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Your feedback on the new Sonos App

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L

@lape0341

Do the following:

  1. Select Amazon Music
  2. Search Artist
  3. Select Artist
  4. Select Top Songs
  5. Select Three Dots to Right of Top Songs (…)
  6. Pin Collection To Home
  7. Go To Home
  8. Under Sonos Favorites Find Top Songs for Artist Selected
  9. Tap To Play
  10. Optional: Select Cross Fade to Play Song’s in Random Order

 

 

@AjTrek1     I appreciate your reply and the work around.
The primary message though to Sonos is…. Why is a work around necessary?
Please put the play button back inside the Amazon Music navigation screens.

Hmmmm…it may not be a work around. As it could be the new functionality of the app. I can’t say for sure 🤔

@AjTrek1    If the play button is at step 9 when it could be at step 5, it’s a work around for functionality that clearly did not go through very thorough user design and testing phases.  Thg

@lape0341

Do the following:

  1. Select Amazon Music
  2. Search Artist
  3. Select Artist
  4. Select Top Songs
  5. Select Three Dots to Right of Top Songs (…)
  6. Pin Collection To Home
  7. Go To Home
  8. Under Sonos Favorites Find Top Songs for Artist Selected
  9. Tap To Play
  10. Optional: Select Cross Fade to Play Song’s in Random Order

 

 

@AjTrek1     I appreciate your reply and the work around.
The primary message though to Sonos is…. Why is a work around necessary?
Please put the play button back inside the Amazon Music navigation screens.

Hmmmm…it may not be a work around. As it could be the new functionality of the app. I can’t say for sure 🤔

 

@AjTrek1    If the ▶️ button is at step 9 when it could be at step 5, then it’s a work around.  If it feels like a workaround, then it’s a workaround.  And that is the point of this discussion thread and why I am even participating in it along with, what looks like, thousands of other very unhappy customers.

And there is another point… we are customers not just users.  Sonos needs to get this message.
They were the “walking dog” in this space.  They may still be… it just doesn’t feel like it at this point in their history.

R
Userlevel 1
Badge +1

I'm new here so.i haven't experienced good old times. I have Sonos for 2 years but since my iPad is "unsupported", and got a not working truplay option only on new app, I don't have many complaints. 

1. I don't want to use app. "Maybe" only for super high quality content I can't directly stream from somewhere else. If Sonos wants my data that badly, why not integrate Sonos into Spotify instead of Spotify version of Sonos? For some funny reason I can't see my like list. 

2. App is LAGGY!

Press play on Spotify? Song has noticeable lag to start playing.

Volume slider has lag if you're clicking on slider instead of plus minus volume.

Press play? 2 or 3 times it'll shuffle songs before settling on the song you want to play. 

3. Occasional trouble when setting, resetting and moving devices around. I guess I've been lucky, I did need to try more than twice only on one occasion. But others apparently not so lucky. 

4. I stream from ps5. I set it to Dolby Atmos output and now Spotify shows everything as Dolby Atmos. Would be nice to distinguis what quality am I actually streaming? 

5. I haven't had it but I'd like more surround controls back. Ideally I could choose between rear, front and side surrounds. Not everyone has a space for proper surround placement. Before I read you could at least set your surround distance... 

6. I mean technically my iPad is unsupported, but on new app I do have truplay option... That obviously doesn't work. Truplay would be nice...  

I guess 2 and 6 bugs me the most... Rest? Well I don't use app that much...

 

In fact after getting era 300 recently, I have arc on the way... And if things don't worsen, beam 2 will go to eBay next week. 

D
Userlevel 4
Badge +1

The silence from the CEO (and arrogance when he did speak) is driving even more angst among what was once a loyal and supportive community.   Making the old app (and firmware to be clear) available may not be ‘simple’, but its far easier to implement than sorting out the entire mess they have generated.   And whilst it will not restore all the goodwill it would calm everything down and allow them to take a breath and figure out how to fix the new app properly.   But someone is saying NO and we need to find a way to make them change their mind.   They have a Board as well as a Senior Management team, and they all have a responsibility to shareholders (more than customers), so we somehow need to convince them that this is hurting the company long term is and responsible for driving down the share value.  

Take a look at the Investor presentation (on the website) from March 2021 when they promised revenue of $2.5B in 2024, and compare that to the Q2 Presentation showing a prediction of $1.6B and falling revenue and margins.   There was a ‘promise’ of recovery in these areas, including $100M from headphones.   Which is actually quite small, suggesting that they expect existing products are going to generate the remaining $700m this year.

If the Board (and investors) can understand that this fiasco is going to affect THOSE sales, then they might see that rolling back the ‘old’ app is much more appealing.    As an example, if the average ‘Home theatre” or “whole house audio” customer might spend $1000, then ‘losing’ 100,000 of those sales is $100M.  

And in 2020 they claimed to be in 11M homes.   So Patricks rather insulting 1% of us that are complaining is actually 110,000 - potential $110M hit?    The numbers are just illustrated of course, (and clearly can be argues around) but the principle is that if they lose 1% of potential sales of the currently lucrative Home Theatre/Whole House systems, thats wipes out anything that the headphones might have brought in.   And remember the headphones (as designed) do nothing to increase sales of the existing products - they have been presented and pitched as a new market, selling of the back of the Sonos brand (which as another argument for investors) has now been tainted.

Personally I think that getting that message to the Board and Investors is likely to make them pay attention far more than a law suit.

But I doubt they are reading this forum (although they should be !!).    Any Shareholders on this forum might like to offer some suggestions.

