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The bright background on new SONOS app release is not an improvement.
It's too bright in a dark room, intrusive, hard too see in a light room, and it eats my battery.
Don't like it.
Users speak up. If enough people ask, maybe the app developer will listen.
Brighter is not better.
Please give us back the dark background theme.
It's too bright in a dark room, intrusive, hard too see in a light room, and it eats my battery.
Don't like it.
Users speak up. If enough people ask, maybe the app developer will listen.
Brighter is not better.
Please give us back the dark background theme.
I agree - I much preferred the dark background. I hope this can be changed back.
Userlevel 3
Just want to add my voice here - I was horrified when I installed the latest update on my iPad, saw that the background had been changed to white and there was no obvious way to switch it back. It's intolerably bright in low light. Please give us the option to return to a darker setting.
Userlevel 2
It defies belief if dark mode was removed. I can’t stand the white background.
Userlevel 3
Yes I agree. The beta testing, if there was any that involved users, obviously didn’t involve the Sonos community in an opinion poll. The new version isn’t intuitive at all. It’s too bright, clunky n clumsy and offers no improvement in functionality. In fact when using the volume control on the iPhone the app has a few seconds delay before responding. I’m not impressed. Bring back the dark skin or else give users a choice. Please do it quickly 😞
Userlevel 2
Absolutely agree here -- at a minimum we need Dark Mode as an option. I can deal with all the other changes in the v8.0 Controller app just fine but being forced to use a white version of this app is unacceptable. Even when I dim my iPhone screen significantly it is still atrocious. By design, your app now has so much whitespace that it's like having a flashlight on in the room when I just want some nice ambience with my music. From an Accessibility standpoint, this new version of the Controller app also makes it harder for me to read. Not good at all.
Userlevel 2
Agreed, I miss the dark theme. Currently the screen is unpleasant on the eyes, also with reduced brightness. And the dark theme was just so much cooler.
Userlevel 3
+1
Indeed, the screen is WAY to bright! At least give me the option for a dark background.
What I find odd, is that it is difficult to believe, that once the developers said the app was ready, that the hierarchy at Sonos got round the boardroom table, and basically approved the app with all the white background.
Did they not even put themselves in their customer's position, and imagine that as they now sell their system as a home cinema surround, as well as just a music system, that people may want to use the app in subdued or non-lit environments.
As someone previously said on here, it's like turning on the torch on your phone!
Did they not even put themselves in their customer's position, and imagine that as they now sell their system as a home cinema surround, as well as just a music system, that people may want to use the app in subdued or non-lit environments.
As someone previously said on here, it's like turning on the torch on your phone!
Userlevel 2
Agree. I find the white very unattractive.
No, they don't need to change it back - give us the option of both (or more!)
Whoever is in charge of the new app design totally dropped the ball on that one. How a company like Sonos can let this slip is completely beyond me.
So you have UI designer that thought white background was a good idea.
A product manager that's happy with it too.
A project manager that can't be bothered.
Developers that didn't care.
QA team that did not mind.
A CTO which did not take a look at the app.
A CEO that's just using voice control.
Anyone on that chain surely lacks the passion your users have for your products. Hope it gets fixed soon.
So you have UI designer that thought white background was a good idea.
A product manager that's happy with it too.
A project manager that can't be bothered.
Developers that didn't care.
QA team that did not mind.
A CTO which did not take a look at the app.
A CEO that's just using voice control.
Anyone on that chain surely lacks the passion your users have for your products. Hope it gets fixed soon.
Also, if SONOS is listening to their customers and decide to bring back the darker theme, please also bring back the very cool artwork overlay as well (the image of the artwork of the current song playing as a blurred background under the entire app interface). This was such a nice and tastefully done feature. It showed that SONOS (and their app) is all about the music and appreciated the artwork that so many of us make sure is in tact for every song, even if we ripped it from a CD 10 years ago.
Everyone who looked at the music playing (from my iPad on my fridge) said, 'Wow, what app is that? That looks very cool'. And, indeed, it was. Dark, slightly transparent, sleek, cool with tasteful and subtle design. I do wish developers would put design and personality back into their apps. Making everything white, replacing icons with words and making everything look cold and sterile does not make the app attractive or easier to use. Quite the opposite is true, actually.
Again, just because Apple does the boring white thing with zero personality doesn't mean other developers should follow. Apple does many things right, but their recent interface and UI designs are not among them.
Everyone who looked at the music playing (from my iPad on my fridge) said, 'Wow, what app is that? That looks very cool'. And, indeed, it was. Dark, slightly transparent, sleek, cool with tasteful and subtle design. I do wish developers would put design and personality back into their apps. Making everything white, replacing icons with words and making everything look cold and sterile does not make the app attractive or easier to use. Quite the opposite is true, actually.
Again, just because Apple does the boring white thing with zero personality doesn't mean other developers should follow. Apple does many things right, but their recent interface and UI designs are not among them.
In this age of time this is not difficult to implement !:?
