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Dark theme request

  • 28 December 2017
  • 58 replies
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Userlevel 1
White theme is terrible looks very unprofessional and is not good on the eyes. Request : request
Any plans to upgrade to a dark theme option?
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Best answer by Ryan S 2 January 2018, 21:55

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58 replies

Hey there, Tizer. Thanks for posting and welcome to the Community. As of now, I have no information about a Dark Mode, but I am happy to pass this along to the team as a feature request. Thank you for the feedback!
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As of now, I have no information about a Dark Mode, but I am happy to pass this along to the team as a feature request.
It's pretty unbelievable that 'as of now' there still is no information available about a dark mode, or something similar to that effect.

How was all the feedback on this topic not clear enough to start addressing it?
Unless you are participating in a private beta that may or may not be happening, you aren't going to get any more information until Sonos decides to release it to the public. This is their policy, and complaining about it is an exercise in futility. Even more important, lashing out at Sonos employees about it is unfair, for they do not set the policy.
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It's pretty unbelievable that 'as of now' there still is no information available about a dark mode, or something similar to that effect.

How was all the feedback on this topic not clear enough to start addressing it?


+1 would be great if they gave an indication of what's coming (when they know)
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Unless you are participating in a private beta that may or may not be happening, you aren't going to get any more information until Sonos decides to release it to the public. This is their policy, and complaining about it is an exercise in futility.

I wasn't complaining as much as i was expressing my skepticism about that statement of their being no information.

If sonos is not willing to have an (open) conversation with their customers, they shouldn't pretend otherwise. And the reactions of this forum have made it clear that quite some of us do expect a more open communication after this screw up.

The same holds for the beta. That should be open for feedback to ensure issues are dealt with piror to a release - instead of some debugging gimmick to entertain the incrowd. Something that clearly did not happen with 8.0

Even more important, lashing out at Sonos employees about it is unfair, for they do not set the policy.
This is nothing to do with Keith as a person. It's reaction against a (spokesperson of) sonos, And since he's one of the few that actually does 'talk to customers', he does have the honor of receiving our feedback, so he can pass it on to whomever is responsible for this mess.
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I think enough people have complained about "too much white" that we hopefully get less use of white in the next version of the controller that is supposedly fairly imminent.
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There might be a major disconnect than in the way feedback got interpreted. Personally I found it quite clear that people weren't asking for a little less white, they want to go back to black.
Oh please. You all know the people here are limited as to what they can say, and there is nothing they can do about it. To use them as surrogate punching bags over that policy is not only rude, it is cowardly. I find it hysterical that the same people who object to my tone when dealing with users who can fight back find nothing wrong with a similar tone (and sometimes much worse) with someone who has to eat it as part of their job.

As my father used to say:

"Why do people abuse waitresses?"

"Because they can."
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What one person wants and another wants can be completely different. I'm sure there are those that like white parts. A less stark version I'm sure would be fairly welcome. Short of color preference by user. something Sonos has always frowned on - customization. As they want everyone to have exact same experience (yes call it good or bad they want it same from house to house). I don't see customization coming but without that I'm sure everyone will have their good bad things they like about overall color.
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that would be a great excuse if we were buying physical components and want our receiver to come in every permutation of 00,00,00-ff,ff,ff ... but this is software:)

how about we make the UI forced changes as slow and requiring final opt-in by the user, corresponding with the drag feet over a dark theme, and then we will have something. 😉
Despite what you claim about forced updates, every Sonos update is optional, but once one device updates, every device must be updated. I suggest you turn off auto updates on your mobile devices and turn off checking for updates on the Sonos app. You can then "opt in" to any Sonos update you wish.
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Oh please. You all know the people here are limited as to what they can say, and there is nothing they can do about it. To use them as surrogate punching bags over that policy is not only rude, it is cowardly.

So what do you suggest we do than to express our dissatisfaction with a policy that leaves us in the dark - luckily we have the app to fix that 😉 - besides addressing that issue in the only meaningful communication channel we have available?

And just to be clear. Like quite some, I basically had no need to communicate with sonos in more than 5 year, until 8.x made it clear I couldn't just trust sonos to do the right thing. And not being open and honest in their communication isn't exactly fixing that issue, on the contrary..
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What one person wants and another wants can be completely different. I'm sure there are those that like white parts. A less stark version I'm sure would be fairly welcome.
The issue with the the white was not about personal preferences but purely practical, as the app is semi-blinding in a dark environment. Reducing it a bit, won't solve that.

The move towards white on the other hand, was indeed a matter of personal preferences (and likely trying to look like apple), as it has no practical benefit. Which is why that is a point to be addressed.
Oh please. You all know the people here are limited as to what they can say, and there is nothing they can do about it. To use them as surrogate punching bags over that policy is not only rude, it is cowardly.

