The New Sonos App and Future Feature Updates

Well, after unplugging the products that wouldn't update, I can at least get back into the app to see these wonderful app updates.

So you did create an 'add at the end of queue' function, but there's still no way to edit the queue (remove or rearrange songs)? And still no way to edit playlists? And there's zero mention of it on the roadmap?

At this rate, it's going to be months, if not years, before the new app has the same basic functionality as the old app.

** This post has ended up a lot longer than I intended :-) if you want to skip to my assessment of what has happened without my explanations of why I think it is the case, skip to the last paragraph** 

SMB is a protocol (essentially a list of rules) that says this is how you have a conversation. For example to start you must always said hello then my name and to end a conversation you must say goodbye then my name. In the middle you can talk about the weather, (I’m British ;-) ) about the rising cost of food or house prices BUT nothing else.

Valid Example

Talker Person : Hello Jenny

<Jenny starts listening>

it’s quite warm for this time of year isn’t it

Jenny : yes it really is

Talker Person :Goodbye Jenny

<Jenny stops listening>

Invalid Example

Talker Person : Hello Jenny

<Jenny starts listening>

Aren’t the flowers pretty at the moment

Jenny :

Talker Person :Goodbye Jenny

<Jenny stops listening>

*Note in the invalid example there is no response.

But what happens if I update the rules and say you can no longer talk about the weather but I only tell one side. If I tell the listener but not the talker, they can then ignore anything the talker says about the weather as it’s not valid. But the talker will wonder why they are no longer getting a response. They might wait forever for one as because as far as they are concerned they have a valid topic.  Or vice versa if I tell the talker but not the listener, then the listener might eventually say ‘ hey, you haven’t asked me about the weather in days’ at which pointer the talker then says ‘you’re not allowed to talk about the weather’. Very basic example I have just come up with (hopefully it’s all correct, logically). With any client/server architecture it requires both sides to agree and implement the same set of rules. 

The problem comes when you have lots of systems made by different people all talking together and different people using different valid commands (think subjects you can talk about) in different ways. SMB 2 reduces the number of valid commands from SMB 1,to streamline the system (to make it faster). 

Developer A creates the system in the first place and understands it totally and knows how each bit works and has done a few nifty rarely used things as they allow the system to work as they want it to. But Dev A leaves after 2 years and Dev B takes their place. Dev B has a short overlap with Dev A and learns as much as they can about how the system works, they work adding cool bits to the system for 3 years, they use some parts of the system Dev A wrote in order to make some of their own bits work. But instead of re-writing the whole section of code again they tell the computer to go and use the code Dev A wrote. Dev C starts and Dev B teaches them everything they can think of about the code. Then Dev B leaves as they are emigrating to Aus. Then Dev C is asked to re-write the whole system from scratch because it needs updating. Dev C does it all, everything Dev B told them about. But the system stops unexpectedly every so often. 

Because C has reimplemented B’s code but B’s relied on A’s code which relied on a nifty function that is no longer valid. 

In order to test computer code you have to try as many routes through the code as you can come up with in the time you have. Sounds easy right ??? each decision has 2 outcomes A or B, 1 decision = 2 outcomes. So 2 decisions 4 outcomes (AA,AB,BA,BB) by 4 decisions you have already reached 16 outcomes (or paths through the code). This is a extremely simplified program. Every time a computer does something it has to make a decision which leads to thousands of paths through code. It’s easy when you look at it like this to see how a particular path got missed. Also if a test system already has other libraries etc on it, it can affect the validity of the test. Easy to do this by accident.

The hardware update made changes to the server side of the system, but possibly still relied on some older bits of the code (libraries etc) which were using old commands and the old app as still working from the old rules was happy to declare them valid so equals no problem. However the new app comes along and the updated server still carries on as it has, but now the new app says ‘you’re not allowed to say that’ when it tries to use the old commands.     

its good to see Play Next and Add to End of Queue Added in the latest update.  I believe “Play Now” is coming soon as well but are you bringing back a way to remove items from a queue, clearing the entire queuei, saving the queue as a playlist and rearranging the queue, preferably via drag and drop as you could in the old app.  Other than the two functions to build the queue I can’t actually manage the queue once an item is in the queue (even trying to use the play next function on an item in the queue, to move it, its not an option on things already in the queue, only when adding new items.

This CEO bloke is unreal

Sonos Wants to Get Off Your Shelf and Own Audio Everywhere | WIRED

“We built the new app from the ground up with a goal of delivering an experience that was easier to navigate.” FAIL

“It enables us to evolve the app faster” FAIL

“I would argue it's the hardest, and scariest, thing for companies to re-invent something that's working,” FAIL or PASS, dk, dc

Updated the app today and having the same lagging / dropping out issues when playing from my Apple Music library. 

Just updated to latest version of app on the iPad.

iPad Pro (1st gen) v iOS 16.7.8… same issue. Trueplay will not proceed past “begin tuning”. Reluctant to update iPhone from old version… no turning back if I do.

Hello, my roam in early june android system latest version caused trueplay function can not be enabled, hope to repair as soon as possible.

II'm in the same situation. I'm Android.

I would also like to see a way to edit an existing playlist or queue. Cannot see that option yet in the new app even though we can now add stuff to the end of a queue.

There’s a lot of features to come. I haven’t been able to test it yet but the latest dotdot release will get me back to my usual habits I think. The rest of my wants are relative minor and I can wait on those.