Interview

Sonos App Redesign AMA

Sonos App Redesign AMA
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770 replies

J
Userlevel 5
Badge +2

I am 100% done with Sonos. You expect people to sift through over 200 pages of random posts just to see your nonsensical, NDA loaded answers of nothingness instead of actually approaching this properly. Get a job stacking shelves it’s literally all you are good for. Pathetic. 

S
Userlevel 3
Badge +1

I just want to say there has been allot of negativity surrounding the new app launch. I just want to say the app is fantastic. I've been using it everyday since it came out last week. I know there is some future additions coming in the next weeks and will just be patient with the future roll out. Thank you Diane, Kate, Tucker, and the rest of the Sonos development team for everything you do. 

This is a joke - correct? We should be patient while we wait to get back to where we were? 

I suppose if you have one speaker and use Sonos Radio alone, it’s probably a great release.  

 

When you have 20 speakers, a NAS, and multiple streaming services, it is...not so much.

First off you obviously have no idea how to click on a persons profile to see how many Sonos products a user has or you would of not made such a ridiculous statement. Also if you had clicked on my profile you would known I DON'T use Sonos Radio. So next time do your homework. 

Second over 20 speakers? Bro you don't have 20 speakers so stop over exaggerating your circumstance. You ain't Peter Pee. 

Third, no this not a joke. I've have multiple Sonos products also multiple streaming services. Apple Music, Spotify, Amazon Music, YouTube Music, Sirius XM, Home Theater setup, etc. All of them are working great since the 80.0 update. 

Fourth, people are complaining about the missing features like the alarms, personal playlists, etc on the Sonos app. Who uses Sonos speakers for an alarm when we all have cell phones where we can customize what we wake up to in 2024? Many streaming services have personal playlists that you can customize for yourself. Why would anyone want to take up tons of memory on their phone with music when it's available on streaming music services?  Also who the heck buys music anymore?  This isn't 1994 anymore. These features that are missing are for people that don't know it's the 21st century. 


Mod edit: Removed profanity

G
Userlevel 7

Has the negative reception of the new app changed any of Sonos’ future plans? Has it delayed the release of any future products?

"Receive with simplicity everything that happens to you." - Rashi
G
Userlevel 4
Badge +1

Hello?

Is there anybody in there?

Just nod if you can hear me

Is there anyone home?

I miss my pink Floyd, it’s on my NAS drive 🥲🥲

U
Userlevel 6
Badge +1

Almost an hour in and here’s our answer count:
 

@DianeRobertsApps - 0

@KateW - 3

@tuckerseverson - 2

 

Wow…. /s

J
Userlevel 5
Badge +2

Please upvote this post: Can you please provide an immediate easy way to rollback the mobile app to the prior version for those who can’t make the current version meet their needs.

Thanks @bkk. Also, @nelliott and others had similar questions.

Rolling back to the previous version of the Sonos app is likely to cause issues. As Sonos continues to advance forward with new updates to the firmware, the old apps will fall out of compatibility quickly. Our priority is to release improvements to the Sonos app rapidly to address your needs.

Likely to cause issues? How about the issues caused with this rollout in itself? Do you actually think before you post an answer?

A
Userlevel 4

Please upvote this post: Can you please provide an immediate easy way to rollback the mobile app to the prior version for those who can’t make the current version meet their needs.

Thanks @bkk. Also, @nelliott and others had similar questions.

Rolling back to the previous version of the Sonos app is likely to cause issues. As Sonos continues to advance forward with new updates to the firmware, the old apps will fall out of compatibility quickly. Our priority is to release improvements to the Sonos app rapidly to address your needs.

Why didn’t you get the new app to the same baseline before releasing it - then there wouldn’t be an issue. Were the new headphones the driver for early unfinished release as everyone suspects???

S
Userlevel 5
Badge +2

Please upvote this post: Can you please provide an immediate easy way to rollback the mobile app to the prior version for those who can’t make the current version meet their needs.

Thanks @bkk. Also, @nelliott and others had similar questions.

Rolling back to the previous version of the Sonos app is likely to cause issues. As Sonos continues to advance forward with new updates to the firmware, the old apps will fall out of compatibility quickly. Our priority is to release improvements to the Sonos app rapidly to address your needs.

I was able to roll back on android without issue and I’m staying rolled back.

 

J
Userlevel 3

Dear Tucker

After a week of negativity and nearly an hour of silence, THIS is all you have? Mumbo jumbo?

Essentially you know better than me because I don't *develop* apps? And it's ReAlLy dIFfICuLt.....

You are a digrace and your firm could use some Comms experience to go alongside common sense.

 

T
Userlevel 2

I marked myself out on my work calendar so I could give this “event” my full attention. I’ve been waiting for this ”event” since it was announced. Am I right that there is no event? This seems to be just a dedicated forum post, where one or two questions have been answered in the first hour? Am I missing something? 

