I can only speak for myself, but the SONOS app before 8.0 was near perfect. It was ultra fast, selecting room and what music to play was super intuitive. Everything important was on the same page screen. I've had lots of friends ask me about why get SONOS instead of competitors like HEOS and such. Even though HEOS and others can offer a wider variety of physical connections, sound formats DTS etc...there was before 8.0 an extremely easy answer to this: The APP. It is super fast, never buggy. You come home from work, go into the sonos app and within 2 presses there is music in the living room. It doesn't matter how great the hardware is if the software doesn't work, but with the SONOS app, it just works, always, and so EASY.
But now that argument is gone. The new sonos app, with all the stuff on the home screen, and now you have to go into seperate tabs to select room and search for music......you RUINED it. You downgraded the app to something similiar to HEOS' already awful app. What were you thinking?
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Userlevel 2
As an AV integrator and very early adopter of Sonos I have years of experience with all things Sonos, including training hundreds of people on how to use the system (many of whom are older and/or luddites).
This update is a huge step backwards, especially in terms of ease of use. Some points:
- Icons are needlessly huge, necessitating constant scrolling. I used to be able to quickly select a favorite playlist etc. from among many on the same screen. Now it's a vertical, then horizontal scroll. Clunky.
- White on white GUI, particularly in the Rooms screen is not intuitive. Highlighted room should appear as others but highlighted, not look like a completely different, separate item. My older clients are going to have problems understanding this screen.
- White GUI is painfully bright, especially at night. I much prefer the dark previous look.
- Choosing a different room to control is not obvious at all from the home/currently playing screen. Selecting the relocated room indicator (now on the bottom of the screen) now only shows grouping options, not room selection. You need to back out of the home screen to choose another room. No logic in that whatsoever, and again, this is going to be a training nightmare for me.
- Buggy operation. Turning on the TV while listening to music results in silence from the Playbar for many seconds, followed by an unpredictable result as the user mashes various remote buttons trying to solve the issue. The Android app is now laggy and buggy, a complete 180° to the stable and fast previous software.
- Bottom bar vs hamburger button: I think this is heading in an ok direction, despite general current GUI thinking, as the hamburger button isn't obvious to people that don't regularly use smartphone apps (many of my clients), but why not include it on every screen? It should be on the home/current playing screen as well.
- Generally ugly and clunky design. This app just ain't pretty, and is a very poor complement to the great hardware.
I'm shocked at how poorly thought out the latest update is. I've been a long time Sonos supporter, I've drank the Sonos Kool-Aid, I love the hardware, and enthusiastically recommended it (even when I didn't make a dime on it), but I'm disappointed enough to start investigating the many other options out there...
This update is a huge step backwards, especially in terms of ease of use. Some points:
- Icons are needlessly huge, necessitating constant scrolling. I used to be able to quickly select a favorite playlist etc. from among many on the same screen. Now it's a vertical, then horizontal scroll. Clunky.
- White on white GUI, particularly in the Rooms screen is not intuitive. Highlighted room should appear as others but highlighted, not look like a completely different, separate item. My older clients are going to have problems understanding this screen.
- White GUI is painfully bright, especially at night. I much prefer the dark previous look.
- Choosing a different room to control is not obvious at all from the home/currently playing screen. Selecting the relocated room indicator (now on the bottom of the screen) now only shows grouping options, not room selection. You need to back out of the home screen to choose another room. No logic in that whatsoever, and again, this is going to be a training nightmare for me.
- Buggy operation. Turning on the TV while listening to music results in silence from the Playbar for many seconds, followed by an unpredictable result as the user mashes various remote buttons trying to solve the issue. The Android app is now laggy and buggy, a complete 180° to the stable and fast previous software.
- Bottom bar vs hamburger button: I think this is heading in an ok direction, despite general current GUI thinking, as the hamburger button isn't obvious to people that don't regularly use smartphone apps (many of my clients), but why not include it on every screen? It should be on the home/current playing screen as well.
- Generally ugly and clunky design. This app just ain't pretty, and is a very poor complement to the great hardware.
I'm shocked at how poorly thought out the latest update is. I've been a long time Sonos supporter, I've drank the Sonos Kool-Aid, I love the hardware, and enthusiastically recommended it (even when I didn't make a dime on it), but I'm disappointed enough to start investigating the many other options out there...
Userlevel 2
Yes the new app is really terrible - I wish there was a way to go back to version 7.4.
Swipe down the Now Playing screen, tap rooms button if necessary, double tap required room, hit play. Takes me about a second. Is that really so demanding and difficult? Is that really ruined? I cannot put it anything like as strongly.
