Wishlist for Sonos Controller Improvements


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So on the old ask forum wishlist items would get lost. Thought I would post a topic where people could vote their biggest wish for controller software improvements.

Wishlist Items for Controller


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When a playbar is bonded with surround I'd like an option that, when playing music, switches off the surround.. Surround switches back on when TV is selected..

A sort of TV or Line in autoplay, but with the on/off..

AUTO SURROUND SWITCH


I'd like this too, and it could be completely automatic because music is always stereo-only.
Having had a party where more than one guest decided to take control of my system from their phones, I'd like some kind of optional PIN or login for different controllers, i.e. a guest mode.
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Would be great to have the music controls on the lock screen, just like Apple Music, Spotify and just about every other music app out there since 2013 http://cdn.iphonehacks.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/06/ios-7-lockscreen-scrubber-bar.jpg
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Jaws - my top request. I would like to see setting where you can activate secure mode that requires pin entered to give full control to a controller (otherwise grouping, queue manipulation other than add, and volume locked)

Brining - lock control is available on android. They tried on iOS but had some issues and pulled it a year or so ago. No info on future availability.
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A minor thing, but one I've always missed in iTunes and am now missing in the OS X Sonos Controller: Let me press SHIFT-Pause to fade out gently.
Stopping a piece of music before its time has come is a cruel thing to do. Sometimes, it's necessary, so I like to be able to do it gently.
Winamp used to have this!
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Yes. There has been request before for a fade out option when stopping music. Especially when listening to a song and chose another. Instead of hard cutoff a soft fade out of the current playing.
All the features in the world are pointless If you cannot read the screen - ahhhhhh
I can see requests going back years for an option to change the colour scheme for the Sonos Controller for PC - dark blue and grey on black is unreadable. This has to be a glaring issue and such as easy one to fix. PLEASE
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There have been a few requests over the years for the personal preference of color change on desktop app. There have been many many more requests to leave alone the desktop app. As has been said, don't expect to see any interface changes to of version. If there were to be changes it would more likely be moving it toward the mobile version which a lot of people have protested against.
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There have been a few requests over the years for the personal preference of color change on desktop app. There have been many many more requests to leave alone the desktop app. As has been said, don't expect to see any interface changes to of version. If there were to be changes it would more likely be moving it toward the mobile version which a lot of people have protested against.

I'm sure what you are saying is true. But from design point of view the desktop app is god damn awful. Atleast give us flat design, sharp edges (retina friendly) and better choice of colours.
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It is a rather old interface point taken. But fee have complained about the look and many have complained asking for it not to be replaced.
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I'm sure that's the case. But it cannot always be up to the users to decide. pixellated icons and fuzzy graphics cannot be the "sonos spirit" 2016. You guys should be on the bleeding edge when it comes to sound and design. I believe a small refresh is valid here.

I don't know how to argue against those who still want the old design but most of the complaints I have seen concerned early version 5, where people might have gotten upset due to rapid design changes rather than bad design. Maybe they are more ready now.
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Can't be up to users? You must have not seen the 5.0 fury....and there are still people who dislike but stopped complaining.
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If you prefer bright orange, you can cast directly from google play android, and not use sonos app at all.
I would also like full controller customization but what I would really like is for when my alarm goes off in the morning and I turn my iPhone on the room that is being used is the room displayed not the last room used. I shouldn't have to look for which room to control if there's only one room in use.
In addition it would be nice to be able to set up Zone Group favourites like (1) All Speakers, (2) Living Room and Kitchen, (3) Kitchen and Balcony, (4) Bedroom, Living Room and KItchen and stuff like that. This way the alarm clock could be configured correctly for a specific group, e.g. for group (4), too. At the moment it's either "bedroom only" or "bedroom + whatever was grouped before". If balcony was in the group, you have music outside at 7AM - which is very annoying.
ANDROID
1) Add hamburger menu in all settings screens in order to return to other parts of the app.

