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.
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 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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You’ve made our speakers open to the internet via the new web app without our consent and without two-factor authentication for security. You’ve demoted local library music so much that it’s practically impossible to find our music (no search, poor A-Z scrolling) plus there is no way to update the index of the library.
Is this legitimate? Can you provide more info on how this is happening? Highly concerning.
Go to play.sonos.com, log in. See your speakers. Do it from outside your network, still see your speakers. There is no tfa or mfa options, only password. This is not good security practice.
I just tried this, and my speakers really are accessible from outside my network. That's it Sonos I’m done!!!!!
What are you doing?
Mod Edit: removed the profanity
I know others have mentioned it but would love to know more about the web app and having the ability to disable it. What security precautions are taken, etc.
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.
Absolutely unprofessional - to say the least.
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?
No Derrick it is not a joke.
Wow SSL you are an easy one to please.
Pretty much and the things that I am wanting I voice my option and patiently wait for them.
Example when Sonos screwed up True play. Voiced my option and eventually they fixed it.
I noticed that the re-introduction of alarms actually required an update to Sonos devices as well as the app today. Does this mean that the new UI revamp was in fact much more than just a revamp to the UI? Are there currently bigger changes happening on the device side as well?
@Aleksander H
The app is definitely a revamp, but it’s not just the UI that changed! This new app is using new features on the speaker firmware and new cloud services as well. Let me share a bit more about what happened with alarm settings.
On the morning of the app launch, we discovered a data corruption error around the new Alarms APIs. The corruption could cause alarms to go off in the wrong room at the wrong volume with the wrong content! In order to save your alarms, we made the difficult decision to remotely disable the alarm settings feature and then completely lock it out. It allowed us to make sure your alarms stayed as they were - but at the steep cost of taking away your ability to change them yourself.
The team rallied to make sure we could turn this feature back on safely - and today we are so delighted to say that we have re-enabled alarm settings. To get this feature, you must do a full system update.
But that’s not how we expect to introduce features every time. We have built the new app to be able to update independently of the speaker firmware. As we go forward, you can expect us to bring out new features with smaller, less intrusive, updates.
ap launch should have been delayed is there was data corruption in it. There is no reason or excuse that you can give as to why this app was launched in this condition. Has anybody at sonos every heard of an apology?? you really need to look up the meaning of the word and then give one
Hi AMA team! I almost always use my Sonos devices in groups, and with the new app, handling of group volumes is worse. Not only does it not change in real-time like the former app, you end up with a UI pop-up on top of the volume slider I am using to adjust the volume. See the video below of before and after. Will this be fixed in a future app update?
@mdpeterman
A key part of this new app was using the newer Sonos APIs, which means we did indeed rewrite the volume experience entirely. Until this new update, our app was using an older set of technology based on UPnP and SOAP.
Thank you for sharing the videos. I will make sure the team sees these so that we can continue to iterate and improve in upcoming releases.
@DianeRobertsApps @tuckerseverson @KateW Regardless of newer technology, did you at any point compare the experience of the new app to the old and say I’m happy this ready for production? Because users don’t care if it uses SOAP or RESTful APIs, they just want to be able to use their products without troubleshooting issues and a good app is the interface that makes that happen.
Currently this new app is far from being a seamless user experience!
Please add the option to remove Sonos Radio, just like every other service.
I agree with this.
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.
@KateW Understood. @tuckerseverson Given the fact that this new app is just that a, new app not just a UI redesign; What was the thinking of not sunsetting S2 and introducing the new app as S3 in beta? It could have very well given your user-base the information to plan migrations or to understand when would be the right time to switch app architectures.
With large changes like this, clarity is key. As a user, I went to bed with an app I could use with a layout I could manage, and woke up to my alarms blaring and a completely new app.
Even though everybody is clamoring for a rollback I’m sure it won’t happen. So, scale up and fix this—quickly. That’s the only apology we really want. Fix your mess and do it rapidly. You’ve got plenty of data on what those current issues are, too. In the meantime the people that built your company feel completely bamboozled and will continue to be in an uproar.
As someone who was about spend a not inconsiderable amount of money to replace my NAS please can Sonos please provide some clarity on future functionality in the near future.
Specifically is SMB v1 gone (confused as my very old NAS seems to be working still)? Are the SMB v2 bugs I heard people using SMB v1 to avoid fixed? Will search and navigation in the app be fixed to make using a NAS and local library worthwhile again?
Thanks
I’d really like my speakers to just show up after restarting the app. Every time, I reset the app, find my speakers on the local network, sign in, and the speakers are gone. Okay. Re-add the Boost. Speakers appear. Get out of the app and back in again? Speakers are gone.
I’m glad it works for some people. It doesn’t work at ALL in my experience. And I’ve repeated the setup multiple times and get the same thing.
In terms of this new API (I guess v2?), is Sonos going to extend it to other Service Vendors like Plex to incorporate into their support of Sonos products? How will it effect those of us who have Local NAS systems that power their libraries? Will Users be given the ability to disable outside access if we don’t want it? I’d like to keep my speakers local and internal to my network.
A key part of this new app was using the newer Sonos APIs, which means we did indeed rewrite the volume experience entirely. Until this new update, our app was using an older set of technology based on UPnP and SOAP.
Please, make local APIs well-documented for free, or if that is already the case, issue a statement that everything that can be done with the speakers is available via this local API and will remain so, with a link to the documentation.
