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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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In the new Web app and v8x mobile apps you have removed the ability for me to search my (very large) local library. You do not list that as a capability you will restore. I know it remains browsable but it’s pretty useless accessed that way. Is local library search ever coming back, and if it is will it be integrated in the general search capability or siloed off?


After investing almost $4000 in Sonos products - I am extremely disappointed that issues stemming from engineers dilemma were placed at a higher priority than maintaining usability and functionality for existing customers. Who made, and who is holding accountability for (from a senior leadership level), these decisions? What is being done to prevent this from happening again? What is being done to change the perspective on how you respond to frustrated customers? Calling the app update “brave” is a ridiculously out-of-touch position to take when you are removing functionality in favor of app “beautification”.


Not directly about the update but : What about chromecast for us androids ? Like really. 


How long will you allow users to remain on the previous version of the app?

How can folks roll back to the prior version if we were on auto-update?


Is this the extent of their EVENT?  Another post-it discussion?


Is this a “chatbox” event or a life broadcast, where is the link? somebody ever used Teams or Zoom ???


I’m stumped. How do I see replies to questions? I don’t see a link, just the fact that there are replies. Thanks!


New App will not browse to my library folders and play or que up the contents of a folder. Since the new app, it will only que ONE SONG at a time?! This has ruined how our household uses your product entirely, as everyone in our household uses our servers for music streaming to various locations in the home. This feature is why we have continued to grow our Sonos product line, but now - we have a house of speakers that can play one song at a time?  Can we fix or roll-back this now vs waiting and hoping ? 


Are alarms coming back? When?

They were rolled out in today’s update - I see. iOS, at least.


How do you justify releasing an app that lacked core functionality that users rely on?


I’m concerned with how our entire systems are now being exposed to the internet whilst being protected behind a simple username/password.

Why was this considered a safe approach and what are the plans with respect to securing our networks and devices behind something more secure?


Is Patrick here to explain what happened?


Is there any way to get back the “Play Next” and “Add to End of Queue”? I used it all the time and is important to users


Where’s the link to the AMA??


Is Patrick here to explain what happened?

Doesn’t look like anyone is here…

 


Would you like to explain to my 5 year old why he is not able to listen to his favourite music stored on my NAS? Will you even be supporting NAS (local) playback going forward?


There seems to be a new update in the macOS app - is this an update to the app or the system firmware?

It is unclear.

  • Given the lack of disclosure about the feature regression, should we trust a new update? 

I’m going to sneak this in here, because why not.

Why was support for Chromecast never brought to any Sonos devices?


Very  disappointed about this AMA. Thought it would a real talk with the Sonos Managment and hear some real answers but sadly I haven’t seen anything yet… Are you afraid of us???


Haha - is this the AMA “event”?

A simple forum thread devoid of answers…? 
Nice way to drive the nail in the customer confidence coffin.


In addition to all the other well-documented missing features, why is something as simple as muting specific speakers, or groups or speakers, not in this new app? The app has been nothing but buggy and missing features but no muting is baffiling. 


With this new layered UI, the back arrow always being at the top and outside of the layer you are in is confusing. The back arrow should be inside of the layer I am interacting with to make it clear what section of the UI the back arrow is controlling. Will this be fixed? 

 


Can you talk about what development platform you are using for the new app. I am assuming that the new app is a green field dev that is built on something completely different than the previous app. 


13' minutes in and I haven't seen an answer yet. Am I missing something?


Hello, thank you for offering us to ask you almost anything. Have you found the time yet, to figure out some answers???