REASON: I installed dedicated in wall POE android tablets as permanent sonos controllers; eliminating the HOME, BACK, and RECENTS buttons and forcing the OS to run only the Sonos App. It's impossible to return to the rest of the app once tapping on settings currently.

2) Add kiosk mode so people can't mess with the settings; lock out settings with a PIN.
The OS X version of Sonos Controller needs a complete redesign, downloaded it at Christmas when I got my Sonos speaker and it looks quite dated. It doesn't match up with the iOS app which I suspect has been given priority over the OS X app. Various attributes are pixelated within the app, as others have posted in various topics, also needed are easier navigation and a better UI.
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I just moved from Squeezebox to Sonos this weekend and like a lot of old Squeeze users, I already miss the Random Mix function that would let me select whichever genres I wanted to include. Adding entire genres to the queue is not a good solution, especially when I want to combine a few genres that would total over 10K songs. The Squeeze functionality keeps a queue of something like 30 songs and updates it with each new song.

Cheers, all.
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You can setup to play the squeeze server on Sonos.
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You can setup to play the squeeze server on Sonos.

Good to know -- thanks, Chris. I'll look for the info.
I was looking to see if there was a way to save groups of speakers given the ongoing pain of having to regroup each time I want to listen in one room vs many rooms etc. .
This issue was raised 2 years ago, a Sonos rep said 'Great idea' and moved to a wishlist improvements thread now deleted.
There seems a continual grumbling of good ideas never acted on.
Is there any evidence that suggested improvements are acted on and incorporated into updates?
I wonder if the Sonos team actually use their gear as they must be frustrated by the poor usability of the controller in some areas too.
As someone really liking the overall concept it is disappointing to see so little investment in the controller experience.
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I was looking to see if there was a way to save groups of speakers given the ongoing pain of having to regroup each time I want to listen in one room vs many rooms etc. .
This issue was raised 2 years ago, a Sonos rep said 'Great idea' and moved to a wishlist improvements thread now deleted.
There seems a continual grumbling of good ideas never acted on.
Is there any evidence that suggested improvements are acted on and incorporated into updates?
I wonder if the Sonos team actually use their gear as they must be frustrated by the poor usability of the controller in some areas too.
As someone really liking the overall concept it is disappointing to see so little investment in the controller experience.



Sonos can't win really. They do update the software on the controllers and the Player firmware regularly and have brought numerous improvements and enhancements and you can be sure that some of them are informed by users posting in this forum.

Personally I find the grouping of speakers to be so easy and quick that to describe it as an "on-going pain" is really rather overstating the case
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My wishlist. I have 30,000 tracks, 8 sonos units, been using it extensively for 5 years now. Overall it is a fantastic product but there are quite a few things that are missing.

1) better playlist management - one of the weakest areas of the interface
- import / export playlists - this is my biggest one. esp. export, so I can merge with other playlists and re-import
-add track to multiple playlists at once
- longer playlist names
-tie tracks together so on random play some tracks still play in sequence
-merge playlists
- 2 clicks to add track to a playlist (not 6!)
- better editing capability (move tracks, find duplicates, sort, etc)
2) adjustable crossfade
3) loudness button for zones on main screen... Loudness is a temporary setting for low level listening! Why make me trot through levels of menus to get to it?
4) better equalizer - just treble and bass is not an equalizer! They are tone controls, then put them on the play screen
5) wildcards for track searches... if you don't put the title in EXACTLY right sonos won't find it. or at least support fuzzy searches.
6)Option to show bitrate for streaming sources (well, library tracks too)
7) ability to "play next", move track order in the "now playing" queue (currently clicking on a track immediately plays it)
😎 on portable models separate equalizer settings for headphone jacks
9) play sonos on my computer... I would pay for this, like a sonos connect price (less hardware cost) But I understand you won't do this for obvious reasons.
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Please, add controls to the iOS-device lock screen. Having to unlock my device every time I want change volume, skip songs or any other activity is really annoying.
@chiron see the reply by ex_on to this post on reddit https://www.reddit.com/r/sonos/comments/4d0jts/quicksonos/