Question
Terrible, terrible Sonos controller interface!
Nearly 2 years ago I purchased multiple Sonos speakers. I have no regrets, as Sonos truly sounds magnificent. Sonos also has a top notch customer service, for if you have connection problems. What else could you ask for…
Well, how about giving us the Sonos controller interface we deserve. At the moment it’s terrible! I’d like to see it made better, more complete and more intuitive. At the moment I’m running the app on Windows 10 and Android.
I would like to address the following issues. Issues that prevent me from exploiting the biggest pro Sonos has to offer me! Making playlists with nearly unlimited possible variations. I like to hang upside down on my sofa clicking around doing all I want with just one app!
The Windows 10 desktop controller app
In general:
• The search bar cannot browse all platforms at the same time (e.g., a separate search has to be made for Soundcloud, Spotify, your music library and so on). Not convenient at all.
• Minimal track details, just title and artist. Could be improved. Give us at least track duration.
Soundcloud:
• Not all likes are displayed. In my case only the most recent likes (297) are shown, most are excluded. It limits me a lot when making new playlists, forcing me to only use recent tracks.
• Playlists are limited to 100 tracks. So we can forget about larger playlists. I personally like to start with a big selection, which I move around and filter to a perfect list. Impossible now!
• Liked albums aren’t displayed among the liked tracks. This can be surpassed by liking every individual track from the album. Again, not convenient at all.
• In no way am I able to filter, sort or search within lists (i.e., likes, playlists and such).
• Unable to find particular tracks in the app at all. Let alone listen to them. Not in stream, likes, playlists or search. Again, yet another limitation.
• Some tracks in the stream show up as ‘only available via Soundcloud.com’. After sharing those particular tracks, all of a sudden that’s no longer the case and they play fine in the app.
• Playlists are all displayed with my profile picture, not the picture I assigned to it. This obstructs easy navigation.
• Unable to make or edit playlists (i.e., syncing playlists with your Soundcloud account).
• The Search option is incomplete, will only search within artists and track titles. Manually shifting in between artists and track titles is required, if you want to see all results. Unlike the Soundcloud search, which also includes playlists, album titles, descriptions and tags.
• The list of people I’m following is incomplete, on top of that they are in random order. Ever heard of the alphabet? Navigation skill level 10 is required here, but with no guarantee that you will find what you are looking for.
• The list of followers is completely missing.
• Reposts are also nowhere to be found. Well, in the stream but not addressed as such. I would like to see reposts per individual and I want to see my own.
• Unable to follow or unfollow artists, or repost tracks.
Spotify:
• In no way able to filter, sort or search within playlists, artists and albums. Making navigation a complete joke when there’s a couple of thousand tracks to scroll through. On top of that, the track list is in ‘latest added’ order. Do you really want me to remember when I added what track?
• The list of artists I follow is absent, as is my recently played track list.
• The search option is broken and why on earth do I manually have to shift in between results (i.e., artists, albums, tracks and playlists). I have no idea what is wrong with it exactly, but a lot of results are missing when I do a search. Unacceptable!
• Unable to follow playlists or artists, nor are the artists I follow shown anywhere.
Bandcamp:
• Searching within Bandcamp doesn’t work. It simply does not work, is bro-ken.
• Unable to manually browse the Bandcamp catalogue. Please, wake up the person responsible. I think he fell asleep behind his computer and apparently hit the delete button on his way down!!
Okay, I could go on and on, but there’s no point I guess. Problems everywhere, whether it’s the desktop app or the android app. Take the android app for example, search function for Mixcloud is broken…. b-r-o-k-e-n! Not cool!
The list above is what bothers me about the Sonos interface. Heck, there’s so many things I got tired and left out the rest of the issues bothering me. I do think I have made my point though. The app momentarily complicates listening to music very much for me, instead of simplifying it. It forces me to use both the app and different websites of streaming services, this because of the huge app limitations. Instead of enjoying my Sonos system to the fullest, I’m forced to write all this stuff.
Now lets see what Sonos says… Sonos promotes the app as follows: “Choose what to play, where to play it, and how loud. In one room, or in every room of your home. Track down songs across all your music services with a single search. Create playlists in an instant. The Sonos app does it all.”