A
Userlevel 2

I’m guessing the few and far between “answers” nay responses are because they have to go through their lawyers so they don’t open themselves up to (more) legal action… 

K
Userlevel 2

Please describe what the thought processes was, going into the re-design. I understand the value of launching something new, but as a designer, I also understand that function always outweighs design.

@Bliss752 The refreshed UI design is rooted in the needs that we’ve been hearing from our listeners for years. We heard from users that the information architecture of the S2 app felt like work, particularly in navigating between multiple tabs to get core jobs done. The intent of the new app home feed is to put the most useful content and controls immediately within thumb’s reach, offering quick access to the content that means most to users, and enabling them to drive what is prioritized in their personal home experience.

“offering quick access to the content that means most to users” - you took away local libraries. 

A
Userlevel 3

Please describe what the thought processes was, going into the re-design. I understand the value of launching something new, but as a designer, I also understand that function always outweighs design.

@Bliss752 The refreshed UI design is rooted in the needs that we’ve been hearing from our listeners for years. We heard from users that the information architecture of the S2 app felt like work, particularly in navigating between multiple tabs to get core jobs done. The intent of the new app home feed is to put the most useful content and controls immediately within thumb’s reach, offering quick access to the content that means most to users, and enabling them to drive what is prioritized in their personal home experience.

 

If this is the case, why are we still forced to have Sonos Radio as a source if we never use it?  Certainly having that present isn’t serving my priorities, it’s serving Sonos’

Bumper

Please upvote this post: Can you please provide an immediate easy way to rollback the mobile app to the prior version for those who can’t make the current version meet their needs.

Thanks @bkk. Also, @nelliott and others had similar questions.

Rolling back to the previous version of the Sonos app is likely to cause issues. As Sonos continues to advance forward with new updates to the firmware, the old apps will fall out of compatibility quickly. Our priority is to release improvements to the Sonos app rapidly to address your needs.

We know this is a lie as third party apps like SonoPhone work perfectly well and it hasn’t been updated in a year. 
 

Roll back the app, get your crap together. 

S
Userlevel 2
Badge

If Sonos claims to take accessibility seriously and aim to build listening experiences that everyone can enjoy, why did you think it was a good idea to leave blind users without a working app for at least two weeks? Especially when you were fully aware the app was broken with screen readers?
As your team was aware that you would be locking out blind customers at launch, why didn't you hold off on releasing the app until accessibility was implemented?
Will you be offering full refunds to blind users who are currently unable to use the products they paid for?
How does Sonos plan to regain the trust of it's blind customers, who are still without a working and fully accessible app? Do you realize how much you have lost the trust  of the blind community?
 

I suspect they don’t have a plan but there are more than a few ambulance-chasing lawyers are looking forward to helping them have one...

R
Userlevel 4
Badge

Please describe what the thought processes was, going into the re-design. I understand the value of launching something new, but as a designer, I also understand that function always outweighs design.

@Bliss752 The refreshed UI design is rooted in the needs that we’ve been hearing from our listeners for years. We heard from users that the information architecture of the S2 app felt like work, particularly in navigating between multiple tabs to get core jobs done. The intent of the new app home feed is to put the most useful content and controls immediately within thumb’s reach, offering quick access to the content that means most to users, and enabling them to drive what is prioritized in their personal home experience.

Thanks for the reply @KateW - but I think that the main part of the (implied) question still needs addressing - what about the functionality?

R
Userlevel 5
Badge +4

I've never known a company release an app "upgrade" with so many existing KEY FEATURES missing, with the promise that they'll return over time. Bonkers!

M
Userlevel 3

Please upvote this post: Can you please provide an immediate easy way to rollback the mobile app to the prior version for those who can’t make the current version meet their needs.

Thanks @bkk. Also, @nelliott and others had similar questions.

Rolling back to the previous version of the Sonos app is likely to cause issues. As Sonos continues to advance forward with new updates to the firmware, the old apps will fall out of compatibility quickly. Our priority is to release improvements to the Sonos app rapidly to address your needs.

Our needs should have been met in the initial release - not in an after tail-chase.

S
Userlevel 5
Badge +4

Dear Tucker

After a week of negativity and nearly an hour of silence, THIS is all you have? Mumbo jumbo?

Essentially you know better than me because I don't *develop* apps? And it's ReAlLy dIFfICuLt.....

You are a digrace and your firm could use some Comms experience to go alongside common sense.

 

Remember folks, these are Senior Director and Director level folks at Sonos.  Can you imagine what’s going on at lowly Management level lol.

Sonos user since 2008. (3) Connects, (2) Connect Amps, (2) Play 1, (2) Play 3s, (1) Play 5, (1) Arc, (1) Sub, (1) Symfonisk
DianeRoberts
Userlevel 4
Badge

Sonos now claims that some of the most serious defects will be corrected in the 21 May release, but hopefully the panel can understand that there are a lot of blind people who can’t trust Sonos anymore. Given that Sonos got it so horribly wrong with this current release, why should we expect anything better in the next?

