Sonos iOS update is shockingly bad - first impressions

There are are lot of people — some first time posters — saying they don’t like the app.

There are about 3 posters trying to persuade them they are all wrong. Why is this?

Andrew

There are are lot of people — some first time posters — saying they don’t like the app.

There are about 3 posters trying to persuade them they are all wrong. Why is this?

Andrew

Same as 5.0, the app you now love. Besides, I'm not telling you you are wrong and on many points I agree the new UI needs tweaks. I'm just saying the vitriolic, overarching, hyperbolic hatred you and others are experiencing just may be partially due to unfamiliarity and muscle memory. Unless 5.0 has undergone drastic changes since it was released (it hasn't), that was most certainly the case before, for I highly doubt the thousands of posters who wrote reams of rants against that release actually made good on their threats to abandon the platform. After all, nicka99 is still here. Myself, I learned from experience that with anything new it pays to give it time to sink in before breaking out the torches and pitchforks, it often saves one some embarrassment later.

Well I can see Jgatie that you are very active on here and your help and support is very appreciated by the community as a whole.

But if somebody dislikes something no logical argument is going to convince them they are wrong. They don’t like it - end of. Of course, same goes if they do like it. No one is right or wrong in their opinions.

I think the argument about getting used to something is right but only to a degree. I’m sure absolutely everyone who has complained on here still managed to figure the app on their own. It’s not really convincing to say that if only they had a helping hand they would have loved it like their own grandmother. Everyone here has now been living with v8 for two weeks and everyone now knows how it works. But if they STILL don’t like it, what then?

Andrew

The rants about 5.0 went on for months. 45 pages worth in one thread. Phase 1 was what you see here, hundreds of people screaming at Sonos as if the app were the multi-room streamer version of Greedo shooting first, as if Sonos stole their childhood. Of course by the time it got to phase 2, as the muscle memory was reprogramming and familiarity increased, it was down to 1 or 2 diehards still carrying the torch and others working with Sonos to tweak the new app in a few helpful ways. All I suggest is much more can be gained by skipping the hyperbole and drama of phase 1 and try rushing the pace to phase two.

As a point, I know one poster who was the single most vocal detractor of 5.0, who wailed like a banshee for post after post after post, and later came to love it after calming down and taking it all in. He even took part in the phase 2 suggestions I spoke of above. I notice he is curiously missing from these threads. Perhaps he, like me, learned that first impressions are not always the most reliable when it comes to subjective analysis.

There are are lot of people — some first time posters — saying they don’t like the app.

There are about 3 posters trying to persuade them they are all wrong. Why is this?

Andrew

Same as 5.0, the app you now love. Besides, I'm not telling you you are wrong and on many points I agree the new UI needs tweaks. I'm just saying the vitriolic, overarching, hyperbolic hatred you and others are experiencing just may be partially due to unfamiliarity and muscle memory. Unless 5.0 has undergone drastic changes since it was released (it hasn't), that was most certainly the case before, for I highly doubt the thousands of posters who wrote reams of rants against that release actually made good on their threats to abandon the platform. After all, nicka99 is still here. Myself, I learned from experience that with anything new it pays to give it time to sink in before breaking out the torches and pitchforks, it often saves one some embarrassment later.

The old "blue" UI (whatever version it was), was far more efficient than either of the ones that came after. The just superseded version was more efficient than this new one. I don't understand who thought that taking more steps to achieve a goal was a good idea.

ot put in simple terms, I taught 60+ year olds how to use the old blue app in about 20 minutes - one single session. The last one required usually two 20 minute sessions. The latest one... I am still counting.

In terms of a clean slate, the "teaching an old old person" timer is about as good a metric as I can come up with. Glue that menu bar across the bottom, and it'll help significantly, as apposed to hiding everything in favour of a HUGE area of white empty space.

Z...

It’s aweful , can we have the old version back.
My misses will never work this out if I struggle with it.

I had a perfect system. A perfectly understood and functioning system and then I was "forced" to update to 8.1 and now I barely recognize what is going on with my controller.

This whole white background thing is awful ..... AWFUL. I had a much better look to this before and now I dont know how to get it back. This is breaking Sonos for me and I'm looking for alternatives. This is depressing.

And now, after having to recreate several dozen playlists, I find that several of my playlists have double entries in them. I've only added the song once, but it's in there twice. I have NEVER had this problem before in five years of using Sonos.


I just don't have the time for this nonsense. Rebuilding playlists only because I was forced to upgrade to an unnecessary version of the controller because basic functions were crippled until I upgraded? What kind of nonsense is that? And then I find that, for the first time ever, I'm suddenly finding duplicate songs in the playlist?

I DO NOT HAVE TIME FOR THIS CRAP.

In terms of a clean slate, the "teaching an old old person" timer is about as good a metric as I can come up with. Glue that menu bar across the bottom, and it'll help significantly, as apposed to hiding everything in favour of a HUGE area of white empty space.

Yes! Good UI/UX design matters. I'm also a big fan of the "hallway testing" idea of just handing the app to some random first-time user and seeing whether they can understand it without a manual. I suspect that the Sonos v7/8 user testing sessions would have been "interesting", watching users guess what a play button might do to the queue on any given navigation screen, or wondering where their favourites went and why the "My Sonos" screen only shows a subset, or jumping between mobile and desktop... Apart from the costs of software development, Sonos do have some constraints in terms of how quickly they can change the app (not "freaking out" existing users, their self-imposed infrequent "waterfall" release schedule), but given the complete lack of attention paid to the outstanding navigation issues in version 7, I don't expect any of the new version 8 UI problems to be addressed. Oh well, at least the app can be learned, and there's a blog post out there where Sonos describe the ideal app they really wanted to ship...

I absolutely HATE the new app version. It's ugly, cluttered and downright confusing! The old app was a joy to use. The new one is painfully bad. Sonos, please swallow your pride and bring back the previous version.

I was just about to buy two new Sonos speakers (already got three), but with the current app, it will not happen. Sonos, you ruined a beautiful thing!

I am using DAILY the new app since it has been released and EACH time I struggle to find my way to group speakers or switch room...
This is clearly not intuitive and the UEX/design is AWFUL.

You need to reduce using a small chevron to access the menu
The bright light colour
No quick link to settings
The bookmarks aka My Sonos where you spent your time scrolling left right to find something
The flow to group
The flow to switch room...

I installed the "heavy" client on my laptop to be able to stop using the app!
This is a joke...

Another unhappy SONOS Android app user. The most recent updated Android app is very unfriendly to use. Too many clicks and ease of use has been erased. Fortunately, I was able to revert back to the previous version.