8.2 Is Completely Frustratingly Awful

I honestly couldn't recomend the system to my friends in good faith, the hardware is excellent but completely ruined by the mess that v8xx was and has become.

Every week you cling onto this app despite all the complaints from loyal and paying customers the brand is being devalued.

Dread to think what comes out of the software "development" office next..

When people show interest in SONOS I don’t recommend, nor condem. I simply tell them to spend around an hour here reading forum posts, then decide.

I wonder how some folks get out of bed in the mornings, lol. How do you make it through the day? Must be terribly frustrating to tie your shoes if such a well designed UI causes this much consternation!

BTW, have a look at Tidal's UI. It's nearly identical. And very well reviewed...

At dinner the other day I asked my wife to select and play a radio station in the Family Room zone. Gave up after five minutes. :(:(

These remarks continue to amuse me. How deep into the dinner party was this? Would everyone been able to pass the stand on one foot test??? Because a child would figure out the things that you guys all of a sudden can’t fathom how to do. :D

I didn’t insult your wife, please don’t insult mine.

It's a shame this has got rather personal. It is clear that some users are struggling to do the basics with the new app, such as selecting a room and some music to play in it. That doesn't make them stupid.

@penzzz - it really is straightforward to do what your wife wanted to do, once you know what is required. I think I have an idea why people are struggling, but let's just concentrate on what is needed.

(This may not be the reason your wife could not get Sonos to do what she wanted, but I offer it as a possibility.)

IMO, you need to avoid using the room selection thing that is on the Now Playing screen. Instead, just swipe down that screen, tap Rooms, then tap Living Room. That is the room selected.

Now for the music. Tap Browse, then Radio by Tunein, My Stations, then tap the station. (Assumes the station in in My Stations.)

The key thing is to use the tab bar to get to where you need. And use the Rooms screen for all your room selection and management.

I hope that helps.

In addition, I've found that getting around is much easier if one doesn't keep going back to the full now playing screen. Keep it down at the bottom and tab, tab, tab from Rooms to Browse to My Sonos. After the music is playing, then extend the now playing to full screen.

It's a shame this has got rather personal. It is clear that some users are struggling to do the basics with the new app, such as selecting a room and some music to play in it. That doesn't make them stupid.

Yes I agree.Nobody needs to feel stupid, unless it is whichever Sonos UI czar it is who is insisting upon form over function despite copious feedback and complaint.

Speaking of wives; mine has abandoned the Sonos controller UI, and now just relies upon that excellent new hardware pause button long-press behaviour, which tags her Sonos zone onto whatever I am playing.

The now its here, and now it isn't here, menu bar is a big part of the problem IMO.

* it is at the bottom of the screen (?!) ... which isn't helpful... much of the rest of the app has its controls at the top (the hamburger menus, repeat, shuffle, edit, all the search tabs )
* it is black with small dull grey icons ... so it blends in with the blackness which is already at the bottom of the screen, ie. the three android widgets and the devices bezel ... all other control widgets are black on white
* I get to it by dragging the now playing display down, so my my hand is covering its position when it toggles into view, and it is basically just a thickening of the bottom bezel, which is easy to miss

And the Now Playing screen, with or without the queue display, gives little clue as to how to find it. There is a hamburger menu widget, which looks as if it could be the place, but it isn't.

So regardless of the fact that the Now Playing screen looks better without it, ... the menu bar is an extremely important element of the UI, and it isn't well enough designed to be toggled away from view IMO.

Completely agree the new app is absolutely terrible and completely illogical. Never had any problem navigating previous versions, but this one!!! If I stream radio and then go to watch TV I often find I need to adjust the TV volume, every time I go to do this it takes me 5min to figure out how to get the TV volume control. What a way to ruin a great set of hardware product.

I have actually just given up playing music. It's too clunky to figure out how to select my speakers that I wish to play on, potentially re-group them as appropriate, WITHOUT bumping other groupings, and still get back to selecting music.

Add to this the fact that for some inexplicably painful reason the whole system now lags, speakers go zombie, etc -- none of this was an issue before, the hardware was mostly always perfect.

Here's what this breaks down to for me:

The Sonos product is comprised of the hardware plus the interface. I bought multiple rooms worth of Sonos gear, Connect, etc because of how both the hardware and interface worked at the time.

Since the majority of the Sonos interface is the app, the app is hugely important. Gone are the days when a home tech product's majority control is based on immutable hardware and the app is just a convenience toy to impress your friends. (e.g. "Ooh I paused the DVD player with a curl script...")

By Sonos forcefully changing the app UI to this degree the very product I have purchased has been changed too significantly, and without my asking for it. My household total usage of music has seriously decreased while we wait for a fix.

Either Sonos fixes the clunky UI and zombie network or I'm out. It's no big deal -- this is now a different product and I'll find a better fit. Yes?

You are 100% correct, the hardware is next to useless without the app and they should be viewed as a whole system. Changing the apps is not a minor undertaking, they are the backbone of the whole system.

Yes I agree.Nobody needs to feel stupid, unless it is whichever Sonos UI czar it is who is insisting upon form over function despite copious feedback and complaint.

Ok. So it is ok to insult the Sonos design team but Sonos users who come on here making clearly exaggerated claims that make zero sense and in some cases lying should not be challenged?????

Look I made a joke earlier in this post which may have been a bit inappropriate and I retract it. @penzzz

However I hold 200% to the view that there are many on these boards making overreaching comments, feigning ignorance etc all because they do not like the change. I ain’t tell you that you must like it. I get and understand a few of the concerns well but we should be measured and reasonable in our comments as well. Continue to state the specific issues you see and why you think they are issues as many times as you wish. But do not come on here asking to be taken seriously with “oh I can’t figure out anything”.