Contributor I

Answered

Where is our iOS Widget

Forum|Forum|3 years ago
September 19, 2023
18 replies
11474 views

We’ve been waiting for 7+ years for a really robust iOS experience. The widget request he’s literally been out there for over 7 years. Apple is clearly all in on widgets - why can’t Sonos provide software that makes it easier to control our system?

It’s not like you’re spending your resources on a really great Google or Alexa integration (they both continue to be virtually unusable), or an Apple Watch app, or tight integration with SiriusXM (the frequency of errors starting a stream is laughable), or Apple Music (start a station within Sonos? No, No one would want that).

I love the sound quality of our Sonos system, but if I was creating a new system today, I don’t know that Sonos is worth the price point. Certainly the aging software and lack of innovation is a big warning sign.

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Best answer by Bumper

If you think a not having a widget is “lack of innovation” then yes, Sonos is not for you.

If you think of how quick and easy it is to pick or change a radio station in your car, and in 7 years Sonos has not meaningfully improved the ease and speed of playing music from your phone, that’s a legitimate frustration. The widget is just a glaring example of lack of innovation.

7 years is too kind, its more like 15 years. I was really hopeful that S2 would bring some big changes on the software side, but IMO they have not delivered. In fairness the Ikea partnership has yielded the Symfonisk gen2 controller which can play 2 different favourites with a button push. That’s like revolutionary compared to the sonos software 😀

Show previous replies

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DSedona

Trending Lyricist I

If you think a not having a widget is “lack of innovation” then yes, Sonos is not for you.

If you think of how quick and easy it is to pick or change a radio station in your car, and in 7 years Sonos has not meaningfully improved the ease and speed of playing music from your phone, that’s a legitimate frustration. The widget is just a glaring example of lack of innovation.

Widget or not I agree. I was at my brother’s house and he had all Apple Music devices and the seamless integration and ability for all guests to see and control the music made me regret investing in Sonos throughout my house.

It’s literally a frustrating and annoying experience each and every time I go to control my music.

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DSedona

Trending Lyricist I

If you think a not having a widget is “lack of innovation” then yes, Sonos is not for you.

If you think of how quick and easy it is to pick or change a radio station in your car, and in 7 years Sonos has not meaningfully improved the ease and speed of playing music from your phone, that’s a legitimate frustration. The widget is just a glaring example of lack of innovation.

Widget or not I agree. I was at my brother’s house and he had all Apple Music devices and the seamless integration and ability for all guests to see and control the music made me regret investing in Sonos throughout my house.

It’s literally a frustrating and annoying experience each and every time I go to control my music.

This should be a wake up call to Sonos if they care about the market of people who are on iOS, which I presume they do given the demographics.

The sound quality is excellent, but the entire experience is what matters.

M

Mfmarasligil

Lyricist I

It is sad that industry leading multi room speaker brand loses its position to other competitors… losing google assistant integration, not releasing new OS related features, etc…

Airgetlam

Which demographics? Do you have access to the Sonos user data?

Bruce

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DSedona

Trending Lyricist I

I meant the demographics of iOS users, in general. In the US, Apple/iOS tends to capture more of the affluent market which likely intersects with Sonos’s ideal customer profile (given Sonos’s price points).

Sure this is speculation as I don’t have user data but it’s not a far leap to say that Sonos does and should care about selling to iOS users, and given the comparative difference in experience in controlling music from the phone between the Sonos setup and Apple’s, I could see a certain segment of those Apple users choosing Apple’s speakers over Sonos for the convenience, even if the sound quality of Sonos is superior.

Sonos will never be able to integrate as seamlessly as given their closed ecosystem, but they certainly should try harder to reduce the friction because right now it is no contest. And I say this with a house full of Sonos,

buzz

Grand Maestro

Apple has the closed ecosystem. Apple does not support 3rd party integration of Widgets. If Widgets are the focus of your music listening, you should stay in the Apple ecosystem.

SONOS is actually rather open. Notice that there are dozens of music services integrated into the SONOS controller. SONOS provides a free API that services use to integrate their service into SONOS. After SONOS staff verifies that the service’s use of the API is stable, the service will be added to SONOS. If the music service wants to integrate phone/pad Volume controls with SONOS this is possible. SPOTIFY and Amazon Music are examples of this.

Ken_Griffiths

There are 3rd-party widgets available for Sonos control. You only have to search the iOS App Store. Here’s a screenshot of one example I came across. It shows what’s playing/thumbnail art, volume/skip/play/pause controls and the user can switch to other rooms etc.

I’m not affiliated to any such Apps and cannot say how well these widgets work.

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DSedona

Trending Lyricist I

Apple has the closed ecosystem. Apple does not support 3rd party integration of Widgets. If Widgets are the focus of your music listening, you should stay in the Apple ecosystem.

SONOS is actually rather open. Notice that there are dozens of music services integrated into the SONOS controller. SONOS provides a free API that services use to integrate their service into SONOS. After SONOS staff verifies that the service’s use of the API is stable, the service will be added to SONOS. If the music service wants to integrate phone/pad Volume controls with SONOS this is possible. SPOTIFY and Amazon Music are examples of this.

Sorry, to clarify, when I said “their closed ecosystem” I was referring to Apple, not Sonos.

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