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brymills
Enthusiast I
September 10, 2019
Answered

Alarms "hidden" in System Settings with 10.4

  • September 10, 2019
  • 144 replies
  • 15192 views
Ah come on Sonos, alarms used to be so easy. It used to be click ‘More’, click alarms. Now in 10.4 it’s click ‘Settings’, click ‘System’, scroll around a bit, click ‘Alarms’. Why? Sometimes it feels like Sonos is constantly changing stuff for the sake of change, not to improve the functionality.
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    Best answer by Ryan S

    The team has concluded their testing and the alarms shortcut is being sent out to all Sonos households today. You will be able to access your alarms screen from the Rooms tab, by clicking on the alarm bell at the top left of the screen. If you don’t see the shortcut yet, check for updates in your Sonos system, as there is one that released today, and then you might just have to wait a little while. The setting is rolling out to homes today and might not have reached your system yet.

    Thanks for your patience everyone, and I hope this shortcut makes it easier on your evenings. I’ve also passed on the other feedback for other functionality and displays.

    144 replies

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    Airgetlam
    Airgetlam
    October 28, 2019

    In various games that I’ve worked in, we had the ability to set in software a certain percentage of people, at random, that would be included in an A/B (and C/D/E….) test, in order to see what features were most appealing to people. Occasionally, we would do this based on geographic region (i.e. all users of the game in the Phillipines), but in the software we used, we didn’t have the ability to define hardware requirements.

    Software may have changed, and now allows that, but I’d be a tad surprised. I’m working under the assumption that they’re doing A/B/X testing right now, and it’s totally random as to which group you’re part of.

    Bruce
      nik9669a
      Senior Virtuoso
      October 28, 2019

      Interesting to know, Bruce. However, I’d still prefer to get an answer from Sonos. 

      Ryan S
      Ryan S
      Retired Sonos Staff
      October 28, 2019

      Bruce is just about right on this one. It’s a percentage of all users, chosen at random. To be “eligible”, you’d just need to be on the latest build and may get it, there may be a need to have the data sharing option enabled, but I’m uncertain if that’s correct. They run tests like this pretty regularly to see how certain UI configurations are used. For example, when we moved to a newer design of the app, the “Group” button from the rooms menu was tested in 3 locations at the same time, across a wide group of users. The team reviewed data of various locations over a period of time to see which spots/designs were used the most. This is a very standard practice in software development, also not generally part of a beta cycle. This sort of thing isn’t the button being “tested” to make sure it works, it’s being tested to see if people use it, or understand how to use it.

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        nik9669a
        Senior Virtuoso
        October 28, 2019

        Thanks for confirming that, Ryan. 

        sean33
        Contributor II
        November 2, 2019

        The earlier suggestion that It somehow makes sense to put the Alarms within the system/settings menu is ridiculous.  Someone clearly wasn’t thinking clearly that day, makes you wonder what we will suffer next.

         

        i change my Alarms during the week, I setup speakers once (ideally).  How could anyone with a modicum of UX knowledge think this was appropriate?  If I was teaching a class on UI design, that person would have failed the class.

         

        Now fix this and stop wasting more time trying to rationalize how this happened or nothing to find another fix to something that wasn’t a problem.

         

          Ted_2
          Lyricist III
          November 12, 2019

          I hope Sonos has not forgotten about this problem! I’m posting again to keep the flame burning on this thread. 

          Juhis555
          Lyricist I
          November 13, 2019

          Please fix this bad design asap. 

          bockersjv
          bockersjv
          Local Superstar
          November 13, 2019

          I hope Sonos has not forgotten about this problem! I’m posting again to keep the flame burning on this thread. 

          Might be worth lighting the flame in the 10.5 thread too?

          GB5471
          Lyricist II
          November 13, 2019

          Not the first time that Sonos has taken a retrograde step with a UI upgrade. Usual test - if an infrequent user has to give up and shout “can you do this for me?” Then the change has failed. I’m now the one having to set up the family alarms because no one else wants the hassle it now involves. Wasn’t that way previously...

            bockersjv
            bockersjv
            Local Superstar
            November 13, 2019

            Keep shouting. It’s been raised by numerous people. 

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