Sonos Staff

The New Sonos App and Future Feature Updates

Forum|Forum|2 years ago
May 11, 2024
2256 replies
156701 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.

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T

The_Blue_Smiley

Lyricist II

what about trueplay tuning it does not work in the new update ?

It will not start tuning it just stop then it should start.

L

less

Listener

Just adding my voice to the chorus of less than enthusiastic endorsement of the App upgrade on my Android phone. It won’t even reliably find any of my components let alone provide control. Have tried the usual reboots, resets, etc. to no avail. App on PC still seems to function mostly but lack of access to local music library is disconcerting to say the least. I have always found Sonos tech support pretty good but currently I am underwhelmed.

S

sethmilk

Contributor II

“Listening to music” feature to be added later.

P

port1974

Listener

Sonos was already a difficult app to get to use properly, this latest update is now so much worse.

I can understand why your customer support isn’t picking up any calls !!!!

Aside from all the config issues, it’s sloooow!

You need to roll this back, fix your app , get on board with Apple, test it, then release it !!!

Signed, Upset paying customer

F

fenris111

Lyricist II

What about making physical volume buttons finally work as literally every other app supports? Or a Lock Screen widget?

There has been a lot of discussion of this around here and it isn’t a App v80 issue.

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.

Screen reader for visually impaired customers: May 21
Adding and editing alarms: May 21
Adding to queue and playing next: early June
Sleep timer: mid-June
Local music library search and playback: mid-June
Update Wi-Fi settings: mid-June

Sonos hates their customers

Yes this approach they’re taking makes ZERO sense and is only damaging their brand. Terribly.

Thanks for the dates, but our systems are useless until then. I feel like I’m being manipulated to use streaming services. Is that why you’re doing this? Because you make more money from streaming services than you do from your equipment customers? Roll this nightmare back, lose the marketing children that did this, and hire people who actually use your product!

L

less

Listener

No access to my locally saved music is the least of my problems. The new App on my Android phone won't even see my sonos devices. The only System Settings screen I can get to wants to set up a new system. And it just found them. The unreliability of the new App is very disconcerting.

M

madseno

Avid Contributor I

Just sent this to your CEO - after all, he does ask for feedback:

Hello -

I run a 5-zone SONOS system and has been happy for years. It’s based on a 9,500 song personal library (Apple Music / NAS) combined with Spotify.

As per the extensive feedback on especially the shortcomings of the new app with a personal library, I had decided to wait until the mid-June releases announced that should alleviate this.

But then SONOS forces through a hardware update on my two Amps. Basically, they couldn’t be reached in any way until they were updated .

Contacted tech support and was informed that I could reset the Amps and add them back to the S2:

Not really, just follow the reset process for the Amp, you can find the steps for the factory reset on this link: https://support.sonos.com/article/reset-your-sonos-product , and when the LED light of the Amp starts flashing green just open the Sonos S2 app, and go to Settings > System > Add Product, and follow the prompts.

Reset the first Amp. Tried to add it to S2. Met with a requirement to upgrade to the new app.

New tech support case.

Our engineers have advised that sadly it is not possible to update/add a product with the old app version.

So, the first advice was factually wrong. Not that it would have mattered much as I couldn’t use the Amp as it was. But still not a nice experience.

(Note: I am not blaming this on any of the two tech guys. It is the company approach and procedures that are wrong here)

1) You have clearly missed connecting to a large segment of your user base; those who do not fully spend on streaming but use personal libraries. Bad user experience work.

2) Once you realised that the app was met with a (scientific term 😉) metric crap ton of negative feedback and resistance, forcing through a hardware update that force-triggers the new app to be installed is just plain wrong. By doing so, you have effectively taken away users’ ability to wait until the next releases solve the major issues in usability. Those updates should have been held back or rolled out through the new app only, leaving S2 users to wait.

3) Your tech service knowledge bases (that I assume your techs work from) need to be correct. Getting incorrect information once you believe you have been advised a workable solution is just such a disappointment when you realise that no, you hadn’t.

Case references (again: to allow you to fix procedures, the tech guys did what they could but to no avail when your procedures let them down): ****** & the second one I apparently downloaded before getting the case ref - it was done by ****** . Both attached.

Not so kind regards

J

Jhawk58

Listener

WHY??

Why do you do a “top to bottom” reset...without…

Using it first on a BETA group...and getting them to a point where THEY are happy?
Eliminating numerous features.
Allow users to KEEP the old version...without insisting an “UPGRADE is Needed”

There aer SO many prior cases of software upgrades...gone bad...you’d think. you could learn from them...instead of making your own (predictable) mistakes.

R

RefriedNoodleNL

Listener

After spending €2500 on Sonos equipment, the new app refuses to play any album in my library that contains a colon (:) or forward slash (/) in its album title. Which is about half my library, as these symbols are common in classical albums.

Changing album titles is of course no option, since we cannot update our libraries any more either.

Any chance of this bug being fixed? Or is switching brands the only option to play my own library again?

R

Roller2025

Renowned Listener

I rarely stream. My NAS and my Sonos were my music, not anymore. I would bin my Sonos speakers but it would be a waste and doesn’t comply with my sustainability policy.

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