Question

Recently played list?

  • 5 March 2018
  • 7 replies
  • 10217 views

Does anyone know how to access a recently played list on the mobile app or desktop app? I cant imagine this feature doesn't exist but I can't seem to locate it.

If it doesn't exist, and I'd be shocked, then how do we contact Sonos and tell them to make this happen?

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7 replies

Userlevel 7
Badge +20
Hi, shc86. Welcome to the community. Thanks for the great suggestion but this is not available at this time. I would be happy to pass this along for you. Many thanks and let us know if you need anything else.
Userlevel 5
Badge +10
Does anyone know how to access a recently played list on the mobile app or desktop app? I cant imagine this feature doesn't exist but I can't seem to locate it.

Sonos doesn't save user last-played data, so no iTunes-style "recently played" smart lists. You can sort-of mimic your recent plays by looking at the queue (and saving as a playlist if you want). No visible log of user actions (eg. played album 😵 either.

Except... the queue is designed to be ephemeral-by-default and get replaced when it finishes (except when it doesn't, individual "play" buttons do their own wildly-inconsistent things to expired queues).
I’m also perpetually floored by the fact that this essential and basic feature that’s been in other apps for years is still not in Sonos. Recent plays and searches are an absolute must. Predictive search would also be tremendous (it’s expected).

Sonos, you acknowledged this issue 5 months ago, has anything been done?
Userlevel 5
Badge +10
I’m also perpetually floored by the fact that this essential and basic feature that’s been in other apps for years is still not in Sonos. Recent plays and searches are an absolute must. Predictive search would also be tremendous (it’s expected).

Not denying that it would be useful, but I would argue that it's not really a "basic feature" - we lived without it for years when we all used CD/vinyl as our primary music sources. And many of us bought into Sonos for the hardware and the multi-room aspect.

Anyway, implementing such features would require both development time (which is not cheap), and somewhere to store the info - Sonos hardware has limited memory, and storing the play history externally (local storage or cloud/Sonos servers) would require significant development and testing effort.

When you consider the other "core product" improvements that Sonos are de-prioritising (UX/consistency issues with queue/playback, the desktop app, etc) as they focus on voice control and music service integration, plus the fact that many people don't even own music but merely rent it from Spotify etc, it's probably unlikely we'll see our Sonos systems providing play/history info any time soon.

Learn how the various play buttons affect/preserve/destroy the queue, and use that as your recent history.
Userlevel 4
Badge +6


Learn how the various play buttons affect/preserve/destroy the queue, and use that as your recent history.


^this is the solution. Save the queue periodically and you'll capture at least some of the data.
+1 for the feature. Nearly every day I think "what's that song I ran across last night and loved?" but have no way to find it.
Hi.

My work around works well for my needs. Your mileage may vary.

It's been such a great thing to have, I thought I would share.

Solution: Shazam Encore.

I just open one of my mobile devices and set Shazam Encore to Auto-Shazam. It will just keep listening and identifying songs until I manually go into the app and stop it. I never have the stress of "what was that song?" again. It's awesome.

Shazam is tied to an Apple Music playlist so that new discovered songs in Shazam, show up automatically in Apple Music on all the devices where I have the Music app installed. Shazam can be configured to with Spotify too. In my experience, I couldn't sync Shazamed songs to both services simultaneously.

I use services like Stamp or Song Shift to copy the playlist from Apple Music to Spotify. I do this for my Pandora Thumbprint Radio playlist. Meaning I import the Pandora Playlist to Apple Music.

If there is a song that the destination platform doesn't have in its catalog, Stamp and Song Shift will let you export the failed songs, if you want to research and fix manually.

You can integrate and sync between different devices with a Facebook or Twitter login.

I've been using the Encore version of the app since it first came out in 2009. If my memory serves, the Shazam Encore app is a one-time payment app that gets you no ads. Works for iOS or Android.

So the lack of a Sonos played history becomes a non issue.

The result for me is that the Shazam app absolutely "frees" me up to really focus in, enjoy and experience the music. I don't have to put a single ounce of thought or energy into trying to remember songs anymore.

Also, Shazam was bought by Apple last year. Their focus on privacy and not having "you" become the product by trading the service for your data was another bonus.

It's turned out to be the best 4 or 5 bucks I paid for an app. EVER.

Good luck, if you try this.