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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: 

 

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    2256 replies

    Show previous replies
    MarkyMarkNo1
    Trending Lyricist I
    May 18, 2024

    @Keith and the Sonos Team: [...] 

     

    People at Sonos: things go wrong, that's ok. Now is the time to show your ability to deal with a crisis. Currently this insistence on "a few weeks" is just a joke. I invested many hundreds of Euros in your devices, and you make them unusable for me, then tell me to wait a couple of weeks. Imagine I do this to your car....not fun, right? Please, act, make the old app available for those who want it until the new app is truly release ready. 

     

    Synonym - you nailed it! 🔨

      phillydog
      phillydog
      Lyricist III
      May 18, 2024

      This is professional malpractice. Essential, existing functionality not there and “coming soon” as in “sometime in the next 7 weeks”? After 40+ years using products with embedded firmware, this is the worst case of destruction of reputation and user trust I’ve ever seen. After 40+ years developing and managing the development of embedded firmware, this is...well, professional malpractice.

      After looking at the Play Store and web page blurbs for the new app, the root cause of this problem is pretty obvious: The Sonos App product owners are suffering from main character syndrome--believing the app is the star of the show.

      No. Just no. The app allows the customer to queue music to play on the rather pricey speakers the customer purchased. That’s it. Sonos will make zero sales based on the sexiness of the app. They will, however, lose sales and forfeit hard earned customer goodwill by recklessly throwing out an existing interface used by hundreds of thousands of customers, replacing it with a disorganized hodgepodge of don’t-care functionality, releasing before basic, existing, essential functionality is present and, the worst, pushing this as a regular maintenance update.

      I’ve been fighting another issue with my Sonos system in my RV for about a year that I finally resolved. After I resolved the problem the RV system and the home system worked flawlessly. In my euphoria I replaced my entire home G1 system with G2 and added a Beam and mini sub to the Moves I already had in the RV. A couple of months passed. My wife’s birthday occurred. At her party I go to play music and, gee, here’s a new app that will not even allow me to select tracks from my local file server. Music I’ve been able to play from my local file server, reliably, seamlessly, since my first Sonos purchase in 2009.

      Here’s one half of the solution to this problem, now and in the future. Any release must reliably, cleanly, and clearly support the following functionality:

      1. Select the speakers to play
      2. Find music to play, locally or online
      3. Create a queue or add music to queue
      4. Support searching, adding, deleting and reordering of items in the queue as the music plays

      That’s it. That’s what the bulk of Sonos customers use most of the time. If the app can also search one billion streaming sources while controlling my toaster, great. But it’s gotta get my music to the speakers.

      The second half of the solution is to fully comprehend the place of the app in the lives of Sonos users: it’s a tool to select music to be played. I didn’t buy the system for the app. I didn’t even buy the system for the speakers. I bought the ability to add music to other activities in my life. I paid extra for sound quality, gorgeous industrial design, and a reliable, seamless experience. I had that. Now I don’t. 

      Actually I do. I sideloaded the old app. Which works, but now nags me incessantly to upgrade to the exciting new app. Guys, roll it back. Reflect on core values of your business and how customers actually use this product family. Add a standing quarterly goal for all managers to “maintain and enhance customer trust and confidence in Sonos products”.

      Sonos’ IP moat is the quality, performance, and reliability of the system along with the decade and a half of user trust it has earned.

      KS yep you’ve said it all there!! It is malpractice of the greatest magnitude!! 😣

        MarkyMarkNo1
        Trending Lyricist I
        May 18, 2024

         

        Here’s one half of the solution to this problem, now and in the future. Any release must reliably, cleanly, and clearly support the following functionality:

        1. Select the speakers to play
        2. Find music to play, locally or online
        3. Create a queue or add music to queue
        4. Support searching, adding, deleting and reordering of items in the queue as the music plays

        That’s it. That’s what the bulk of Sonos customers use most of the time. If the app can also search one billion streaming sources while controlling my toaster, great. But it’s gotta get my music to the speakers.

         

         

        KineticSync  - you nailed it! 🔨

         

        Hiawatha
        Lyricist I
        May 18, 2024

        We set out to create a more personalized and effortless listening experience with the updated Sonos app… BLA BLA BLA BS BS BS 🤬🤬🤬

         

        The new $ono$ App is crap! The whole system is longer usable. Can’t connect to some, can’t group, can’t even troubleshoot . F U Sonos! We hate you now! Will be selling the speakers on Kijiji, pass the headache to someone else.

         

          MarkyMarkNo1
          Trending Lyricist I
          May 18, 2024

          Loudspeakers (even “wireless”/ multiroom) should provide us joy by playing music. Not causing customers headaches and costing lifetime.

           

          As experienced Program Manager & Software Engineer myself, I’ve seen a lot of truly horrifying software releases during the last decades. I mean really, really bad implementations like Windows Vista, Volkswagen Golf 8 Infotainment, introduction of 1&1 5G Mobile network in Germany etc., to name just a few …

           

          But what you did, Sonos, is unequaled indeed. Making otherwise neat hardware - in our case assets under management in value of thousands and thousands of EUR - worthless with a single release of your not even proof of concept and far away from pre-alpha state pile of crap app, respectively forcing us to deal with it.

          What I have to reproach myself for is having recommended you to family & friends back in the days we trusted you.

          You leave us no other choice but to dump - I have to repeat - otherwise neat hardware in value of thousands and thousands of EUR in front of our HiFi dealer and ask for disposal.