So what do you suggest we do than to express our dissatisfaction with a policy that leaves us in the dark - luckily we have the app to fix that 😉 - besides addressing that issue in the only meaningful communication channel we have available?

And just to be clear. Like quite some, I basically had no need to communicate with sonos in more than 5 year, until 8.x made it clear I couldn't just trust sonos to do the right thing. And not being open and honest in their communication isn't exactly fixing that issue, on the contrary..


It's a question of tone, not topic. Accusing people of willfully withholding information when you very well know it is company policy which tells them to withhold information, not a personal display of disdain towards the customer, is both rude and cowardly. These guys are merely following orders, taking your anger over a policy or UI change out on them, especially when they cannot fight back, isn't going to change anything. Matter of fact, if I were in their place, I would willfiully ignore any requests from users who were rude to me. It would be the only fighting back I could do, and I would most certainly do it.
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Like I said, if sonos is not willing to have an (open) conversation with their customers, they shouldn't pretend otherwise. Because saying "As of now, I have no information about a Dark Mode, but I am happy to pass this along to the team as a feature request." after this board has been plastered with such for feedback for months now isn't exactly a case of being respectful of your customer. I'm sure your father told you that too.

And again this is nothing personal towards the community managers, they are merely the voice of the company in this. Feel free though to point out alternative communication channel that would be more appropriate and effective.
It doesn't take too much reading between the lines to see that response and figure out "I have no information" is corporate speak for "I have no information that I'm allowed to give". One would have to be stupid not to realize this. Either that, or one is being willfully obtuse because they want an excuse to abuse people who are just following orders.

Either way, you can find the CEOs email and Twitter account online. Feel free to route anger at the disclosure policy directly to him, thus leaving those who do not set the policy, only follow it, out of the path of your wrath. Even better, you could simply accept the fact that their policy is their policy, and you aren't going to change it no matter how much you whine.
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One would have to be stupid not to realize this... willfully obtuse.. want an excuse to abuse people... no matter how much you whine.
And than you complain about tone. :8

But I guess customers simply aren't that worthy of respect in your book. Hence your advice of just shutting up regardless of what sonos does or doesn't.

Anyway, so far no news of going back to black, not even in between the lines of the Pravda. 🙂
I complain about tone when addressing those who cannot fight back. Context is everything.

Did you email or tweet the CEO yet? Or are we just here to abuse the underlings?


Anyway, so far no news of going back to black, not even in between the lines of the Pravda. :)


And by the way:

Hi everyone, we appreciate the feedback all around.

The team is listening and working to incorporate your feedback into the new app. You'll see some changes coming to the next versions of the app. They're looking into the brightness of the app and working on ways to balance the contrast. They're also looking into ways to improve the general flow of the app, and streamline navigation.

Thanks for sharing and please let us know what you think as the app develops.


Not Pravda. Just the main announcement thread for the new app version.

You're welcome. 😃
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And if you would have scrolled up, you would've read.the statement we were discussing, which literally states there are no plans to go back to black.
As of now, I have no information about a Dark Mode, but I am happy to pass this along to the team as a feature request. Thank you for the feedback!

Your welcome 😉
And if you would have scrolled up, you would've read.the statement we were discussing, which literally states there are no plans to go back to black.
As of now, I have no information about a Dark Mode, but I am happy to pass this along to the team as a feature request. Thank you for the feedback!

Your welcome ;)


Ryan's post was after the one you quote, a mere 19 hours ago, which would make it about 3 o'clock San Diego time. Things change, bub. It is almost like Sonos has finalized a release and gave the go ahead late on a Friday for their reps to start giving more details on what is in it, indicating the release may be coming real soon. But nah, Sonos would never do that, they don't respect their customers! 🆒
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So what's your point? If anything this shows how questionable sonos' communication strategy is in all this. If you have info, share it. And if you don't want to do that, just say so instead of placating your customers with empty statements.

And I really hope you are wrong btw, and that we are not getting yet another release without proper testing and feedback.
Uhhhh, I believe they actually did share it. First you complain they never share. Now when they do share, you complain about how much they share and call it placating. Then after weeks of complaining about no quick releases addressing the problems, you now complain about them possibly releasing too soon without adequate testing? Well, goalposts successfully moved! Guess there is just no, uhhh, placating you. :8

And once again, you have no idea what type of testing has been done on any release. The vast majority of releases have no public beta testing. That has no bearing on the extent of private testing done. Stop making assumptions which are not supported by facts.
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So what's your point?

There really is no point in trying to reason with jgatie. He will always have the last word and the forum moderators apparently don't care if he drives of Sonos customers away by insulting and belittling them on a regular basis.
I've called to task two members today who go out of their way to attack me and others every chance they get simply for disagreeing with them. I've helped dozens in other threads. Do the math.