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Today is the day of the AMA!

The new app design has been out for a week, and most of you have had a chance to get used to the new UI.

Some of you might have questions when you have had a week to get to know the new Sonos App interface. Because of that, we want to give you all a chance to ask some of the people who were integral in its creation and design, the questions that have come to mind while you have used the app.

As we mentioned in the event.

Our panelists will be:

  • Diane Roberts, Senior Director of Software Development
  • Kate Wojogbe, Senior Director of User Experience
  • Tucker Severson, Director of Product Management

It will be hosted on the 14th of May from 11:00 until 14:00 GMT -07.

But instead of me telling you what they do and what their role with the app update has been, here are their own introductions:

 

Diane

Diane Roberts is the Senior Director of Software Engineering and Product Management at Sonos responsible for the Sonos Apps. Her group of cross-disciplinary teams build Configuration, Control, and Content experiences on a foundation of Core mobile application technologies. She received dual Bachelors’ of Science in Computer Science and Music from WPI. Diane holds 6 granted patents as a co-inventor.

 

Kate

As Senior Director of User Experience, Kate leads the UX team responsible for Sonos’ home audio hardware, software, and app user experiences. This includes user interfaces on speakers and soundbars, setup for hardware and services, first and third party content experiences, and a variety of methods of control of the Sonos system. Kate graduated from the University of California Los Angeles with a Bachelor of Arts degree in Design.

 

Tucker

Tucker Severson is the Director of Product Management and leads the PM team responsible for the Sonos Apps. Tucker received his BA from Bates College and his MBA from the University of Vermont.

 

We will do our best to answer as many of your questions as possible within the 3-hour window, but we can’t promise to answer every question, especially those you know we can’t discuss.

But if we see a question repeated or a reply getting a lot of likes, don’t worry. We will prioritize those to ensure that many people get the answers they seek.

 

Remember, we can’t talk about things on the roadmap - but if you have questions or feedback about the app redesign, want to know more about our panelists, like their background or favorite band, then the sky is the (cough cough.. NDA) limit!

Thank you, everyone, for participating. We covered as many of the most asked questions as possible. We know tracking the responses wasn't as easy as we had hoped. But we wanted to let the community air frustrations and have their questions answered.

I got a lot of DMs during the AMA, and I will be sure to answer them when I can. Thanks for reaching out!

Keith and I will work on recapping all the questions and feedback we have responded to, and we will update the post here when that is complete. If we didn't get to your question, don't worry. Keith and I are grabbing all the feedback from this thread, even the things we didn't respond to, and ensuring the right people will see the message. This was the first time we created a live AMA in the community, and we learned a lot for future AMAs.

We appreciate all the feedback and questions you gave through this AMA. It helps us understand your most significant feedback and your reasoning. We hear you, and we will ensure the right teams get your feedback. They are listening.

We look forward to rolling out the updates with features (new and old) as soon as they are ready. Keith shared an overview of the timeline for expecting these features to return to the app. Today was the first update, reintroducing alarms and improving the iOS voiceover.

We look forward to seeing your reactions to our future app developments. We hope you all appreciate the work our developers are putting into making the app as fast and easy to use as possible for the general user.
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So many features missing, but one of the CORE BASIC functions of a CONTROLLER app should be to CONTROL what songs play and in what order. However, I can't really do that because you removed any kind of queue management. How is this remotely a useful controller app?

How is something that eliminated half the features an "upgrade"? I do not think that word means what you think it means.

Btw, please be aware that many of us are waiting for some kind of apology before we're willing to trust you for anything again. Please acknowledge that you have done damage here. Otherwise it seems like you just don't get what basically ALL of your customers are saying, and I see no reason to spend any more money on any of your products in the future.

 


Wow... what the heck is Hhappening?


I cannot comment enough on the level of disrespect you are showing your customer base by not fixing this AMA…total radio silence.  Where is the video link, panel to answer questions???  This is absolutely appalling…you don’t deserve to be in business!


Why should we trust Sonos?


For everyone who is waiting, it can take a while unfortunately.The whole Management is looking for the trainee and Stevie wonder who developed this app. 


Everyone should send an email to the CEO right now so he can watch this horrific failure: ceo@sonos.com

done.


Re Muting speakers:

When will the mute function return?

Apparently it’s been relocated to this AMA.

 


Re: Checking battery charge level on portable devices

 

This used to show up at a glance when you viewed your list of speakers. Now it’s buried three layers deep and you have to check each device individually, then back out and click some more to get to the next device. When will this be fixed?


Why should we continue to invest in your speakers given how dismissive you have been of the issues raised about the new app?


This just gets worse...as a stockholder and as someone who has always pushed and bragged about your products, I am truly disappointed (once again).


so is nobody from sonos going to answer to the angry public and own up to the mistakes you have made??

everybody involved in releasing this app should either be fired or stand down immediately!!

This app is a complete disaster, and I think everybody here will agree with that. The only way forward it to pull this app and rerelease the old one and go back to  the drawing board. 

Scrap the new app and start again but when the new one is finally ready with all the existing features, present and working, only then should it be released to the public


re: iOS

Why are the radius corners on the boxes so round? Even on the bottom?

  • it’s very extravagant
  • it’s a waste of valuable screen space

What is the design logic? UI logic? UX logic?


@Mike R. H. -

 

What’s happening here?? Is there actually going to be a response from ANYONE from Sonos in this AMA?

 

 


Perhaps we should all have a sing-song while we wait for somebody from Sonos to show up.  


Now that you are centrally gathering usage data from every single device (to make the web app work) is it your intention to sell any of that data, or any statistics derived from that data, to third parties?


The whole Management is looking for the trainee and Stevie wonder who developed this app. 

Ignoring the ableist joke to point out that had Stevie Wonder been involved, blind users wouldn’t have lost screen reader functionality. 


Folks it’s time to report this to the tech pubs (Wired, GeekWire, Consumer Reports, +++)

This LAME AMA further shows Sonos is laughing at us en mass.   Wasting more of our precious time. 

 


30 minutes in and nothing from the Sonos Team. I’m off.


Does play.sonos.com share any technical underpinnings with the SONOS pro web service?


Maybe the Sonos team is waiting for us to leave before they start.


I still can’t find the link to actually listen to the AMA. Is it here but inaccessible somehow? Could someone please just add the direct link?


I had the app push an update out to my speakers today and it broke what WAS working.  Plus it won’t let me update my music library with the old app on my un-updated iPad. 

Does the new app completely deprecate SonosNet?  Because I am using a Boost too and it seems to always want to run my speakers on regular WiFi.


30 mins in now with no replies from Sonos.  This is absolutely riveting! 


Maybe they've all been fired. 🤷‍♂️


All panelists from this AMA are MIA...