Sonos iOS update is shockingly bad - first impressions

Uggh.
My entire family absolutely hates this dreadful new interface.
Not intuitive is an understatement. In my opinion they really broke it, and I don’t understand why.
It seems just about everything is more difficult to accomplish other than selecting something from one of your 8 favorites.
I have 8 different speaker areas and it is such a hassle navigating among them compared to before.
I read the tutorial and was patient, and indeed am a fast learner. But my conclusion is that they really messed this up.
How about some incremental updates rather than a giant re-work that throws most familiarity out the window? That would allow some customer feedback.
I have submitted a suggestion that they permit users the ability to use an older version via rollback.
As an aside, the last thing I want is Amazon listening to everything I say in my home, so the integration is not something I will use.
BTW, I like change......but change for change sake is often a bad idea.

I’m new to Sonos and have loved the sound and use on my iPad... until this update. I lost all my radio favs and struggling to understand how to use the new set out. Not friendly or sophisticated. Hopefully we’ll see something to improve on this sooner rather than later.

I don’t usually comment on these things but after writing to Sonos they told me to post on here. I am not a fan of this new update - like most of you.
With two young girls my wife and I are usually moving around the house quite a lot, and the feature the old app was good at was grouping and ungrouping rooms. In this latest update you can group rooms easily but ungrouping does not seem to work as easily. The only way I can get things to stop playing in certain rooms is either to stop the music from the first room therefore stopping all music - or get something else to play in the room I want to disconnect and then pause it.
I have found that I’m using the app on my Mac as it’s much easier.
A rollback option would be a great idea

Beware of the ones and twos of people on this site that seem to be out of touch with the majority of people that have taken the time to give their views on the horrible update.

It seems there are a “couple” Sonos apologists...

Absolutely right. Let's not have two sided debate on a community forum. Maybe we should block people's accounts who don't agree with the majority.

Beware of the ones and twos of people on this site that seem to be out of touch with the majority of people that have taken the time to give their views on the horrible update.

It seems there are a “couple” Sonos apologists...

Absolutely right. Let's not have two sided debate on a community forum. Maybe we should block people's accounts who don't agree with the majority.I trust that is ironic? In which case thanks

As to the claim by another poster that people should 'beware' of me, how utterly ludicrous. Like everyone else I am expressing an opinion, which everyone is free to disagree with, and apparently most do. I have a right to speak, and to be ignored if you wish.

And FWIW I think there are some significant flaws in the new app, but that the solution is to fix those not roll back. Why should I not express that view?

Hi Andrew. That is a calm and well argued contribution, which is something of a rarity at the moment. The system does more stuff now than when the CR200 was the only controller. And I prefer logical to 'intuitive', which often means 'what I am used to'. And I believe something that needs a little effort can justify it in the end.


Hi, thanks John B for reading my mad ramblings and being measured in your response!

If I could just comment on a couple of things, I would be interested in your views...!

Your right to a degree that the system does more than when the CR200 was launched. But the ‘more’ is mostly more online sources, more configuration (trueplay) and options in setting up, etc. The true core — the essence of what Sonos is — is ‘play this music in that room’. I personally (and I’m getting on so my memory does fail me) can’t think of new functionality that has been added to day to day playing of music. That part should be fundamentally simple. It’s core, it’s basic — and that (some) people are complaining that this part is not fluidly simple would suggest its gone bad.

The other thing I’d like to comment on is the distinction between what is logical and what is intuitive. I’m not sure there is any difference here. For instance you may click on a button that is unlabelled because it’s location / shape /context suggests what it should logically do. If it’s logical, it’s intuitive. My own personal opinion is that modern design (unlabelled buttons, the ‘hamburger’ button, the ‘three dot’ symbol) are bad design and counter intuitive, but this seems to be the way interfaces are going, so I guess I’m in the minority here. But again the visuals are always down to preference. But call it logical or call it intuitive - the design should be both!!

Right, off for bacon sandwich.

AndrewI am happy to respond. I'm sure many will disagree with what I say.

