dream.
For anyone worried about the loss of custom radio URLs I found a way to recreate them (manually):
I think I noticed yet another issue intop of the entire shitshow this is. But the interface is so bad I cannot even see it to be sure.
We use a family account of Spotify. Everyone has their own accounts. Now Sonos just seems to use the last added account to play music with. Meaning all music played on Sonos is now seen by Spotify as being played by that account (going to their last played, music taste, etc).
I can still pick an account in the Sonos app but when playing it only displays the last account added. Indicating it is using that one when playing music?
Apple Music curated stations simply don’t show up in Recently Played. So you have to go searching again through the favourites.
This interface is exhausting. I’m getting click fatigue from all the screens you need to go through to get to regularly used functions.
The more you (try) to use it the worse it gets. “Play next” and “Add to queue” are now replaced by the wholly unacceptable “Replace queue”. I thought maybe I needed to redirect it to my NAS library to repopulate my NAS sourced playlists (some of which are now blank because “insufficient information about this item”) but I can’t find anywhere in settings where you can identify the source of your files. It seems that eventually they are aiming for it just to support streaming services (and even access to those is ridiculously compromised: slow and clunky) rather than lovingly curated personal music collections. Again I say: shame!
If, and I think it’s a big if, they bother to try to address the legion of issues this ridiculous “upgrade” has caused it’ll have to be a massive route and branch redesign to bring back features which I’d argue are fundamental to how the vast majority of us listen to our music. I have no faith that any interest in users complaints will be shown by Sonos.
Having just upgraded to the new app, I’m utterly amazed at how poor it is from a user perspective.
How did this get through any UAT? These are basic features every Sonos user has enjoyed for years.
Absolutely ridiculous, please add this functionality back ASAP.
yes this upgrade sux on many levels, so many basic functions made harder & more fiddly
Having just upgraded to the new app, I’m utterly amazed at how poor it is from a user perspective.
How did this get through any UAT? These are basic features every Sonos user has enjoyed for years.
Absolutely ridiculous, please add this functionality back ASAP.
I might change Sonos to a JBL bluetooth speaker very soon.
Ich habe gerade über apk mirror die alte App installiert. Habe keine Lust Monate lang ein alpha Tester zu sein. Die alte App war auch schon nicht so gut, aber immer noch besser als die neue app. Ich frage mich ob sich sonos im klaren ist, dass jeder der sich so ein System leisten kann, sich auch alle anderen Systeme der Mitbewerber kaufen kann. Ist nicht so dass die alle in der Entwicklung geschlafen haben.
Another frustrating feature removal is being able to change the individual volume of grouped speakers through a single tap of the volume dot. You now have to go into the convoluted ‘Your System’ grouping menu and change each speaker volume as they are displayed in the list, absolutely shocking UX design.
All of the directors on this upcoming AMA need to be sacked immediately for allowing such a heinous application to be released.
My queue says it is empty yet things are playing.
I am unable to see the queue.
The song that is playing says ‘no title’.
The new interface is a complete jumbled mess - I expect a little bit of getting used to but this is beyond awful.
Does anyone know if we can uninstall this piece of garbage and have a link to reinstall Sonos S2?
Sonos is now unusable on my iPhone
Hello all,
I join all the complaints as you all : I discussed with the support and here is the official answer…. It’s not a surprise that this feature don’t work. How, such a big company like Sonos, can manage a new app like that 🤬
I understand how you feel about the functional change. This revitalization of the Sonos app is our most ambitious software update yet, and aims to address what our customers have been asking us for. It’s a huge undertaking, and we are taking the time and effort to ensure all features work seamlessly and meet both our standards and the standards of our listeners. With this commitment in mind, features such as playlist creation and queue editing within the Sonos app, sleep timers, and local library support will not be available at launch, but will be added to the app on a rolling basis.
Sonos,by all means undertake the huge undertaking, but don’t force it on users unfinished! It’s like buying a car and being told you can have the wheels in a few months time!
This is a master class in how not to develop and release a new application, alienate your most loyal customers and sink your company, just to meet a self-imposed deadline to release a new product no one wants!
I’m sure there will be many MBA case studies on this failure in the months and years to come.
I'll just throw in my thoughts. Android app.
The upgrade is abhorrent. Honestly thought it couldn't be any worse than the S2 updates. My system is three stereo pairs (one with a mini-sub), a Roam and a standalone One SL.
I listen off Spotify (hundreds of playlists), a NAS and a handful of radio stations. I'd love to know where the 'Your Sources' option is as it's not on my version. I was thinking about adding a Victrola Turntable at some point.
Also, Spotify playlists, loads missing.
