Sonos Staff

The New Sonos App and Future Feature Updates

Forum|Forum|2 years ago
May 11, 2024
2256 replies
156720 views

Hey all, today we're sharing a message from our chief innovation officer, Nick Millington in the announcement here. Going forwards we will update that topic and we therefore close this one for further replies.

We set out to create a more personalized and effortless listening experience with the updated Sonos app. It was rebuilt from the ground up to ensure it could support future innovation in the years to come. For its initial rollout, we focused on how we could answer some of the most common requests from our customers, including increased reliability, performance, and faster access to music.

Many of you have shared valuable feedback on both the improvements that have made your experience better, as well as the areas where we fell short. We are listening to all of your comments and working to address them as quickly as possible. Over the coming weeks, we will reintroduce the below features, while fixing bugs and performance issues. Thank you for your engagement and we look forward to building upon this first step to create a listening experience that meets everyone’s needs.

Available now

To access these changes, check for updates in the iOS / Android app store to download the latest version of the Sonos app. Make sure your Sonos products are also up to date.

Last updated: Oct 28, 2024. See release notes.

The update has the following version numbers:

80.11.38 - iOS
80.11.32 - Android

In this update:

Support for the all-new Arc Ultra soundbar and Sub 4
Music library improvements*
Improvements to product setup
Improved performance when browsing content in Home and in Browse on Android
Improvements to multi-system support on iOS
Fixes for multiple settings including Bluetooth display, EQ, and Sub bonding on iOS
The ability to schedule System Updates on iOS
Continued Voiceover improvements on iOS

* Requires player update - 81.1-58074 (or higher)

You can also follow along with updates in this article:

New Sonos App Update!

This topic has been closed for further comments. You can use the search bar to find a similar topic, or create a new one by clicking Create Topic at the top of the page.

Show previous replies

Ken_Griffiths

Just because some function works for you, does not mean that the code is perfect or will work the same for everyone else. It’s a really flawed assertion. The new app exercises new code in the firmware on the speakers. Sonos have chosen to use this different path so it’s up to them to get it working in the same scenarios (beyond just yours, and a few others) where the old code paths still function. We know they still function as the act of switching to a 3rd party controller which doesn’t use the new code, will suddenly cause broken systems to function again. (Barring the stuff that can only be done from the Sonos app.)

If the networks of so many people were truly broken, 3rd party controllers would also be broken and wouldn’t work either.

If someone has changed their network and has issues, then fine, they should investigate, but when the only changes come from Sonos and stuff stops working, but comes back to life when controlled the old way, I think it’s a much safer bet to assume it’s the new Sonos code in the app AND speakers that is at fault. And if that new code has exposed much worse support for mDNS than uPnP in a lot of people’s home networks, then maybe they made a bad decision in going down that route with the new app and firmware.

People didn’t ask Sonos to re-write their code. People bought something that worked and now doesn’t as a result purely of Sonos changing something. Sonos need to fix it and not expect people to tear their home networks apart to suit Sonos.

Just to reiterate - the controller Apps, whether engineered by Sonos, or a 3rd-party, are ‘remotes’, not ‘players’ and they can be fully closed after the playback begins on a single room, or a group of devices.

If the rooms either then begin to ungroup, or drop their audio, as mentioned, it’s not going to be App related. The firmware on the speakers is going to be the same on my speakers, your own and BRJ’s too (assuming all are up-to-date). The only difference that’s obvious is the LAN/WAN connection - so I would always start there to begin to find the issues, particularly when the App and speaker firmware is working for other people.

If you want to ignore that advice then that’s your prerogative, but I’m entitled to show the evidence to a user and provide helpful links. If you/they don’t find it helpful then ignore it, or at the very least take up the issues seen with your own systems and report them to Sonos Support via this link instead…

https://support.sonos.com/s/contact

In my view though, based on the evidence seen here, I believe the suggestions to try to resolve such issues are (still) valid.

I

Ian_S

Prodigy III

You’re missing the point.

The speakers are running two discovery methods now, and probably API’s, the old well tested and trusted uPnP methods and the newer, clearly not so trusted mDNS route. Old Sonos S2 (if you’re on pre 16.3 firmware) and 3rd party products rely on the old uPnP methods to tell the speakers what to do, and the speakers when used in that way will keep in contact the old way and seem to work.

The new Sonos S2 app uses the mDNS methods which are not used by 3rd party apps, and clearly have a few issues.

The new app also relies (wrongly as Sonos are attempting to fix it) on internet connectivity when it doesn’t need it. So fails to instruct the speaker firmware correctly to do stuff if it can’t get the right online answer. So if you use the new app and have problems things look much worse.

Now, some of this could well be of Sonos’ own making especially if you have a mix of WiFi and Sonosnet connected speakers as then it’s up to Sonos speaker firmware to correctly relay mDNS broadcast packets around both internally on the hidden Sonos network and then also to push mDNS packets onto the WiFi/Ethernet they are connected to for non-Sonosnet speakers to get the required information from Sonosnet speakers. There’s a LOT of scope there to F it up. Plenty of more established home network companies have screwed that up too.