I'm happy that you can easily navigate it, but I don't think you caught my point. If you have the muscle memory to work the new app then great. What I'm saying is I had a hard time figuring out the new UI, and after using it for most of today I still couldn't get used it. I still think the app is counter intuitive. Now you have to go into seperate menus to find favorites etc.
MY POINT is that the Sonos app was the best app out there in form of responsiveness and ease of use, with everything on the same page and an easy search box. You want to put on music and you want it to be an effortless FAST task. Having 4 BIG icons with a random playlist or album on my home screen (like some Spotify for people with visual impairment), which i will never use, doesn't do me any good. Now the app is almost as bad as the Heos app which is primarily the reason why we went with Sonos in our house. We used to have Heos, but the Heos app was so poor in speed, buggy, and too clumsy to find stuff, so the speakers were almost never used by anyone. So I figured I don't care if the Sonos speakers sound less good, or don't have this or that format, as long as the Sonos app is so fast and so easy to use that my whole family wants to use it everyday. And that is exactly what happened after we made the switch to Sonos, everyone is using it several times a day...until they met the new app update today.
So.... We found the 7.4 apk Sonos app mirror and reverted the app back to the previous version, and won't be updating : )
So, problem kinda solved...for now.
This won't be a crisis for Sonos, there are still some features that Sonos is best at, but in a tougher multi room speaker market with lots of competition, the app is now for a lot of people not the best thing about it anymore.
Yeah it's frustrating how fiddly it is now. I finally got my significant other to love and use it on a daily basis. I just have to make sure she doesn't upgrade the app on her phone.
Hopefully : ) And maybe introduce a "classical UI" mode if possible.
Oh god, not another one 'sighing' all the time
Userlevel 1
I've been a Beta user for Sonos for 3 years... with this update given out to the Beta community a few months ago, our house backed out of the Beta program. On my exit I sent them copious notes on specifics - noting a lot of "if it aint broke", don't let Amazon change your UI, and relating multiple stories of New Coke from the 70's.... not surprisingly...ok, a little surprisingly, the loosed this turd from the stables anyway.... I don't know how much iOS and Amazon affect product development at Sonos, but its a damn shame that another dog's tail is wagging their dog... I have to assume anyways, because this update is such a turn from what I consider intuitive interfacing at its best.... Shame...
They have taken something that was nearly perfect and took it back 2, no 3 steps. How silly and frustrating. Not what I would expect from Sonos.
I feel your pain! I downloaded SonosPad and it's miles head of th new Sonos app....
+1
Swipe down the Now Playing screen, tap rooms button if necessary, double tap required room, hit play. Takes me about a second. Is that really so demanding and difficult? Is that really ruined? I cannot put it anything like as strongly.
Takes a couple of seconds to do it, but how long did it take you to find out how? Be honest! Like others, I am a long time serious user of the hardware, but hate the iOS app and cannot understand this continual upgrading for no real purpose.
I totally agree. The app update is one of the worst updates I have seen in any app. The other one worked fine and was intuitive. This is one of the least intuitive I have ever seen — it's just awful. Come on Sonos!
I shall reserve full judgement until I have used it for a while
I am one of those. Would still prefer 5.0 - best version ever.
7 was a downgrade and 8 is even better.
TBH all the user problems could be sorted with very little effort by Sonos.
1) Choice of Skins
2) Open pages on List (now in more) rather than HUGE Icons
3) One tap on a song ads to queue (maybe double tap for instant play? Personally no need)
4) My Sonos to be TOTALLY customisable ------------there is a clue in the name !!
Been using the new app for a week, still it's buggy and slower. We lost contact with some of the speakers. The app is still HORRIBLE. I know I said this wouldn't affect Sonos in any big way in the long run, but I withdraw that statement. In addition to our Sonos system at home, we have Sonos at work, and everyone at work has Sonos at home and they're all complaining daily on how shit the new sonos update is. Not just the user interface, but bugs and speakers dropping out. So this might actually be a nail in the coffin if this Alexa thing doesn't turn out to be the next big thing. I'm currently thinking about selling the speakers while they still go for a high rate on the used market.
I hate it:
1) Not an intuitive layout. What an earth is "My Sonos"? Appears just duplicate Browse, but in a less accessible manner, because of:
2) Icons have all grown too large for my phone. EG the bottom of the Spotify app screen falls off the bottom and needs scrolling up every time I access "My Music", which is nearly every time I use Sonos.
