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As a Sonos user for over 10 years, purchasing and, for the most part, enjoying close to 30 Sonos wireless speaker devices in that time (Play1, Play3, Five, Soundbars, Beam, Sub, ARC, and Era 300s), I have finally come to the stark realization - it's over.  Sonos is no longer what it used to be.  It is not what it was meant to be. It is not what the original designers dreamed SONOS could have been, and very nearly was… perfect.

The Sonos app and ecosystem are now flakey, unwieldy, unresponsive, heavy and no longer the awe and joy I used to amaze friends and family with.

Here is why… 

Money.  More specifically, monetization. 

The primary, key flaw with the new SONOS app and ecosystem is that what used to be a private, on network wireless audio control system is now a cloud based controller system that requires a round trip to Sonos servers to process, collect and finally respond to what you have asked the local system to do.

Volume up?  Send the request out across the Internet to Sonos servers, where they process the request, store your activity data, and finally send a “volume up” command back down the long Internet pipe to your speakers.

Compare this round-trip delay, collision, fighting through routers, NAT, firewalls, and Internet congestion, and back again, with the previous Sonos app, which flew through your local WiFi to instantly ‘volume up’ at the lightest touch.

There is no amount of tuning, optimization or payload streamlining that can fix this.  Sonos knows this.  Sonos also knew full well the disruption this significant communication change would cause.  It is impossible for them not to have known…  a junior network engineer could have easily run the math.  A team of talented Sonos IT technical staff would have understood the impact immediately.  I am sure many on the design team raged passionately against the machine. 

So why would Sonos management choose a design path so clearly destined for catastrophic product experience issues?  Especially considering this change provides absolutely zero benefits, features or upside for the end-user customers.

Name even just one, real, tangible benefit that sending all your Sonos control commands, listening information and usage data to Sonos provides the user.  Name just one!

Why, oh why?

Money. Monetization. Stockholders. Stock price.

Sonos management convinced stakeholders that the key to improving the company’s bottom line and long-term stock price was user data.  Collect it. Analyze it. Amalgamate it. Monetize it.

The only way Sonos could amass a high volume of useful, relevant and valuable usage data was to change how the end-user interacts with their products.

Don’t tell the speakers to play your morning mix.  Tell Sonos, and we will relay the request to your speakers.  No need to communicate ‘volume up’ to your kitchen Play Five stereo pair, tell Sonos servers instead.  After they capture the time, your current volume level, the audio you were playing, and other metadata surrounding your choice to increase the volume, Sonos will be sure and adjust the volume up one more notch as soon as they possibly can.

Sonos believed the issues would not be that bad. They could ride it out. The financial upside far outweighed the real negative impact on customer usage experience.

Sonos was wrong!  Check out the Sonos 5-year stock price PLUMMET.

If Sonos is unable to reverse course back to its core, winning product combination — a local WiFi audio system with streaming service integration —

Sonos won’t be around long enough to release App v3.

 

 

Here’s the privacy statement for anyone who is curious.

Uhhhh, Sonos has been collecting data since day one and there is nothing about routing commands through the internet that makes it any easier to collect data.  Also, the privacy statement describes in detail exactly what Sonos collects for data, and that section of the privacy statement hasn’t changed since voice assistants were introduced back in 2017.  Which is is even more proof that Sonos’ architecture change was not to facilitate more data collection.

 

The belief volume control goes through the cloud has also been debunked.

I think this user is now so angry by his personal reasons and when he played music or something the Sonos app had an error (because yes it has some errors but not that bad, specifically in the privacy Sonos is very respectful and clear about this) so I think we should not continue to respond to an arrogance that we know is not true.

Where’s your documentation that everything is routed through the cloud; or maybe it’s just your conjecture for lack of concrete evidence.

If there is any interest in the real situation, these links might be interesting.

October Office Hours w/ KeithFromSonos + Nick Millington

https://www.reddit.com/r/sonos/comments/1gfuok4/comment/luqwr6g/?utm_source=share&utm_medium=web3x&utm_name=web3xcss&utm_term=1&utm_content=share_button

 

September Office Hours w/ KeithFromSonos + Nick Millington

https://www.reddit.com/r/sonos/comments/1fq1g6n/comment/lp8dcf4/?utm_source=share&utm_medium=web3x&utm_name=web3xcss&utm_term=1&utm_content=share_button

​@Technocratic Oath 

You flatter yourself that Sonos is that interested in you.

Here’s the privacy statement for anyone who is curious.

Do you really think anyone will read those endless words of a black hole?

All this talk about data collection is a bunch of rubbish. Name one commercial company and/or financial institution that doesn’t collect data in some form or fashion. Heck, unless you’re driving an automobile from the 1960’s your cars GPS has collected data about you. If you don’t want your data collected then drop off the grid and go live in the woods. Become a Luddite. Maybe even wear a tin foil hat. BTW…who’s that standing behind you??

All this talk about data collection is a bunch of rubbish. Name one commercial company and/or financial institution that doesn’t collect data in some form or fashion. Heck, unless you’re driving an automobile from the 1960’s your cars GPS has collected data about you. If you don’t want your data collected then drop off the grid and go live in the woods. Become a Luddite. Maybe even wear a tin foil hat. BTW…who’s that standing behind you??

This is as unhinged as OPs post. 

All this talk about data collection is a bunch of rubbish. Name one commercial company and/or financial institution that doesn’t collect data in some form or fashion. Heck, unless you’re driving an automobile from the 1960’s your cars GPS has collected data about you. If you don’t want your data collected then drop off the grid and go live in the woods. Become a Luddite. Maybe even wear a tin foil hat. BTW…who’s that standing behind you??

This is as unhinged as OPs post. 