Will Sonos offer an apology to its blind users and accept that it got this wrong, and will Sonos commit to creating a Chief Accessibility Officer as a tangible commitment to ensuring this never happens again?

 

@jmosen

Thank you for your heartfelt feedback. 

 

We invested our user experience and engineering energy on supporting VoiceOver throughout this project. Unfortunately near the end, we took our eye off the ball and missed a couple of key bugs. Those bug fixes have been shipped in a release today.

 

That doesn’t mean we’re done. We have more that we want to do and will do to fine-tune the experience. This is the same kind of fine-tuning we are doing for the visual experience. In a visual UI that means adjusting the gutters between items on screen. In a spoken UI it means adding more hints about how to navigate. We look forward to tweaking those and making the experience get continually better.

I understand that we have to rebuild your trust. We will only be able to do that by improving the experience. Any words we say will be incomplete. I am sorry that we missed this.

 

Our next step involves building a hearty beta community of vision impaired users. Today we have 30 visually impaired users on the beta of the next version of the app. The next version already has several improvements beyond the bug fixes we shipped today.


 

C
Userlevel 5
Badge +2

Final nail in the coffin. I will be moving to Roon, so I am not tied down to a single manufacturer.

I will be flogging my equipment on ebay if any of you are interested. This shower of sh!t are a disgrace.

Actually roon (and MediaMonkey, USB Audio Player and others) will play through Sonos speakers. I almost never used the old  Sonos app and have no plans to use this new dog's breakfast. Keep the speakers, ditch the app.

But how long will the Sonos speakers continue to support these platforms? Sonos have proven they have no qualms about removing essential functionality from their products, without warning. Who’s to say that the local APIs needed by other platforms won’t be next on the chopping block?

P
Userlevel 4
Badge +2

What was the thought process behind releasing the app update in an obviously unfinished state, instead of waiting for critical issues to be resolved?

Thank you @veryblocky @YorkSteve @umiami91. Since you all had similar questions, I’d like to answer them together.

An app is never finished! 

It’s probably a good idea to give you some background. This is a new app - we started from an empty project file. As the project progressed, we stopped investing our time in the old app code. Over time we “cross-faded” our engineering attention into the new app. We need to make the new app be the app going forward so we stop splitting our attention.

We decided that now is the moment to bring you the new app. This is the beginning, and we will be continually iterating going forward. As I said - an app is never finished.

@tuckerseverson you do know that answer will be quoted on all the main tech news websites tomorrow?  Would you care to add more details?

“We decided that now is the moment to bring you the new app.” based on what? It’s broken.

(!) Something went wrong.
I
Userlevel 4

What was the thought process behind releasing the app update in an obviously unfinished state, instead of waiting for critical issues to be resolved?

Thank you @veryblocky @YorkSteve @umiami91. Since you all had similar questions, I’d like to answer them together.

An app is never finished! 

It’s probably a good idea to give you some background. This is a new app - we started from an empty project file. As the project progressed, we stopped investing our time in the old app code. Over time we “cross-faded” our engineering attention into the new app. We need to make the new app be the app going forward so we stop splitting our attention.

We decided that now is the moment to bring you the new app. This is the beginning, and we will be continually iterating going forward. As I said - an app is never finished.

Really BAD decision

For an effective release at minimum your requiremts should be listed under Must,  Should & Could. You do not release unless the Must list is complete & you're confident it is bug free.

My suspicion is that the developers did their own testing (never a goid idea) & you skipped UAT!

G
Userlevel 6
Badge +1

Please describe what the thought processes was, going into the re-design. I understand the value of launching something new, but as a designer, I also understand that function always outweighs design.

@Bliss752 The refreshed UI design is rooted in the needs that we’ve been hearing from our listeners for years. We heard from users that the information architecture of the S2 app felt like work, particularly in navigating between multiple tabs to get core jobs done. The intent of the new app home feed is to put the most useful content and controls immediately within thumb’s reach, offering quick access to the content that means most to users, and enabling them to drive what is prioritized in their personal home experience.

Sorry, but you are continuously missing the point.  Try looking at this from the end users’ viewpoint, and not from corporate-Sonos-office’s viewpoint.  A redesign of something such that the original functions are removed is not a redesign.  If you do that, you get the tsunami of annoyed customers shouting at you.  

Please, just give us 16.1 until you sort out the new app.  THAT WILL SOLVE EVERYTHING FOR YOU.

 

G
Userlevel 7
Badge +8

Please upvote this post: Can you please provide an immediate easy way to rollback the mobile app to the prior version for those who can’t make the current version meet their needs.

Thanks @bkk. Also, @nelliott and others had similar questions.

Rolling back to the previous version of the Sonos app is likely to cause issues. As Sonos continues to advance forward with new updates to the firmware, the old apps will fall out of compatibility quickly. Our priority is to release improvements to the Sonos app rapidly to address your needs.

So @tuckerseverson you are saying we have to live with reduced functionality until you catch up? Surely you can see that this is not working for us.

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