A joke right!!?? Or did I miss out? Come on, we are living in 2017, where everything is possible.
Sonos, could you pretty please with sugar on top fix this for us?!
Well, how about giving us the Sonos controller interface we deserve. At the moment it’s terrible! I’d like to see it made better, more complete and more intuitive. At the moment I’m running the app on Windows 10 and Android.
I would like to address the following issues. Issues that prevent me from exploiting the biggest pro Sonos has to offer me! Making playlists with nearly unlimited possible variations. I like to hang upside down on my sofa clicking around doing all I want with just one app!
The Windows 10 desktop controller app
In general:
• The search bar cannot browse all platforms at the same time (e.g., a separate search has to be made for Soundcloud, Spotify, your music library and so on). Not convenient at all.
• Minimal track details, just title and artist. Could be improved. Give us at least track duration.
Soundcloud:
• Not all likes are displayed. In my case only the most recent likes (297) are shown, most are excluded. It limits me a lot when making new playlists, forcing me to only use recent tracks.
• Playlists are limited to 100 tracks. So we can forget about larger playlists. I personally like to start with a big selection, which I move around and filter to a perfect list. Impossible now!
• Liked albums aren’t displayed among the liked tracks. This can be surpassed by liking every individual track from the album. Again, not convenient at all.
• In no way am I able to filter, sort or search within lists (i.e., likes, playlists and such).
• Unable to find particular tracks in the app at all. Let alone listen to them. Not in stream, likes, playlists or search. Again, yet another limitation.
• Some tracks in the stream show up as ‘only available via Soundcloud.com’. After sharing those particular tracks, all of a sudden that’s no longer the case and they play fine in the app.
• Playlists are all displayed with my profile picture, not the picture I assigned to it. This obstructs easy navigation.
• Unable to make or edit playlists (i.e., syncing playlists with your Soundcloud account).
• The Search option is incomplete, will only search within artists and track titles. Manually shifting in between artists and track titles is required, if you want to see all results. Unlike the Soundcloud search, which also includes playlists, album titles, descriptions and tags.
• The list of people I’m following is incomplete, on top of that they are in random order. Ever heard of the alphabet? Navigation skill level 10 is required here, but with no guarantee that you will find what you are looking for.
• The list of followers is completely missing.
• Reposts are also nowhere to be found. Well, in the stream but not addressed as such. I would like to see reposts per individual and I want to see my own.
• Unable to follow or unfollow artists, or repost tracks.
Spotify:
• In no way able to filter, sort or search within playlists, artists and albums. Making navigation a complete joke when there’s a couple of thousand tracks to scroll through. On top of that, the track list is in ‘latest added’ order. Do you really want me to remember when I added what track?
• The list of artists I follow is absent, as is my recently played track list.
• The search option is broken and why on earth do I manually have to shift in between results (i.e., artists, albums, tracks and playlists). I have no idea what is wrong with it exactly, but a lot of results are missing when I do a search. Unacceptable!
• Unable to follow playlists or artists, nor are the artists I follow shown anywhere.
Bandcamp:
• Searching within Bandcamp doesn’t work. It simply does not work, is bro-ken.
• Unable to manually browse the Bandcamp catalogue. Please, wake up the person responsible. I think he fell asleep behind his computer and apparently hit the delete button on his way down!!
Okay, I could go on and on, but there’s no point I guess. Problems everywhere, whether it’s the desktop app or the android app. Take the android app for example, search function for Mixcloud is broken…. b-r-o-k-e-n! Not cool!
The list above is what bothers me about the Sonos interface. Heck, there’s so many things I got tired and left out the rest of the issues bothering me. I do think I have made my point though. The app momentarily complicates listening to music very much for me, instead of simplifying it. It forces me to use both the app and different websites of streaming services, this because of the huge app limitations. Instead of enjoying my Sonos system to the fullest, I’m forced to write all this stuff.
Now lets see what Sonos says… Sonos promotes the app as follows: “Choose what to play, where to play it, and how loud. In one room, or in every room of your home. Track down songs across all your music services with a single search. Create playlists in an instant. The Sonos app does it all.”
A joke right!!?? Or did I miss out? Come on, we are living in 2017, where everything is possible.
Sonos, could you pretty please with sugar on top fix this for us?!