1) Not an intuitive layout. What an earth is "My Sonos"? Appears just duplicate Browse, but in a less accessible manner, because of:
2) Icons have all grown too large for my phone. EG the bottom of the Spotify app screen falls off the bottom and needs scrolling up every time I access "My Music", which is nearly every time I use Sonos.
Userlevel 1
As a family, both children and adults find the new app an absolute pain to use. In fact we've started using the spotify app, because its actually way easier to control. If different generations find the app bad, then that's really saying something.
Can't help wonder if that is Sonos strategy - encourage people onto spotify etc.. by making the app barely usable, then gracefully retire the app (and all the costs that go with it). Would be inline with the strategy of retiring the original Sonos controller.
Can't help wonder if that is Sonos strategy - encourage people onto spotify etc.. by making the app barely usable, then gracefully retire the app (and all the costs that go with it). Would be inline with the strategy of retiring the original Sonos controller.
I was so happy with my Sonos , specially the app .... it went smood and easy in use . But this mornin i woke up and became in a nitemare ..... what were you thinking , who were those beta testers that accepted this app .???
If it Aint broke Dont Fix it !!
It is hard to find anything
It doens't play the songs i select ...... it starts playing the second above i selected ......
Please Sonos .........tell me this was just a dream and wake me up with the former App
Normally "now comes Keep up the good work " But 'im gonna skip this for now :P
best regards
jst4kx
If it Aint broke Dont Fix it !!
It is hard to find anything
It doens't play the songs i select ...... it starts playing the second above i selected ......
Please Sonos .........tell me this was just a dream and wake me up with the former App
Normally "now comes Keep up the good work " But 'im gonna skip this for now :P
best regards
jst4kx
I agree that Sonos has not improved the app. Sonos v8.2 on Android is horrible. It works fine on Windows 10 PC's, an iPad, an IPhone and a Windows tablet but on the Android app I cannot get to the screen to see all of the Pandora channels. I have tried looking into the support forums but others agree this is a problem they haven't figured out how to navigate around either.
Userlevel 4
+9
Personally I like the new design and feel of the updated app. I've had no issues as of yet. They will most likely introduce another update to remove bugs and make it super fast
If you have the muscle memory to work the new app then great.
That's my complaint too every time Sonos does a UI refresh for what are - IMO - little reasons to dump the existing built memory to relearn the new UI. Most complaints today stem from this source - nothing radically good or bad in the new UI except that it is different so the new UI seems clumsy till the learning happens.
But the market seems to crave such cosmetic refreshes while I am from a minority that has happily lived with the same remote for years when using my legacy kit. And in some cases, lived without a remote.
I use the Mac controller just as much and thankfully that one is a lot more stable. I hope Sonos NEVER changes it!
I used to tap a room, scroll down and hit “tv” and my tv sound would work. Now I can’t even find an option for anything except music.
Sigh.
Long time user....definitely a step back..icons need to be much smaller, colors are stark and distracting and the selection methodology is not intuitive. Allow selection of playlist and then room and vise versa..My family is turning music on/off in all the wrong rooms now. With a family of 5 and 9 zones with dozens of playlists there is way too much scrolling and switching back and forth between menus that we weren't doing before. I agree with simonlesley, after recommending this to all my friends who are now Sonos users this update takes one of those reasons to recommend Sonos off the table.
How about devoting more space to the room on the playing now menu, my kids are now turning music on and off in all the wrong rooms. The problem arises because when you re-enter the app it defaults to where you left off. I'd like to see this changed to always default to the room view or user selectable.
Another simple thing Sonos might consider is merging the My Sonos tab into the Browse tab instead of creating another section for it.
Userlevel 7
+20
1) Not an intuitive layout. What an earth is "My Sonos"? Appears just duplicate Browse, but in a less accessible manner, because of:
2) Icons have all grown too large for my phone. EG the bottom of the Spotify app screen falls off the bottom and needs scrolling up every time I access "My Music", which is nearly every time I use Sonos.
Note that you can edit the order of the categories on the 'My Sonos' tab. It's not a duplicate 'Browse', it's what used to be Sonos Favourites.
The app is pretty good and more logical than the previous version, but needs the following UX tweaks:
- Bottom tab bar visible in the 'Now Playing' view. I believe that is coming.
- More compact use of screen real estate in the 'My Sonos' top-level view, and in the Rooms screen. Not holding my breath
I'm ambivalent on the white background. It's more in tune with modern mobile apps, though I did quite like album art backgrounding of the previous version. Not holding my breath that Sonos will offer a dark theme option.
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