I truly believe that when people say 'it is not intuitive' they really mean 'it is not what I am used to'. Two examples from my own experience:
1. Mac owners are fond of saying how intuitive the OS is. Not for me as a lifetime PC user, on rare occasions I have had to deal with one. Where is the start button? How do I right-click? Where is the Explorer function? It's not about intuition, it's about learning how things are organised, what they are called and where to find them.

2. Office 2007 and the introduction of the ribbon to Word and Excel. For quite a while I complained that it was unintuitive, that I had gained no functionality but could not find anything (sound familiar?). I actually made progress when I thought a bit about what sort of commands were on each tab and why. And learned about the new 'dialogue launchers'. Neither system was more 'intuitive' or more 'logical' than the other. They were just different, and I needed to learn the differences. I cannot imagine working any other way now. But I expect I will have to one day.

I think the new app is true to the concept of 'just play music in a room' that you mention. And that comes through the Sonos bar. The Rooms button gives me Rooms. Choosing music is done in one of three ways:
(I) By choosing a specific source (Browse button - why the **** is it not labelled Sources?)
(ii) By searching a source or across sources (Search)
(iii) By going to things I frequently go to and have personalised (My Sonos)
The 'More..' button is for things I don't need for playing music day-to-day, which used to be lumped in with everything else

The glaring fault in the design is that the Sonos bar is not visible on the Now Playing screen. This does not give me a navigation problem because I know to just swipe down the screen. But it gives me an irritation problem

The other thing that MUST be fixed is the My Sonos icon size, which makes that area far too difficult to use, especially on the phone.

Fix those two and I believe you will have a simple to use and effective app, for those users who are willing to put up with short-term unfamiliarity and just get used to it

(The app has other flaws that need addressing too, but it is hardly necessary for me to list those.

So Andrew, do I believe that someone should be able to pick up an app like this and just use it by 'intuition'? No, not in any way do I believe that.

So. Fix the problems Sonos, but Don't go back.

Apologies to all of you who disagree with me for expressing my views.

Beware of the ones and twos of people on this site that seem to be out of touch with the majority of people that have taken the time to give their views on the horrible update.

It seems there are a “couple” Sonos apologists...What an insulting post. Insulting to the community as a whole. People have brains and are perfectly capable of disagreeing with me without the aid of a warning from you.

Beware of the ones and twos of people on this site that seem to be out of touch with the majority of people that have taken the time to give their views on the horrible update.

It seems there are a “couple” Sonos apologists...
Perhaps more than a couple?:-).
Would you really like this thread to consist of only negative opinions such that all the visible and immediate purpose the thread then serves is for these posters to be satisfied that they have expressed their anger and let off steam?
Does it not help at least some to have "apologists" posting responses in a manner that is constructive at least in intent?

Like some others, I do not regularly post to forums. It was not until hosting some friends last night that I noticed how "bad" / "poor" the new controller truly is. Aesthetically it is not pleasing. Functionally it is woeful. I used it for 3 hours and it never was intuitive. I have been using Sonos for many years (and promoted it to others to adopt). I hadn't used the update to this point because (thankfully) the Mac OS controller remains quite good (don't change that one). And I traded messages with an installer of home systems who advised that all of his clients are not happy either. I can only hope that some updates / adjustments are coming, but would be difficult to pick an area to start. Really alot of work to do here...but dominant colors of while, black, red? Can see there was an effort from some minimalist look, but not having ability to search for songs from selected room screen is confounding. Good luck...will be waiting.

Have to agree with all of the above posts. This iPhone update is terrible. I am a savvy tech user, but tech anxiety goes up every time I pick up the app to change rooms, etc. "Will I get it right this time? Or will I just end up switching my station to another room? Or will I find my Favorites? And how $%%^&%$# do I switch rooms? And why are the room buttons so hard to see on the white background? And groups? I don't even dare". I have told many people over years to buy Sonos (and have bought several for my self and as gifts), but am rethinking this.

On the other hand, maybe the terrible App is a marketing strategy to get people to move to voice activated Sonos One? How is that going to go?