It’s not the users fault that they could be running this mix. Sonos will forget you setup your system choosing WiFi over sonosnet, and will happily add it automatically just because you plugged in an ethernet cable at some point.

In your case you have made sure you have no Sonosnet, and probably have anything wired into the core of your network. You may also have lucked into a router supplier who has done a better job of mDNS support. So yes it works for you, but only because you’ve hit a sweet spot in a lot of code, much like Mr. Spence’s home no doubt. Others are less fortunate, but that doesn’t mean that the Sonos code works, and that it is their network that is at fault.

R

Rhonny

Prodigy III

“Added mute buttons for individual products in Group Volume controls”

Are you seeing these? I can’t see these in Android or iPad app. In the 16.1 there was a mute icon on the left but I can’t see it in similar position. There is just the speaker icon in that group UI.

is that somewhere else now?

When you adjust the group volumes, tap the speaker icon on the left of the Sonos speaker slider line you wish to mute.

Ok, now I think I see what the issue still is:

A: when the Now Playing screen is whole display size, when I tap on the speaker icon on the left, it only mutes all. It does not bring up the individual volume controls. It does bring them up in the 16.1 app. I was expecting it to be available also in this screen.
B: when the now playing component is small in the bottom of the screen I can tap on the speaker icon. It mutes and also brings up the volume control for the individual grouped speakers. I can mute individual speaker in this screen.

It probably is a firmware issue if it works for others also in scenario A. For me it looks that it’s only been implemented in the small Home Screen component.

Yes, that’s how I see it at the moment too - it's probably ‘by design’ for the time being, but I would like to see the option to mute individual rooms on the "Output Selector/Room Grouping Screen” aswell.

Not sure if we’re all at crossed purposes or saying the same things but I’ll go anyway based on what I’m seeing when playing grouped speakers:

On BOTH the full Now Playing screen AND the reduced Now Playing area at the bottom of the screen, when I move the volume slider or tap the speaker to mute, I get ALL grouped speaker sliders appearing, allowing me to adjust or mute each individual speaker.

So all working as it should.

Are you saying you are seeing something different?

Ken_Griffiths

Not sure if we’re all at crossed purposes or saying the same things but I’ll go anyway based on what I’m seeing when playing grouped speakers:

On BOTH the full Now Playing screen AND the reduced Now Playing area at the bottom of the screen, when I move the volume slider or tap the speaker to mute, I get ALL grouped speaker sliders appearing, allowing me to adjust or mute each individual speaker.

So all working as it should.

Are you saying you are seeing something different?

It’s the same thing that I see. 👍

I just would like to see the option to mute individual rooms on the "Output Selector/Room Grouping Screen” aswell.

The workaround when on that screen is to slide the rooms volume control to zero. See attached.

R

Rhonny

Prodigy III

Thanks, @Ken_Griffiths .

press250

Prodigy III

Hi @Ian_S, kudos for a good summary of the firmware issues associated with the new APIs. Adding a bit of technical color: beyond the switch from SSDP to mDNS, there is the pervasive use of TLS and websockets. The old APIs and the new APIs exist side-by-side (for now) in the device firmware; the new APIs are only exercised by the new Sonos app.

Anyone curious ought to read the fabulous article from Andy Pennel “What happened to the Sonos app? A technical analysis” here …

https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/what-happened-sonos-app-technical-analysis-andy-pennell-wigwc

BREAKING NEWS! Andy Pennel published a new article yesterday, documenting his experience with disappearing Sonos devices ...

https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/new-sonos-app-three-months-later-andy-pennell-vozoc

At the risk of stating the obvious: Andy Pennel has networking and Sonos-specific knowledge that is second-to-none outside of Sonos engineering. I would love to think that someone of Andy’s stature clearly documenting app/firmware issues would establish once and for all that these are problems … sadly, I doubt that is the case.

Ken_Griffiths

@BRJ,

You might perhaps find this thread useful too, even though it’s an old post by Staff, it’s still has a lot of helpful pointers that can maybe considered…

B

BRJ

Lyricist II

@BRJ,

You might perhaps find this thread useful too, even though it’s an old post by Staff, it’s still has a lot of helpful pointers that can maybe considered…

Thanks. I’ll have a work through this.

JCR28

Trending Lyricist I

Today, we are moving to the new update 80.06.04…… My favorites are disorganized, some no longer work, some radio stations are inaccessible AND it is impossible to search in the “Radioplayer” service

Fed up!!!!!!

R

Rhonny

Prodigy III

Today, we are moving to the new update 80.06.04…… My favorites are disorganized, some no longer work, some radio stations are inaccessible AND it is impossible to search in the “Radioplayer” service

Fed up!!!!!!

I’d suggest logging out of the app, closing it, re-opening the app and logging back in again.

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