This is the same thing that occurred to us who use iOS devices. Essentially, from what I can tell, the OS stopped allowing the use of the device as an NAS, for security reasons. I’ve not looked in to this Android change yet, but the iOS change was certainly due to Apple, and not something Sonos had any say in.
 

This may not be something that Sonos has any control over.

I appreciate the reply Bruce,

So how is the Sonos app accessing the MP3s on my Android phone and streaming them over Wi-Fi to my Sonos speakers different then a 3rd party music MP3 app accessing the MP3s on my phone and playing them to my headphones (line in) or through Bluetooth to a speaker/ headphones etc.?

Not sure if that makes sense. Both apps access the files they just transmit them differently to a speaker.

Thank you,

JL

The “Big Players” (companies) do whatever they think will maximize profits. If maximizing profits will result from dropping this or that support, the plan is clear. I had to recycle a perfectly functional cellphone because the towers stopped supporting it. Here we don’t know how many users will be impacted if feature XYZ is terminated. Literally it could be only a few hundred users and most of them could end up here, complaining.

That said, I have a musician friend who is caught in this Android crossfire and he is grumbling.

The Sonos app, on any OS, is not a ‘player’ like all your other music playing apps. It is instead a ‘remote control’ that tells the real app, which is running on your speakers, where to get the content from. 

So, if the OS refuses outside connection, like iOS does, and my guess is that Android (Google) will be doing shortly, that stops your speakers from reaching out to ‘get’ the music from your storage on your Android device. 

The other ‘players’ are running inside the OS, and don’t have to reach ‘in to’ the storage to get the music, they’re all inside.

Its long been a source of frustration for us iOS users that Android devices have been able to maintain that ‘on your device’ functionality, but I’m guessing that Android is finally closing that loophole, and I’m guessing for similar reasons (security) as Apple. 

I’d think, if you never updated either Sonos or your Android OS, it would keep working, but I can only imagine the CS headache for Sonos if they kept it available for ‘under Android OS version n’ but not if you had version n+1…so they’re yanking it completely. 
 

However, this is all speculation on my part, based on what happened in the iOS side, I am not an Android user (shudder). ;)

Hi. I do believe that Sonos did a big wrong by doing this to loyal users of there product. When they took away the ability for me to listen to music on a phone that I own on a speaker that I own! ...Quite simply in will know vote with my feet and my wallet and not buy anymore Sonos products. I hope anyone reading this will do the same. If the product gets boycotted ...they will fix there wrong.

It's not even Sonos' decision to do it, nevermind their wrong to fix.  Google, like Apple before them, have made it impossible for files on their phones to be accessed by external devices due to security concerns.  So go boycott Google.