Android notification and lock screen controls

Just piling on here to express the same concern.

The music services Sonos has access too (typically) don't have access to cast to the Sonos directly. Those that do, sometimes lack the ability to control the volume which means switching back and forth between the music app and the Sonos app.

So just using the Sonos app is the answer? Not quite… No direct controls outside of the app means waiting for it to boot up each time. Additionally, the direct controls (outside of the basics such as finding new music) are inferior to the native music app… so I end up starting music in Sonos, then opening the native app just to find new music. This means juggling two apps again.

Okay so maybe I can just cast all the audio from my phone to the device? Nope, not supported.

I'm a new customer and I'll be honest, Sonos you're driving away swathes of customers. At least give us the ability (even temporarily) to use Bluetooth or cast to the device itself and mirror the audio of our device. At best, I have a beautiful speaker that is cumbersome to use. At worst, it's going to become an unused paperweight. I'm currently in the former category but the longer this goes on the more likely I am to simply try to get a refund and move on to less complicated solutions with companies that value functionality over premium features.

I don’t know how this came about on Android, but not having screen/button control on iOS was Apple’s fault. They do not allow remote control apps acces to these functions. The driving away of customers seems to be caused by others and is out of Sonos’ control.

As a work around - if starting the app every time is cumbersome, why not leave the app open?

Your profile says you own a (bluetooth capable) Era 100. So you could use bluetooth.

Good to know about the Apple situation, I was not aware. However, we aren’t Apple users and it makes me think Sonos is simply catering to their perceived largest demographic. We aren’t Apple users, why do we have an Apple-based feature? Heck, I’d take a simple widget to control it outside of the app.

Bluetooth: I did not even know this was a feature of this specific speaker, thanks! This does come at the cost of audio quality, but I’ll do what I need to. Appreciate the heads up!

Issues with leaving the app open: It’s my primary phone and I often minimize the app and android “sleeps” unused apps after a certain amount of time. This means it has to boot up again every time I want to make an adjustment, which can take a while when all I want to do is skip songs or change the volume. I do not, as I have read many users do, have a spare phone to act as a general remote for the speaker.

Today I decided to play my music through my OLED65G2PUA  LG G2 65-inch OLED evo Gallery Edition TV. This allows me to use through my notification area of my phone,  I can adjust volume easily,  and I have a widget for my TV controls. Sonos is my sound of tv, so it works great. The screen is not on,  just running my phone through the TV with quick ease of controls and not having to use the app,  which was challenging to play my music. I should of done this a long time ago! And I can use my watch to control the music, which is a great convenience! Maybe one day the app will have these capabilities again. 

Just figured I'd update some of my Play1 surrounds to Era 100s. More fool me, first was it wasn't clear that when used as surrounds their Bluetooth capability would be dropped, second and more importantly for how I use my speakers, it meant I was forced onto the new app. Eh, I have a tablet running it somewhere, no biggy. Oh no. The Eras force updates to the rest of the speakers which renders the old app unusable. Forced onto the unintuitive, laggy new app. But the crowning issue is no banner control for me. No plan from Sonos to re add it either. Can't control my roam from my watch because there's no notification. Do I regret my purchase? You bet. Should have just got some Ones 2nd hand.

I'll add myself to the list of people requesting this very useful feature be reinstated. 

Thanks 

For a while SONOS was using a hack on Apple phone/pad to provide the Lock Screen control. Apple has made it clear that any application using this sort of hack will be dropped from the App Store.

Google has a similar policy for Android.

So why do all of my other music apps have controls on the lock screen then?

 Because the Sonos app is a remote,  not a music app.

Apple rules state that you cannot reassign the functionality of the lock screen and hard button controls.  They can only be used to control audio playing on or through the phone.  Since Sonos does not play through the phone (in fact, they hacked in a silent file playing in the background to get around the rule), Apple told them to cease using the hack or risk being banned from the app store. So until Apple relaxes its rules, there’s nothing Sonos can do.