The look and feel of the app is awful; this whole one size fits all thing stinks. Realistically you need to simply be able to have an area for maintenance and set up and a primary/customisable front screen UI to access the services you use; selfishly for me, three (small/FFS) buttons, Spotify, Radio, NAS...I don't need recommendations. That's it. Tap, search, play (then ask me where I want to listen). Bring back the sleep timer.
God, this is awful. Didn't it get beta-tested?
My thing is I have no idea how to add songs to a playlist. That one-click option is gone from what I can see.
There's not a single positive response to this release in (so far) 8 pages of complaints on this thread. It's now 12 hours since I was force upgraded and I've only become angrier about the disdain for their users the missing functionality (and Sonos' oblivious responses to concerns about it) demonstrate.
I've reverted to the previous app version courtesy of apkmirror (many thanks to the forum member who pointed us there), and have scheduled a Blusound demo at a nearby stereo store for this afternoon -- Blusound, for what it's worth, was recommended to me on Twitter by the tech reviewer who gave Sonos the only perfect score he's ever granted in his career back in 2005. But he, too, is aghast at what the company has done here, and is also abandoning them.
I've been in music tech since 1999, and have never seen an established company screw up quite so spectacularly. I will be watching the AMA with morbid fascination, as this whole thing is indefensible. But I have a sinking feeling they're gonna spend a lot of energy defending it.
Have you say. Show the power of the community…
I’ve never been a fan of the Sonos app, finding it cumbersome, confusing and user-unfriendly. Too many similar screens which seem to have no clear purpose, and everything requires twice as many “clicks” as it should.
However, having experienced this disastrous “update”, I’m grateful that I was able to download the APK of the previous version and reinstall it (and of course disable all future app and system updates). I cannot understand how something so appallingly designed has apparently gone through successful user testing and been rolled out.
Regarding the removal of functionality (alarms and a mute button being my personal deal-breakers), UK users may be interested to know that the Consumer Rights Act 2015 Chapter 3 Section 40 protects consumers against the removal of pre-advertised “digital content” (i.e. software functionality) after the point of sale. I used this to get a full refund from John Lewis for a YouView box when some (to me) vital functionality was removed by an update a year after I bought it.
If I had been unable to revert to the previous app I would definitely have gone down this road. For the time being I will just sit back and hope that somebody at Sonos sees sense and scraps this terrible update.
Apple user and I can’t revert back!
take it back!
volume numbers have gone
search is terrible ( I can’t even search my favourite song by title)
would consider selling the speaker over this as it has more value as a paper weight
Sonos is a master at changing things customers like and want to something that is frustrating and less and less useful. They should have done a thing with two apps and stay on the old one if you want to.
WHen they pre-announced they said you’d be able to ‘switch back easily’… Wrong!
The text of my email to ceo@sonos.com:
The new app released May 8th in UK is unfit for purpose as key features have been suddenly and unexpectedly removed. A vast volume of functionality has been removed making it difficult to access even the user’s own music in some cases. Removing these features with just a promise that they will be added in future updates is unacceptable; Sonos has treated its costumers with disdain bordering on contempt in releasing the new app in such a poor, unfinished and under-resourced state of development.
The S2 app should be made available so that users can revert to a working UI which suits their listening habits and the new app should be withdrawn and reworked with the functionality of S2 included in its new UI.
I've just sent the following email to ceo@sonos.com:
I've been a loyal Sonos customer and evangelist since the mid-aughts, but that ended yesterday when I was force upgraded to the latest version of the Sonos app. The new version of your app is an embarrassment to Sonos and an insult to your customers. I am shocked anyone at the company considered it worthy of release.
Simply put, you have removed some of the most basic functions that made customers such as I buy your hardware in the first place. Most egregiously: we can no longer search our local libraries, edit our queues, or even simply add more songs to what's currently playing. I cannot imagine any rationale that would lead a company to believe that degrading the user experience in this way is necessary -- especially without offering customers any way to roll back to a previous version of the app.
In addition to being a (formerly) satisfied customer, I've been a product manager and executive focused on music tech at companies such as Rhapsody, RealNetworks and Google, so I feel I have some relevant experience when I state that releasing this app, in this manner, is product development malpractice. I'd fire anyone on my staff who recommended releasing an app in a state like this, and then would likely resign in shame at the realization I'd created an environment where anyone on that staff could ever think such a course of action were permissible.
Please roll the app back until it can once again support the most basic music queuing actions that the kinds of music fans who spend thousands of dollars on stereo components consider fundamental requirements of any streaming system.
And consider apologizing to your customers, as well. I have never seen a disaster quite this inexplicable in 25 years in this business.
Thank you for listening.
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