New App Upgrade - HORRID

Ok I get that people prefer the previous app. To an extent I do too. But don’t give me this whole it takes me so long to figure this and that out. It remains very clear how to do anything you need to do. Very clear. It’s different but still pretty straightforward.

I disagree. The reaction to the app amongst users is testament to to that. It would be nice if they would acknowledge the issues people have and reassure them that they care. A little empathy goes a long way to customer satisfaction and building an app they will like in the first place.

Ok I get that people prefer the previous app. To an extent I do too. But don’t give me this whole it takes me so long to figure this and that out. It remains very clear how to do anything you need to do. Very clear. It’s different but still pretty straightforward.

I disagree. The reaction to the app amongst users is testament to to that. It would be nice if they would acknowledge the issues people have and reassure them that they care. A little empathy goes a long way to customer satisfaction and building an app they will like in the first place.

Ok the things that I understand.
1. The “My Sonos” tab is not well laid out and wastes space with the large icons requiring scrolling. I have to admit I probably hardly venture into that space because of it.
2. There is great hate for the white background. This is an aesthetic thing largely. Not sure what drives it. But I have observed that a few music Apps use it - most notably Apple.
3. The bottom navigating menu should be visible on all screens including “Now Playing”. I think this a reasonable suggestion. Again this in’s currently treated in the exact same way as it is for the Apple Music App and Deezer. As I have mentioned in another thread. Sonos has moved in the direction of make its app look and feel like some of the popular streaming services.

The above aside I quickly worked out that a session should begin with picking your room from the rooms tab and then picking what to listen to by interacting with the other tabs on the bottom menu. All tabs are pretty well understood in a short time. What I am saying I understand that in the previous setup things may have seemed a bit more at arms length than this compartmentalized view. I am not meaning to not show empathy at all but I do not get the Armageddon reaction with threats to move to another product etc.

A number of the concerns are fixable even if Sonos doesn’t have the greatest record of responding to these concerns at this stage of release. People also need to be more specific in saying and describing what they find more difficult to do and how so. As I said I cannot in good conscience say that I find anything unclear even if I force myself.

Agreed, terrible! Changing rooms in now a real pain. Roll back please.

It would be helpful for you to elaborate a bit more on how changing rooms has become difficult for you.

WTF is going on with sonos. First they force everyone to upgrade to the new app with new terms and conditions. AND on top of that version 8.1 sucks. AND now everything suddenly stopped working. I can't play any music at all.

The new app is horrible. It makes my Sonos system harder to use! Up until now I've been content to recommend Sonos to my friends and colleagues but until there's either a roll back or a new version with a user interface more like the old I won't be recommending.

And let's have the (option of a) dark interface back. I often listen to music in low light. I don't want a torch turned on in my face when I want control.

I understand the need for changes as cooperation with Amazon for voice control proceeds but the interface change seems to me to be change for no good reason. Please stop messing with my music interface!!

I concur with pretty much everyone who has complained about the latest 'upgrade'. It is less intuitive, difficult to find what you want and about as unfriendly as you could make it - in fact it is just plain HORRIBLE.
Come on Sonos, let us roll back to the previous version while you work on a replacement - but whatever you do, DON'T let the guy who designed this one loose on it !

This app update is like the perfect social experiment. It shows that many times form wins over substance.

In essence the controller functionality has remained largely unchanged. A change in layout and arrangement has caused complete meltdown among many users.

Wow.

This app update is like the perfect social experiment. It shows that many times form wins over substance.

In essence the controller functionality has remained largely unchanged. A change in layout and arrangement has caused complete meltdown among many users.

Wow.

Yes, the functionality is basically unchanged from two years ago. But consider: two years ago navigating to an album/playlist/song and hitting "play" just worked as you expected, now we get our Sonos systems to perform by learning the vast differences between hitting "play all", "play now" and "play next". Two months ago (or today via desktop app, because "consistent user experience") we just hit "favourites" to get to our favourites, now we visit the many "My Sonos" sub-screens to achieve the same thing, and remember that "artists" are now called "others". And Sonos flat out refuse to address these issues. I can't think why anyone could be annoyed at the state of the Sonos controller software...

OMG. The new app is just heinous. Clumsy, non-intuitive, awkward. I used to be able to just hand a tablet with the app to friends when they come over and they could easily start using it, finding music from my library, from services, changing playlist, etc. Now I can't even figure out how to do some basic functions without having to hunt all over the place. It isn't just bad, it is horrible. Sonos, listen to what your users are telling you. The new app is a serious problem.

I find it easy. I can get to all the key screens from one of the buttons on the new tab bar. Those screens are are functionally pretty much identical to the previous app. The tab bar needs to be on the Now Playing screen to avoid the need to swipe it down, but I am sure Sonos will fix that.