Sonos App

It's not just with Apple music. I use Android and YouTube music and there isn't an app on my phone I hate more then Sonos for listening to music.

Search is ridiculous, the interface is designed by developers, there are none of the views available that are in YouTube music.

I find that I'm using my Google home mini more then my Sonos one just because I can use it with the regular YouTube app.

I wish I could just use my Sonos device as a Google cast speaker and cast to it from YouTube and be done with the horrendous Sonos app apart from updates and setup.

Sonos does provide an interface, which other companies, like Spotify, use. Make your request to the folks at Google/YouTube, they already have access to the codebase, they’d just need to add it to their client. 

Much of this is personal preference. I absolutely will not use the iTunes or Apple Music interface. That said, other users like it and will not use anything else. With Airplay 2 enabled devices one can use either or both interfaces.

As @buzz says, much of this is personal preference and what you are accustomed to.  I also suspect that many people forget that the Sonos app is not a music player but a remote control for a system that is multiroom, multi-controller and multi-source.  Users with a single speaker, who are the only user, who only play (say) Apple Music are particular prone to overlooking this fact.

@Airgetlam @John B @buzz 

What you all say is all wrong. Completely.

Read the message I wrote above. An app that refreshes randomly as you add a song to it? Unable to scroll through the queue… That’s not a matter of preference, that is straight up poor software.

I also don’t agree that the app is simply a remote control, but ok, let’s say it is just a remote control. It’s the worst remote control I’ve ever used in my life. And I’ve used a lot of remote controls. But one would have to assume that the app on my phone is also a remote control, how come that is not as bad as the one I use on my Mac? I mean, it’s not great, but not as bad. Is that also Spotify and everyone else’s fault? Always trying to blame other companies. If you’re interested in making a good product, surely you’d make sure to work with the other vendors to make it a good product?

It’s weird how the people on this thread first goes: Stop just complaining about it being bad and give us specifics! and then you do, you fail to address the specifics and say it’s a matter preference. Crazy.

Why does this sentence auto complete on google: “why is the sonos app so bad”?

I guess the takeaway here is that the poor software reflects bad on Sonos.

I use Sonos at work because we have them there. Would I ever pay for one myself? No way..

Were you talking about the desktop app? Sonos have virtually abandoned the desktop app.  I haven't looked at it in years. Anyway, i am perfectly happy with the mobile app and respect your right to rant a different point of view. 

@John B 

Wow, virtually abandoned it but still promoting on their website? I guess they don’t care about their reputation.

Rant? I’m giving specifics. You have like over 11k comments on the Sonos forums and seem to do nothing but promoting Sonos, who’s ranting? What’s in it for you?

I don’t use the Mac desktop APP. I do use the PC desktop controller and while there are some details that I don’t like (mostly features added to appease the Mac crowd) I don’t notice it doing wild things.

If the Mac desktop user interface is similar to my iPad (for any APP) it can sometimes be difficult to scroll because Apple tends to hide scroll bars.

@John B @Airgetlam @buzz  

It’s interested that they just released an update to the Mac desktop app even though it’s “virtually abandoned” and it’s still no better. Same thing happened to the iOS app, new update, still crap.

It’s more common than not for them to release updates to all platforms simultaneously. I, too, received updates to both iOS and Mac apps, both continue to work without issue, probably as they’re merely remote control apps for the software running on the speakers. You’d continue to have issues if you’ve got an issue in your local network of some kind, but I’ve not experienced any issue since the update yesterday to 12.0.5. 

When John B spoke of abandoning the desktop apps, he was speaking of Sonos adding or re-adding features, not keeping the app current for use as a control for playing music.

If you’re having issues, I would urge you to post particulars, the community can’t respond to generalities effectively. Or contact Sonos support directly, and let them help you resolve the local issues. 

You may still not be happy with the current app, either mobile or desktop, but it will work.