Agreed... I can totally understand that the space required to provide flexibility may be restricted on the players, but that's not the case for all modern controllers. Any half-way decent piece of modern software usually allows the user to tailor important aspects. I haven't 'upgraded' to the latest version, but even v7.1 is a nightmare on Android phones and tablets in a room with low lighting. It's hard to believe that any professional software designer could have come up with this, but then I don't think that UI issues are Sonos's forte...
Userlevel 3
Ryan, the whole controller software is a major step backwards! Nothing is better, but a lot is wrong! It is a nightmare to switch between rooms. I hate to press 5 times more button than normally needed. It's time to fire your software designers!
Give us options to use our preference.
In this age of time this is not difficult to implement !:?
In this age of time this is not difficult to implement !:?
Userlevel 2
Totally, agree. It's far too bright. Please give us the option, or if that's not possible, just change it back to the dark background.
Userlevel 1
It's too bright in a dark room, intrusive, hard too see in a light room, and it eats my battery.
Don't like it.
Users speak up. If enough people ask, maybe the app developer will listen.
Brighter is not better.
Please give us back the dark background theme.
Signed up just to agree with this. If you're going to change the app from dark to bright after years of it being dark at least give us the option to have a dark theme.
I don't like the updated white background. Please give us the option to change it.
Userlevel 1
White background is horrible, cant believe there is no option for both light and dark and such a premium product,
Userlevel 1
As an 82 year old techie I can quickly grasp the nuances of most apps. However, the latest iteration of the Sonos app. appears to obey Parkinson's First Law of Economics : Every improvement is a deterioration. The new Sonos thing is far too bright, a real pain to navigate and often appears to have a life of it's own. At least give us a choice of background colour and I'll struggle along with the rest.
I think that the user should always have options within an app, and as someone who has spent a small fortune on Sonos equipment, I do think that I am entitled to at least an OPTION to toggle back to a sleek darker interface with blurred artwork in the background, because that's what I prefer, and the option should be mine. Regardless of what you've spent or how many Sonos speakers you own, you should have options and preferences to suit your personal aesthetic.
This 'everything white and sterile look because that's what's in now, and no, you can't change it' attitude is obnoxious from Apple, but downright ballsy from Sonos. If you like a white garish interface where song/album artwork looks ridiculous in a sea of white, and black text that gets drowned out by the white background, then it should be YOUR option.
The Sonos App is a necessary accessory to Sonos speakers/hardware, not something a customer chooses as a music player, so I don't think the overall design should only be in the eye of a handful of developers who felt like copying Apple's UI design. When I decided to jump into the Sonos world (leaving an AirPlay based Bowers & Wilkins multi room system behind), the app design was attractive, and helped my decision.
A white user interface simply doesn't make sense as a music player (it looks like the artwork and icons are sitting in a Finder or Explorer window). A darker interface helps blend into the device that the music is playing from, therefore offering an attractive addition to any room that this device is in. It made that device look like it was just the music player, and it was. Now, it looks like just a plain App playing music to state of the art equipment.
Changing the app drastically without user options feels as though Sonos has changed my overall music playing experience, especially when various iPads act like virtual and visual players throughout my home. Sonos and their developers need to realize that the Sonos App IS our hi-fi system, our rack system and our bookshelf system of past decades, so let us decide what it looks like.
This 'everything white and sterile look because that's what's in now, and no, you can't change it' attitude is obnoxious from Apple, but downright ballsy from Sonos. If you like a white garish interface where song/album artwork looks ridiculous in a sea of white, and black text that gets drowned out by the white background, then it should be YOUR option.
The Sonos App is a necessary accessory to Sonos speakers/hardware, not something a customer chooses as a music player, so I don't think the overall design should only be in the eye of a handful of developers who felt like copying Apple's UI design. When I decided to jump into the Sonos world (leaving an AirPlay based Bowers & Wilkins multi room system behind), the app design was attractive, and helped my decision.
A white user interface simply doesn't make sense as a music player (it looks like the artwork and icons are sitting in a Finder or Explorer window). A darker interface helps blend into the device that the music is playing from, therefore offering an attractive addition to any room that this device is in. It made that device look like it was just the music player, and it was. Now, it looks like just a plain App playing music to state of the art equipment.
Changing the app drastically without user options feels as though Sonos has changed my overall music playing experience, especially when various iPads act like virtual and visual players throughout my home. Sonos and their developers need to realize that the Sonos App IS our hi-fi system, our rack system and our bookshelf system of past decades, so let us decide what it looks like.
I strongly agree with this so much it hurts. Just update the app on my iPad and it is now a truly awful experience to use. It's not just the terribly bright white background but the fact that the whole interface has been dumbed down and broken over so many screens. What was shown on a single screen in the previous version, with access to the play controls, volume, album art, queue, and library navigation is now broken into a whole load of separate screens. Just ludicrous with so much of the iPads screen real estate totally wasted and just displaying bright white.
An outcome of this breaking up of the main screen is that to access much of what used to be there now requires several more actions on the part of the user. Shouldn't "improvements" be just that. This isn't one of them. This is a MAJOR step backwards.
Fair enough - that works for me!
Truly un-inspired 'upgrade'. The white background is far too bright and left to right scrolling of favourites more clunky than up/down scrolling. I suspect this is just change for change's sake with no real end-user testing.
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