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Contributor I
December 12, 2012

Party mode

  • December 12, 2012
  • 46 replies
  • 9181 views
It would be a really neat feature to have some sort of party mode i could enable before the party, that would put MY controller as the master and all other controllers where guests. This way my guests that have connected to my sonos with their smart phone, can search for songs on my system but their only possibility is to queue the song(s) and not clear/skip the queue. Furthermore the guests shouldn't be able to stop/start/forward a song to break the rhythm and probably annoy the person that chose the current song playing. After the party is over, the master controller can just disable party mode and all controllers work evenly again.
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46 replies

Lyricist I
December 20, 2012
I have been looking for an app or this function to be supplied for ages, as people stoping tracks or starting their tracks in the middle of a song at a party really kills a party. I would be happy with the ability to put a controller in party mode ( or the ability to put all controllers in party or jukebox mode) and all controllers then will only allow music to be queued and played. To get out of party mode the user would need to supply a password. Other functions that I feel you would need in party mode would be mute and volume functionality, all search and streaming music functionality would need to be there as well. I love the idea above if it is possible as having a singl master I control would be great but more than happy to have a single controller that I can put in party mode for the guests to choose songs. Having the ability to put a single player in party mode still allows me to controll the system on my phone while allowing guest to use the computer or my iPad to pick tracks.
Lyricist I
December 20, 2012
I really like this idea. If possible, I would like an option where you could limit the number of songs you can add at once, since it can be fairly annoying if someone adds the complete collection of some artist. Surely the master should be able to add as many as he/she wants
Lyricist I
June 12, 2013
I absolutely would love this feature. Sonos, please put this on the roadmap!
Lyricist I
June 15, 2013
Add another vote for this feature. Multiple people at a party should be able to add any song they want to the queue but should not be able to "Play Next" or edit the queue or control the playback. "Add to Queue" should be only functionality except for the Master.
Lyricist I
October 5, 2013
+1 . Larger "Search bar", simpler icons, stripped for all settings, locked playlist, larger icons for drag'n'drop - also to accomodate whoever had a beer or two. The system is good, but doesn't Work with crowds over 5 people.
Lyricist I
October 9, 2013
This is needed - Sonos cannot be used for parties and sharing without some sort of "jukebox" locked mode. PLEASE add this ASAP. Thanks
Trending Lyricist I
October 21, 2013
A guest mode in the app, without password to access Wi-Fi / Sonos, just straight to the Sonos party mode. With limitation as stated above... I suggested a new Sonos Centerpiece (Jukebox) with similar idea, which would benefit from something like this...
Lyricist II
December 29, 2013
This will be a very pleased option. When i throw a party all my friend have the login of the wifi. I would be handy to enable a party mode as subscribed above or maybe more easy just add a password so nobody can mess with my playlist.
Lyricist II
April 6, 2014
This should disable all configuration options for the system as well. Otherwise the guests could ungroup the players.

Even better: add an option to set selected clients to guest mode permanently. This way we could restrict all guest access without restricting ourselves to one single device.
Chris
Lead Maestro
June 14, 2014
Bumping Controller Party Mode idea for new controller.

I was thinking about how Sonos could implement.  I actually like the way I had it with my old Squeezebox (one of about maybe 2 things I liked better with squeezebox - having a party mode and also being able to sort new music by date).

Anyhow - back on subject.  For squeezebox I used a program called iPeng party which was the party version of the iPeng squeezebox controller.  It did not allow changes to the current queue just add to queue and did not allow volume changes.  Sonos looking at iPeng party as an example would be good information.

It would be nice to have a similar party app that had these type of things, including room grouping, locked out.  However, I'm not sure Sonos wants to have it as separate application.

Disadvantage of being separate app -

1. Many people already have the full app installed

2. People who have a Sonos of their own would want to use the full app and you wouldn't have a way for them to limit the full app on your system.

The other option would be to have it as a setting in settings (top level at top easy to see).  Select party mode in settings and you disable Play Next, Play Now, Grouping, Volume, Crossfade, Shuffle, and Repeat selections.

Disadvantage of setting in primary controller -

1. Confuse novices who accidentally select then can't control Sonos properly

2. You have to actively tell people who come to your house to select the party mode.  Would work where you add the controller for them.  You can add their controller and select party mode before give back to them.  However, there are also a good deal of people that will have Sonos already on their phone and know how to connect on their own.  Although those people are less likely to mess up the qeue (nevermind I just thought about my friends and they would have no issue deciding what was playing sucked and override).

3. Party mode could be disabled by user.  I think a security password would be a little too much toward people getting confused.

Overall, I think I'm leaning to focusing on the novice user who comes to my house and wants to play music.  The actual easiest thing would be a Sonos Party app I can tell them to download and they can use everytime they come to my house.  But I can live with an in app checkbox that I can dumb down their controller when I install for them.

Ok I was thinking - but maybe this would be confusing for new users.  If when you add controller and hit the button on the Sonos unit .... if when it went to add system it asked if you wanted this controller setup for Full Access or Limited Guest Access.  If limited Guest Access was selected it would go into party mode.  In settings there would be a Full or Guest toggle checkmark.  So if you had guest access and toggled for full - - it would ask you to hit the buttons on the Sonos unit again to authorize change.  Same way if you had full access and wanted to switch it to Guest it would ask you to hit sonos buttons to authorize change.  At least then it would make switching back and forth a little more secure (although not hard for someone who really wanted to actually get the full access).  The only other alternative would be have users set a pin number for full access.  Controllers would default to guest unless pin entered when added.  All of this I don't know if Sonos would think complicates the experience.  Once again that takes me back to stand alone app keeping the current experience simple but giving a means to give us better control over multiple people using.

And yes - - I want to give my wife guest access : )  ok kidding!
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