End users may never trust the software team again until that trust is earned back, but if someone can create their own paid apps that solve the missing functionality, that may end up being best for everyone.
The new app has the ability to organise sections on the home screen (recently played, favourites, services, sources). But it doesn’t have the ability to organise sub-sections within the favourites section. Please consider adding this functionality.
All I want is to be able to listen to music from my local library. Right now I’m able to access the files, but I can’t add them to a playlist (all my previews playlists, consisting of local music, are gone as well). Cover art is not showing as well. Please tell me that this function is still a priority to you. I didn’t invest in my Sonos system to be eventually be forced to pay for a streaming service…
I am not sure that this format for an AMA was appropriate. You basically have people posting hundreds of questions with responses coming based on the popularity of the question. How is this different than any other forum within the community? So, I am expected to scroll through 22+ pages of questions to figure out what has been asked and answered? And the amount of pages are growing by the minute.
Why didn’t you do a Teams/Zoom meeting? Or even a Twitch event would have been better than this!!!
@KateW
When the app was getting ready to be released, what were your personal feelings regarding the new app?
Did you anticipate that it would be so poorly received?
I noticed that the re-introduction of alarms actually required an update to Sonos devices as well as the app today. Does this mean that the new UI revamp was in fact much more than just a revamp to the UI? Are there currently bigger changes happening on the device side as well?
@Aleksander H
The app is definitely a revamp, but it’s not just the UI that changed! This new app is using new features on the speaker firmware and new cloud services as well. Let me share a bit more about what happened with alarm settings.
On the morning of the app launch, we discovered a data corruption error around the new Alarms APIs. The corruption could cause alarms to go off in the wrong room at the wrong volume with the wrong content! In order to save your alarms, we made the difficult decision to remotely disable the alarm settings feature and then completely lock it out. It allowed us to make sure your alarms stayed as they were - but at the steep cost of taking away your ability to change them yourself.
The team rallied to make sure we could turn this feature back on safely - and today we are so delighted to say that we have re-enabled alarm settings. To get this feature, you must do a full system update.
But that’s not how we expect to introduce features every time. We have built the new app to be able to update independently of the speaker firmware. As we go forward, you can expect us to bring out new features with smaller, less intrusive, updates.
Once again, you Sonos folks like to pat yourself on the back for returning features that you removed in the first place. By saying that you “rallied” to bring back this functionality makes it sound as if you were doing battle on our behalf when the fact of the matter is you were doing battle to try to recover from your own ineptitude. I do NOT care what the background is about the removal of the alarm functionality. You just should not have put out this new app without actually beta testing it and running it through QA first. And when you put out a new app of such magnitude, you need to give people a warning about what might be missing if they upgrade. Long story short, you had your own internal reasons for putting out this app that had ABSOLUTELY NOTHING TO DO WITH YOUR CUSTOMERS and everything to do with your own selfish reasons.
As someone who was about spend a not inconsiderable amount of money to replace my NAS please can Sonos please provide some clarity on future functionality in the near future.
Specifically is SMB v1 gone (confused as my very old NAS seems to be working still)? Are the SMB v2 bugs I heard people using SMB v1 to avoid fixed? Will search and navigation in the app be fixed to make using a NAS and local library worthwhile again?
Thanks
SMB v1 is gone. I can confirm SMB v2 works just fine. Keep in mind though, once you approach 65,000 tracks it can get dicey.
Will Patrick Spence have the courage to make an open apology to all the SONOS users in regards of the new app release?
If he doesn’t, he should resign, because if Sonos don’t admit their mistake there will be massive backlash…as is blatantly obvious from this AMA.
…and users will choose to either wait for an online old version or compatible alternative, and/or start looking for a new brand of products. Three months on, watch the share price collapse…then Patrick Spence will no longer be CEO.
Show genuine humility Patrick. This is New Coke. An absolute case study of an internal echo chamber deciding what users should want, rather than working with the loyal community that has built up around Sonos since it started….and I’ve been there since those very early days.
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?
No Derrick it is not a joke.
Wow SSL you are an easy one to please.
Pretty much and the things that I am wanting I voice my option and patiently wait for them.
Example when Sonos screwed up True play. Voiced my option and eventually they fixed it.
well if that works for you...I prefer that companies that I spend hard earned money on respect that and do their job, If they mess up - apologize and make it right. I see none of that from Sonos.
Why was the app released when, by your own admission "there is still more work to be done"? Why didn't you ensure that all features met the standards of your listeners before releasing it?
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 the heck 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.
Not that I NEED to prove anything to you, @SonosSpotifyLover, I’m going to choose to because you’re being a dick. Some people DO use their systems different than you do and you saying “It’s 2024 and use your watch and quit complaining about your systems doing less than they did yesterday if they work at all”. That’s 28 if you don’t want to do the math. Okay, okay, TWO are Boosts, but some of us can back up what we say in public. So, maybe STFU.
Prove anything? Come on bro you came at me with saying I only had one speaker. Next time look at yourself before attacking people online.
Lastly look who couldn't contain themselves without using explicit language. Have fun with your comment's being deleted.
“Explicit language” Bless your heart. Really, we need a block function here. I’m done. Bye, now.
This isn't an airport, no need to announce your departure.
Will or can you please make an APK or API for sonos hardware available, so people can build there own app / UI?
