Play Sonos App in Car?

Well, since the question was asking about reality, right now, not hypothetical fantasy future products, doesn’t seem strange at all.

Yes, but what problem does that solve, and what problems have you introduced?  Audio equipment for vehicles is different from home for a multitude of reasons.  Sonos could make car audio equipment, but what advantage would these have, using Sonos tech, over any other aftermarket products available?

The Sonos app was created before music streaming services fully developed.  Now a days, I think Spotify, Amazon, Apple, etc would much rather you use their apps directly, letting them control the experience, then participating in an appregator app.  In other words, I doubt Sonos could convince these services to to be usable outside of home speakers.

But even then, why is Sonos as a music streaming aggregator app useful in a car environment?  You only have one audio system to play audio on, and bluetooth/carplay/android audio are already widely used and developed as control interfaces.  What would Sonos offer that isn’t already available?

If your thinking of personal music libraries, many autos can play off USB files, or just use existing apps like Plex.  If you want Sonos radio, it would be much easier for all if they just made a separate streaming app for the service.

Again, what problem is Sonos solving here?

Sonos is not going to make an aftermarket head unit.   It’s a dwindling market for reasons all ready discuss. They are not going to get in with automakers to have Sonos installed in new vehicles because much of infotainment screens have noting to do with audio these days (not their wheelhouse) and Apple and Google have a huge head start in this area. I don’t see what value a Port has, since head-unit and/or attached phones can handle getting audio from streaming sources, not to mention terrestrial or satellite radio.  There is no need for wireless multiroom connectivity here.  An amp doesn’t even make sense since auto amps are set to power passive speakers with different impedance and allow for manual tuning to fit the particular car environment and personal preferences.

To be clear Sonos has done some work in car audio, but this is about putting their brand on speakers and possibly be involved in the amp and tuning of the setup.  It does not appear to be involved in control of the system or using any of their wireless/control tech at all.

Sure, Sonos could get involved in automotive audio products, but there’s little reason to believe it would be tied to their home system in anyway.  And for that reason, they are much more likely to make other stuff like passive speakers or bluetooth only speakers/headphones before they dive in to automotive.

The service the Sonos app provides beyond simply controlling your speakers is a familiar (and for some people preferable) UX across all streaming services and sources of music files.

Not understanding this is silly, akin to not understanding the ease of a service like Sling or Fubo relative to managing the Fox app, the NBC app, the ESPN app, etc individually. Why visit a news aggregator instead of 100 separate sites? The criticisms of this request undermine the existence of Sonos UX in any environment, home, auto, or on the go with Roam. 

Consider the adverts for Roam

“A seamless listening experience, everywhere

Enjoy the unmatched Sonos experience on WiFi, and stream audio directly from your smartphone, tablet, or computer using Bluetooth”

By your rationale we should be asking “what experience?” beyond the sound of a single speaker.

Consider the app advert under Sonos port, a device that requires zero Sonos speakers

“Connect all your streaming services, discover new music on Sonos Radio, and personalize settings.”

Are we asking “why would anybody want that?” No.

Aggregation and UX has value in any environment, and they know it.

The only question is whether the venture would be profitable for Sonos (valid).

Personally I think the entire operation could be offloaded to the phone’s hardware and use bt or aux, and that there is value in having people open the Sonos app when they want music no matter where they are, hardware or no. They will be more likely to invest further into the ecosystem the more they rely on the app, and Sonos gets the chance to market their products where they otherwise wouldn’t. 

Perhaps that gain is not worth the dev investment without hardware to sell, which is why a port-like product was mentioned. 

To be honest the nay-saying just seems like typical stuff you see from super users in most forums of this kind

Nonsense. The observations are based on the practicality and potential commercial considerations of Sonos in a car. They have nothing to do with the use of the Sonos app in its intended home network environment. 

People have been asking for a ‘software Sonos player’ for as long as Sonos has been shipping product. It’ll never happen. On the one hand there are technical reasons why a general purpose operating system is far from ideal as support for real-time, synchronised network playback. More crucially a (free) ‘software Sonos player’ would undermine the market for the hardware devices, possibly with fatal consequences for Sonos’ business. The history of Squeezebox/Softsqueeze offers a lesson. 

Of course. The fact that some of us have been Sonos customers for 15 years or more, as opposed to having joined the forum yesterday, is clearly of no relevance whatsoever. 

I’m not saying that aggregation has no value, but it’s not huge when it comes to music, and not something that streaming services, the bigger ones anyway, are going to be eager to sign up for.  If that were the case, then it would exist in carplay or android auto already, or as a standalone app

I have no idea what point you’re trying to make here.  The advert is supposed to say that you can use the same speaker at home via WiFi or away from home via bluetooth.  It’s not meant to suggest that you can use the same method of control  (app) everywhere….since you can’t.

No, because it’s in a home, not a car.  While more modern amps/receiver can stream directly from services like Spotify and others, most cannot.  The Port acts as streaming box in this context that the amp doesn’t have on it’s own, as well as a piece for multiroom audio.  And ‘connecting all your streaming services’ doesn’t specifically refer to using the Sonos app, since you can control streaming music via airplay, casting like Spotify connect, or via voice control.  The app as a music aggregator is only part of that.  I would even say it’s not a useful as it used to be since service apps are capable of casting to Sonos without users having to use the Sonos app.   Many users are here state that they much prefer that method over the Sonos app.

Your forgetting the question about whether streaming services want to be part of a service aggregator outside of the Sonos home environment.  Again I say no, because it prevents them from controlling the user experience with their service, makes it more difficult to provide potential new features, and offers direct comparison to other services.  If these were not issues, someone would have made an aggregator for iOS and Android already. 

I think Sonos should do this for Sonos radio.  I would use that and maybe even pay a little higher subscription fee for it.  However, I think people would rather control music in the car via the head unit /infotainment screen then with phone….hence the popularity of carplay and android auto.  So I would want the Sonos radio app to have UX for that.

You’ve mentioned two features that would benefit customers.  As mentioned a couple times now, Sonos can’t just be an aggregator for all these music services everywhere whether they like it or not.  As far as the UX being favorable...it really isn’t considered to be a better option than the streaming service apps themselves.  And I just don’t see people paying money for software or hardware around this...particularly if the hardware doesn’t add value.  Call it nay-saying, silly, or strange if you want, but you really haven’t provided much benefit for this idea or addressed any of the issues brought up.  

I prefer the Spotify native app over Sonos at home, can't see any mileage in having In Car Sonos personally.