New interface is terrible

my pc interface no longer gives me the option to add speakers. has this happened to anyone else?

Well yes, everyone who uses the PC or Mac apps. Sonos don't care about us any more.

my pc interface no longer gives me the option to add speakers. has this happened to anyone else?

Yes, as noted, Sonos intentionally deleted this capability on the PC (or Mac) Controller,

Yes, as noted, Sonos intentionally deleted this capability on the PC (or Mac) Controller,

I suspect they either finally deprecated the old API / RPC calls the desktop app was using, or refactored the app in such a way that the development effort needed to maintain full functionality on desktop wasn't deemed worth the money, given the data they have on the percentage/trends of Sonos users who have access to a PC/Mac but no recent Android/iOS device.

But you never know, maybe the directive really was to spend development time to ensure that the desktop apps couldn't be used for setup/admin. Sonos have a habbit of making interesting software design decisions...

I suspect they either finally deprecated the old API / RPC calls the desktop app was using, or refactored the app in such a way that the development effort needed to maintain full functionality on desktop wasn't deemed worth the money

It certainly wasn't the former as the API is still there - exact same API the mobile apps use. There is no *technical* reason for the change, and I can say this having worked in the actual Sonos codebase. It was purely a "we don't want to support non mobile users configuring systems" decision, likely done by disabling menus and buttons. It looks to me like the code is still in the binary, actually. The resources are certainly still there for the deleted functions.

Feels like only yesterday...
https://www.sonos.com/en-us/newsroom/sonos-takes-control-with-new-apps-for-mac-pc

It certainly wasn't the former as the API is still there - exact same API the mobile apps use. There is no *technical* reason for the change, and I can say this having worked in the actual Sonos codebase. It was purely a "we don't want to support non mobile users configuring systems" decision, likely done by disabling menus and buttons. It looks to me like the code is still in the binary, actually. The resources are certainly still there for the deleted functions.

I don't have access to the code, I'm not developing a Sonos app. I'm holding off on the upgrade for now. I don't know for sure what has changed in the new desktop app (eg. fully deprecating old APIs, full rebuild switching between WPF/electron/Xamarin/etc. frameworks, or just a new set of UI assets). I don't know whether it's the ongoing cost of development, support and testing of these admin features that would prompt their removal. I assume that the Sonos user experience across the official controllers continues to be different because of limited development resources.

I also assume that, given they don't actually build their own controllers and require customers to supply the hardware, Sonos would like their speakers to work with as many devices - and therefore potential customers - as possible (assuming the user base is large enough to be worth it). If it is a directive by Sonos that "customers must have an Android/iOS device to use Sonos" then I guess you'd ultimately find that out if your 3rd party app was prevented from implementing selected admin functions.

If it is a directive by Sonos that "customers must have an Android/iOS device to use Sonos" then I guess you'd ultimately find that out if your 3rd party app was prevented from implementing selected admin functions.

Fortunately that has not happened, yet anyway. Given sufficient time and effort I can add many of the now-deleted admin functions back to my app. However there are some features that are simply not practical to attempt, such as updates. There also appear to be a few new features that do NOT use the long-standing UPnP API, but some new mechanism involving encrypted REST APIs. 3rd party apps can't do those.

The new interface is really dreadful. The lack of colour is awful and the user buttons are unresponsive. Whoever is responsible for this mega mistake needs the boot. Please revert back to the tried and tested format. If it aint broke don't fix it!!

The new color scheme is not terrible, but it's not great. The mix of low contrast (grey on black) with high contrast (white on black) features creates a visually jarring juxtaposition. And the grey-on-black probably doesn't show up well on cheap or poorly calibrated monitors. An option to choose between a black-on-white menu and a white-on-black menu would be nice.

In the interest of succinctness let me just say this new updated look is garbage! I absolutely detest it as it is extremely hard on my eyes and quite difficult to distinguish what is where. The black on white color scheme, in a word, sucks!