          Will replace with sth like BluOS/ Bluesound, Heos/ Denon, B&W ...

            anthony.saey
            May 18, 2024

            Here's the corrected text in English:

            I am very angry because Sonos has updated their app and nothing works as it did before, especially a function I used every day and for which I bought one of their products!

            Can you add another function I use every day that was lost in the last update to your pipeline for next week: auto-play on selected speakers when line-in audio is detected. Before, I just needed to put a record on my turntable, and the line-in source was automatically selected on the speaker I chose in the Sonos port option. 

            I bought the Sonos port (500€!) just for this reason, so please, reactivate the product's functions like before or refund all your clients!

            I await a response from you. If not, you will receive a letter from my lawyer.

            akanowil
            Contributor II
            May 18, 2024

            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.

            • Adding and editing alarms
            • VoiceOver on iOS now properly interacts with individual elements of the Sonos app's home screen.


             

            Coming soon

            • Additional improvements to screen reader for visually impaired customers: May 21
            • Adding to queue and playing next: early June
            • Sleep timer: mid-June
            • Snooze alarms: mid-June
            • Local music library search and playback: mid-June
            • Update WiFi settings: mid-June

             

            Known issues and workarounds

             

            “Fix It” option does not successfully complete new product setup

            • Workarounds:
              • Sign out of the Sonos app, sign back in, and try again.
              • Force quit the Sonos app and try again.

             

            “Sonos needs local network access for setup” looping on the Sonos app for iOS

            • Workaround: Use another mobile device to set up Sonos products.

             

            “No products found” error on systems with a Sonos Boost wired to the router

             

            Unable to play local library content from Folders view

             

            "Sign in as the System Owner" error while updating products during setup

            • Workaround: No workaround currently available.

            Oh the arrogance of Sonos, the stubbornness of Sonos is jaw dropping. Your customers are literally begging you rollback this new horrible app until it's fixed,  but you gave us the middle finger 🖕. We are begging you to allow us to use the device we bought with our own money, i have 5 different Sonos speakers in my house.  But guess what; Sonos is not the only smart wireless speaker in the market. I am getting myself a Bang & Olufsen, I'm fed up 😡

             

              canac
              Trending Lyricist I
              May 18, 2024

              I guess we the users can take heart that this disaster made The Washington Post. The article was not kind. Perhaps that will speed “improvements” in the app. You know Microsoft did the same thing with the release of Windows 2000. Complete disaster. The company caught complete hell from its customers who were bamzooled into buying the product. But they controlled, and still control the majority of the market. Does SONOS have that luxury? How did this go so wrong? Going for speed, forgetting quality? Deadlines over devices? Forgetting the people who use the product now for a new and improved future...what?

              After wasting more hours of time trying to fix the mess Sonos made with this malware and reading a number of tech and national publications on this debacle, I’ve come to this conclusion -
               
              Follow the money. Sonos prematurely pushed out a terrible rewrite of the app that controls all of their whole-home wireless audio systems. Why? Because Spence promised new gear that needed new software to support promises made for quarterly earnings.
               
              So Sonos rolls out a half-baked, awful app, but guess what? Now it's web-based so Sonos can milk another user data revenue stream (their own radio streaming service was not well received) This new approach opens up tons of user data security issues but gives Sonos tons of user data it can sell off - helping out its mostly hardware-driven revenue model.
               
              Damn the loyal customers who used to be the best sales force Sonos could ever wish for! Damn the horrible inconveniences and time wasted loyal users have to endure. Damn the user security consequences. And damn the damage to the Brand!
              As long as the C-suite makes its quarterly bonuses, that's all that matters.
               
              It's supposed to be a wireless home audio system with speakers and amps. Now it's data mining and garbage software company run by the former executive of Blackberry (oh and we know where that ended up).
               
              That’s why there’s no apology from the executives - this was all planned some time ago and they have their mega millions to sit on while we struggle to play audio in our homes and business as promised over and over again by this now terrible company!  

               

              Well said. And it’s so true on top of that.

              I’m scouting for alternatives now. Good thing I “only” wasted few hundreds on the streamer. Not the speakers and stuff.

                Ghiro
                Trending Lyricist I
                May 19, 2024

                We set out to create a more personalized and effortless listening experience with the updated Sonos...

                Available now

                 

                Coming soon

                 

                considering that Sonos will never make the pre-80 S2 accessible again (without specifying a credible reason),and considering the long time for reintruducing many function, ant that other will never restored, the only function I need to be able to reuse (like when I purchased them) all the components of my system is the possibility of returning them all to the old S1 app. In the post there is no indication of the restoration of this function (as reported in the help pages). Will it ever be restored? and when? I apologize if the question is too difficult.

                 

                from help page:      Downgrade a Sonos product to S1

                Some Sonos products must be downgraded to S1 before they can be added to an S1 system. The Sonos S1 Controller app will let you know if the product you're setting up needs to be downgraded before it can be added to your S1 system. This article will guide you through the software downgrade process.

                If you aren't sure if your Sonos product can be downgraded to S1, check our compatibility article to see if it's listed under “Works with all Sonos apps.”

                Sonos app version 80.0
                The ability to downgrade a Sonos product to S1 is temporarily unavailable, but will return in a future update.

                 

                  Ambearm
                  Lyricist I
                  May 19, 2024

                  What about the speaker distance function???!!!!! If that feature is not returned, I will have to ditch Sonos and get another system. We change distance depending on where we are sitting and without being able to do that, the sound in areas of the room are not true surround sound.

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