😂😂😂😂😂

Yes, you should read the privacy statement.  Using the data “to serve Sonos’ legitimate business interests” is attached to every clause.  Remember, monetize does not always mean directly selling personal data.  Data monetization processes and revenue enhancement have already far outpaced the legal language used in current consumer statements.

Yes, Sonos has always collected data, but not at this level or granularity, and never at the expense of the quality of their product or services.

Pull everything off your network, or add Sonos equipment to a segregated network and Internet connection. Run Wireshark on the uplink port, then tap “Volume up” a few times.  We did.  We were very surprised.

Here is a clip of information sourced from Sonos communications:

“Volume control may appear slow or laggy due to potential network congestion or issues with the Sonos servers handling commands, especially with the newer app.”

Everyone seems to be missing the point…

You didn't think App v2 was the end-game, did you?

Next marketing milestone: Introducing the Sonos monthly paid subscription service.

 

This has nothing to do with Voice Control or Home Assistants.  We don’t use voice control. We bought SL products and disabled voice control on all the others.  Our experience is based solely on Sonos speakers, high-end home/business WiFi, solid Internet connection and the Sonos App.

It is astonishing how a product that, until recently, used to utterly amaze with its reliability, stability, responsiveness and joy to use is now routinely described as “some errors but not that bad”.

The low-bar, dulled consumer response, counted on by Sonos investment fund board members, pushing to develop additional revenue streams.  Delivered.

Yes, you should read the privacy statement.  Using the data “to serve Sonos’ legitimate business interests” is attached to every clause.  Remember, monetize does not always mean directly selling personal data.  Data monetization processes and revenue enhancement have already far outpaced the legal language used in current consumer statements.

Yes, Sonos has always collected data, but not at this level or granularity, and never at the expense of the quality of their product or services.

Pull everything off your network, or add Sonos equipment to a segregated network and Internet connection. Run Wireshark on the uplink port, then tap “Volume up” a few times.  We did.  We were very surprised.

Here is a clip of information sourced from Sonos communications:

“Volume control may appear slow or laggy due to potential network congestion or issues with the Sonos servers handling commands, especially with the newer app.”

Everyone seems to be missing the point…

You didn't think App v2 was the end-game, did you?

Next marketing milestone: Introducing the Sonos monthly paid subscription service.

 

Well if you used Wireshark and you got results of using data through your internet service and not only local, using a local file and without your phone using any internet it's insane (if real). But I will try to do the same tomorrow, I don't think this is properly measured.

​@Technocratic Oath 

What’s the actual issue? Is it that you are worried about Sonos knowing you’ve turned your music up or pressed pause in the kitchen? You do know that the data Sonos has and uses on you is virtually nothing compared to what is gathered about you every single time you get up in the morning and open your phone? Sonos probably learned more about you from your forum post than they have ever learned from your use of their products. If you don’t want to have them collect any data, get rid of your speakers. 

Or is the issue your pre-emptive second guessing about a subscription service that has never been mentioned or alluded to and which would be commercial suicide for Sonos to even consider introducing?

As for Sonos performance, my system is instantaneous to respond to my commands (app opening, volume, pause, play, search) so don’t assume that what you witness is the same for everyone. Have a good look at your setup and work on improvements.

 

Of course when you adjust the volume on your local network packets of data are sent to Sonos servers, this is to ensure the locally adjusted volume is in sync with the web service at play.sonos.com. How else could this work? Sonos will probably aggregate that data to understand any App delays, performance, uptake on play.sonos.com usage, etc. I don’t see any value in collecting metrics of volume changes, I doubt it will be monetised, who would buy it?

​@Technocratic Oath your profile suggests you use Amazon Alexa, have you used your Wireshark on that service?

As for Sonos performance, my system is instantaneous to respond to my commands (app opening, volume, pause, play, search) so don’t assume that what you witness is the same for everyone. Have a good look at your setup and work on improvements.

Today, with modern Sonos speakers,  adjusting volume on the play.sonos.com webservice or via voice service is actually quicker and more responsive than it was on a CR100 manual volume control in the ‘good old days’ many refer to.

A Sonos system may lag if it has older speakers. In the same way a laptop that is 10-15 years old wont run as fast as a modern laptop, even if the 15 year old laptop is using modern fast fibre internet technology.

We've got comments here debunking beliefs that volume commands go through the Cloud (and ‘liked’ by Sonos), links to Reddit articles from Sonos saying the same (“Volume is a “local” operation that is transacted entirely on the local area network between the phone and the player.”) - yet posters since saying of course it goes through the Cloud so sync can be maintained with a terribly bad online version of the controller (play.sonos.com) that almost nobody uses (and could surely just sync that value if/when opened?)….

So which is it? 

System (local speakers) volume control from the App is local. The App will control the local system volume via the local network. The system will also ‘update’ play.sonos.com. The ‘control’ wont go from App to cloud back to local system, the system is ‘controlled’ locally from the App, and system will ‘update’ play.sonos.com, I assume asynchronously. 

Edited for clarification.

Here’s the privacy statement for anyone who is curious.

Do you really think anyone will read those endless words of a black hole?

 

if you’re going to infer that Sonos is selling your private data, or incline to believe someone who is inferring that Sonos is selling your private data, then you should.

 

I don’t know why you would complain about someone posting a link to the privacy statement, as if it’s a bad thing.

Don’t bother, people.  Facts and logic have no bearing when you are down the rabbit hole.   

 

Ignoring my own advice and posting for others which may wander in here:  Sonos has firmly denied that they are moving to a monthly subscription model.  Yet another thing the OP made up out of nothing.   Don’t believe the FUD, people. 

Can I hire someone ($$) to get my Amdroid back on the previous app? Tan square logo.

 

Moderator Note: Removed phone number. Modified in accordance with the Community Code of Conduct.

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