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Keith N
Keith N
Sonos Staff
May 11, 2024

The New Sonos App and Future Feature Updates

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: 

 

    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.

    2256 replies

    Show previous replies
    Ken_Griffiths
    Ken_Griffiths
    August 7, 2024

    Not completely. SSDP is an announcement based system with regular “heartbeats” so the controller apps have a max age and the devices make announcements to the SSDP multicast addresses at regular intervals. If the controller misses announcements and the max-age hits, then the controller should perform service discovery again.

    mDNS is more event based and devices don’t perform regular announcements. When a device starts it goes through a probe phase (to ensure the name it wants isn’t already in use) then an advertisment phase. The device then doesn’t need to advertise itself unless something changes, eg IP address changes, interface goes down and up and it just responds to queries and watches other queries and responses on the mDNS multicast network.
    Amongst various timings of when things need to happen the specs also require a randomised window before starting, to prevent things like broadcast storms it a switch is restarted so all devices advertising services stagger their probe/advertisments due to the network interface coming up instead of all hitting the switch in one go. 

    The static IP addresses are likely to be of little benefit for mDNS. While not hard defined in the specification, the recommended Time To Live setting for records containing host information is 120 seconds. For all other records it is to be set at 75 minutes. Even before a TTL is reached, hosts will update their cache based on other queries and responses they observe if their cache is different and they would expect to answer. It would be an edge case where the cached hostname/IP is reused and the static IP is beneficial for mDNS.

    When the controller device last received a host record more than 120 seconds ago it’s cache is already invalid so it needs query for up to date records.

    While mDNS shares things familiar from unicast DNS is has it’s own set of requirements and rules to suit it’s purpose for multicast, with no central source of truth and changing devices.

    Thanks @sigh I bow to your expertise of these things, but is there anything you see here that might cause a users speakers/products  to either ‘ungroup’ or interrupt the ‘audio playback’ as was being suggested earlier?

    I’ve not experienced any difficulties with device discovery, in fact I would ‘hand on heart’ say my own Sonos device discovery has improved and is much faster and robust compared to the previous S2 App, not that I had very many issues with SSDP discovery personally speaking …and I’ve not noticed any difference with grouping/ungrouping/playback of Sonos Rooms - on average I tend to group 4, or maybe 5, rooms max. on a reasonably regular basis and as you may have seen I have no issues grouping even 10 rooms and controlling their volume during streaming from Amazon etc. 

    My own view here has been if the network is stable, then these things do seem to work okay in my case with the new App and device firmware, but if there are users speakers that ungroup or have audio interruptions, then surely the first place to begin troubleshooting is to look at both the LAN network and WAN (streaming audio source connection) - I just have a hard time seeing it being either mDNS, or device firmware, related and certainly not Sonos App related.

    I would personally have started my own troubleshooting with looking at local wireless interference and device SNR levels etc. It seems the case however that criticism is (sometimes) thrown my way whenever I try to suggest these things as possible solutions for a users audio payback interruptions. I’d have made the same suggestions if it was prior to May aswell and the user was using the S2 Sonos App and earlier firmware.

    Ken_Griffiths
    Ken_Griffiths
    August 7, 2024

    One quick further thing @sigh. I understand that Apple developers created their own customised version of mDNS that they call ‘Bonjour’, is there any reason why Sonos may not have done something similar and customised mDNS to suit their own needs and requirements, which users cannot ascertain due to encryption (as noted by Andy Pennell)?

    press250
    press250
    Prodigy III
    August 7, 2024

    The desktop controllers don’t install/work on tablets - it’s either Windows 10 (or higher) and MacOS 10.12 (or higher) only. Nor do they use a web browser. The controllers are available here:

    Reasonably certain @chambolle meant to say the Web App, which makes perfect sense.

      Ken_Griffiths
      Ken_Griffiths
      August 7, 2024

      The desktop controllers don’t install/work on tablets - it’s either Windows 10 (or higher) and MacOS 10.12 (or higher) only. Nor do they use a web browser. The controllers are available here:

      Reasonably certain @chambolle meant to say the Web App, which makes perfect sense.

      Yes, I guess so and was trying to use it to see their Sonos playlists, I think? - but they need the DCR App to do that. The other issue I’ve just realised too, is chambolle might be out of luck anyway with the DCR App, as it seems they haven’t updated their Sonos App since 22nd July, or their firmware, (presumably) - so that might throw a spanner in the works for them.

      Ian_S
      Prodigy III
      August 7, 2024

       

      Thanks @sigh I bow to your expertise of these things, but is there anything you see here that might cause a users speakers/products  to either ‘ungroup’ or interrupt the ‘audio playback’ as was being suggested earlier?

      I suggest you read Andy Pennell’s post. He writes Sonos Apps and in his own stable network he is now getting issues. Sonos appear to be changing firmware all over the place at the moment and breaking stuff that used to work. He’s even modifying his code to try and keep on top of it. 

      However breaking stuff like basic music indexing is starting to stretch the boundaries of credibility even further than we thought plausible. 

      At this rate I suspect it won’t be long before 3rd party apps start breaking, which they sort of have if you’re on 16.3 firmware as your local index will be toast and that will be equally badly displayed in any app trying to control Sonos. 

      For anyone ‘limping’ along currently on 16.2 firmware with a combination of older controllers and desktop apps, my advice would be:

       

      AVOID Updating to 16.3/16.3.1 levels of firmware

       

      Until Sonos have fixed the local indexing. Also updating to this level invokes a block in older Sonos controllers that stops them working completely. I get that Sonos would prefer users to be on the latest and consistent levels of code, but when you keep screwing up basic Sonos function (STILL after 3 months of pain) you can’t blame users for NOT wanting to ride on your out of control rollercoaster either. 

        chambolle
        Enthusiast II
        August 7, 2024

        Speaking of ‘out of control roller coasters,’ I just opened the app and got ‘cannot load queue try again.’ First time for me for that one. Thank heavens the simple fix was to back out of the app, shut down and restart my ipad and open the app again.

        But at this point, every time something like that happens I grit my teeth and try to prepare myself for the worst. This is not my idea of a good time.

        Ian_S
        Prodigy III
        August 7, 2024

        @chambolle May I suggest you listen to ‘Garbage - Not My Idea’!! A group title combination that is completely laced in irony for this mess!! 😂

        JCR28
        JCR28
        Trending Lyricist I
        August 7, 2024

        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.

        What I did and more. I uninstalled and reinstalled, empty the cache, restarted the phone, etc. BUT nothing change.

        kpr
        Prodigy I
        August 7, 2024

        “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?

        Hi, I suspect you are using iPhone? I heard from others that for them on iPhone those controls pop up everywhere on the app (also in the full screen UI). 

        I had interpreted the first of the below bullet points to mean that also on Android and iPad app they should pop up everywhere. But maybe with the second bullet point they mean that it works on iPhone but not yet on Android or iPad app:

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

        • Added Group Volume controls from the Now Playing screen on iOS”

        Rhonny
        Prodigy III
        August 7, 2024

        “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?

        Hi, I suspect you are using iPhone? I heard from others that for them on iPhone those controls pop up everywhere on the app (also in the full screen UI). 

        I had interpreted the first of the below bullet points to mean that also on Android and iPad app they should pop up everywhere. But maybe with the second bullet point they mean that it works on iPhone but not yet on Android or iPad app:

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

        • Added Group Volume controls from the Now Playing screen on iOS”

        iOS tends to mean both iPhone and iPad (on here I’ve found...). 

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