Android Lock Screen Controls - when are they coming back???

Note:  This functionality was available until the disastrous May 2024 update.

They will not come back until Google changes its policies. Both Google and APPLE feel this capability exposes security risks and have threatened to remove any App that attempts to control an external device, such as SONOS Players, from the App Store.

Players that execute on the phone/pad can use the Lock Screen controls because they don’t control an external device. SONOS controllers don’t actually play music. The controllers simply send commands to the SONOS players. If you like, you could shut down or uninstall the controller after the SONOS Players start executing their tasks.

Why did SONOS previously offer Lock Screen controls? SONOS developed a hack. It’s the hack that Google and Apple dislike.

And yet… Spotify, and two other media players, both for streaming and local music, have controls that work on the lock screen, so that argument doesn’t fly with me, sorry.  😀

This quote below is exactly what Sonos Support’s KB pages say about it…

But Sonos isn’t a media player. It’s a remote control that sends data to the media player that runs on the speakers. 

Wow, that some… ininteresting circular logic there.

Spotify does the same thing friend.

Sorry, what circular logic? A Media player runs on your phone, and plays the ‘data’ on your phone’s OS. It can grab data from remote, or local files, as it resides directly on your phone (or tablet)

The Sonos, being a remote control, reaches out to the application running on your Sonos device, and tells the media player there what it should reach out to and play.

You can confirm this fairly easily. Start playback using a media player on your phone/tablet. Use a stream (it’s easier than using local files) such as Amazon, or Spotify…but any internet stream will work. Then turn off your phone. Because the media player has turned off, any music playing will stop. Whether or not you’re playing it on your phone, or via Bluetooth or AirPlay 2 (not using Sonos) and ‘casting it’ to your Sonos speakers. 

Power everything back on. Use your Sonos system to start playback of the same source. Once that’s done, power off your phone. Your Sonos will continue to play, because the actual media player is on the Sonos device, and not in the controller app on your phone. You’ve told the Sonos system, via the remote controller/app on your phone where to get, and play, the music stream.

Hi ​@ChrisUniqueM 

Welcome to the Sonos Community!

Thank you - I've marked this thread as a feature request and it will be seen by the relevant teams for consideration. Keep the ideas coming!

As you’ve pointed out, it does appear to be a planned return, but I will flag this as a feature request to register your interest.

Could you also add the thousands of other Android users who’ve raised this issue repeatedly in other threads on this forum, on Reddit and against the App reviews in Google Play… there’s a lot of angst out there to leverage this change!

Hi ​@Stripey71 

I understand why you want it emphasised, but no - that is not a thing I can do. I can forward a link to a thread to a team to evaluate the request. I do not send multiple links to the same request, especially when I have already stated that it looks like the feature is already planned to return.

Though, the “thousands of Android users” - your words, not mine - are certainly welcome to add their own voice here.

​@Corry P - thank you for the information, but per ​@Stripey71 ‘s comment there are a LOT of threads about this already, and more than a year later, the feature is still missing.

I’m sure you can appreciate how frustrating this is for customers of a company who prides itself on the saying “It Just Works.”

I’m not trying to snark or be bitchy here, we just want things fixed.  😊