 

AjTrek1
Userlevel 7

@lape0341

Do the following:

  1. Select Amazon Music
  2. Search Artist
  3. Select Artist
  4. Select Top Songs
  5. Select Three Dots to Right of Top Songs (…)
  6. Pin Collection To Home
  7. Go To Home
  8. Under Sonos Favorites Find Top Songs for Artist Selected
  9. Tap To Play
  10. Optional: Select Cross Fade to Play Song’s in Random Order

 

 

@AjTrek1     I appreciate your reply and the work around.
The primary message though to Sonos is…. Why is a work around necessary?
Please put the play button back inside the Amazon Music navigation screens.

Hmmmm…it may not be a work around. As it could be the new functionality of the app. I can’t say for sure 🤔

@AjTrek1    If the play button is at step 9 when it could be at step 5, it’s a work around for functionality that clearly did not go through very thorough user design and testing phases.  Thg

@lape0341

Do the following:

  1. Select Amazon Music
  2. Search Artist
  3. Select Artist
  4. Select Top Songs
  5. Select Three Dots to Right of Top Songs (…)
  6. Pin Collection To Home
  7. Go To Home
  8. Under Sonos Favorites Find Top Songs for Artist Selected
  9. Tap To Play
  10. Optional: Select Cross Fade to Play Song’s in Random Order

 

 

@AjTrek1     I appreciate your reply and the work around.
The primary message though to Sonos is…. Why is a work around necessary?
Please put the play button back inside the Amazon Music navigation screens.

Hmmmm…it may not be a work around. As it could be the new functionality of the app. I can’t say for sure 🤔

 

@AjTrek1    If the ▶️ button is at step 9 when it could be at step 5, then it’s a work around.  If it feels like a workaround, then it’s a workaround.  And that is the point of this discussion thread and why I am even participating in it along with, what looks like, thousands of other very unhappy customers.

And there is another point… we are customers not just users.  Sonos needs to get this message.
They were the “walking dog” in this space.  They may still be… it just doesn’t feel like it at this point in their history.

Look…

Why all of this back and forth on my comment to provide directions to get a Play All on Amazon Music for Top Songs for an artist is beyond me. Whelther it’s a work-around as you put it remains to be seen. Frankly I really don’t care.

You people are starting to split hairs with statements …”we are customers not just users”. Give me a break… if you are using the equipment then you must have bought it which makes you a “customer” who “uses” Sonos gear. Unless you’re going to someone else’s home and “using” their Sonos.

There’s people in this thread talking about “class action lawsuits” and what’s the status. Here’s an idea…consult a lawyer and find out for yourself if there are grounds for a class action law suit. Then devise some way to get everyone with a complaint to participate. BTW…I seriously doubt that you’ll be able to use the Sonos Community to recruit participants.

If you people can’t wait until Sonos gets things sorted out …then by all means sell or get rid of your Sonos and accept your loss. Believe me there are far worse things that go wrong in your life other than a glitch in a Sonos app.

For the record…I’m not having issues with my Sonos to the magnitude that is being expressed in this thread.

I know my comments aren’t going to sit well with 99% of you in this thread. You can reply but I won’t be responding  to negative responses. I’ve had enough of reading all of the minutiae presented herein.

Note:

Regarding a class action lawsuit….if you live in the United States of America….maybe you could file on the the basis that the Sonos app as it stands now violates/prohibits your right to the “pursuit of happiness” as written in the Declaration of Independence. 😂

Together Everyone Achieves More = T.E.A.M.
A
Userlevel 2

The silence from the CEO (and arrogance when he did speak) is driving even more angst among what was once a loyal and supportive community.   Making the old app (and firmware to be clear) available may not be ‘simple’, but its far easier to implement than sorting out the entire mess they have generated.   And whilst it will not restore all the goodwill it would calm everything down and allow them to take a breath and figure out how to fix the new app properly.   But someone is saying NO and we need to find a way to make them change their mind.   They have a Board as well as a Senior Management team, and they all have a responsibility to shareholders (more than customers), so we somehow need to convince them that this is hurting the company long term is and responsible for driving down the share value.  

Take a look at the Investor presentation (on the website) from March 2021 when they promised revenue of $2.5B in 2024, and compare that to the Q2 Presentation showing a prediction of $1.6B and falling revenue and margins.   There was a ‘promise’ of recovery in these areas, including $100M from headphones.   Which is actually quite small, suggesting that they expect existing products are going to generate the remaining $700m this year.

If the Board (and investors) can understand that this fiasco is going to affect THOSE sales, then they might see that rolling back the ‘old’ app is much more appealing.    As an example, if the average ‘Home theatre” or “whole house audio” customer might spend $1000, then ‘losing’ 100,000 of those sales is $100M.  

And in 2020 they claimed to be in 11M homes.   So Patricks rather insulting 1% of us that are complaining is actually 110,000 - potential $110M hit?    The numbers are just illustrated of course, (and clearly can be argues around) but the principle is that if they lose 1% of potential sales of the currently lucrative Home Theatre/Whole House systems, thats wipes out anything that the headphones might have brought in.   And remember the headphones (as designed) do nothing to increase sales of the existing products - they have been presented and pitched as a new market, selling of the back of the Sonos brand (which as another argument for investors) has now been tainted.

Personally I think that getting that message to the Board and Investors is likely to make them pay attention far more than a law suit.

But I doubt they are reading this forum (although they should be !!).    Any Shareholders on this forum might like to offer some suggestions.

 

I have a hunch that Sonos can’t revert to the old S2 app. 
In his “an app is never finished” comment at the AMA, Tucker Severson said, “As the project [the development of the new app] 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.”

That sounds to me like a tacit admission that Sonos maybe no longer has the technical resources, the in-house knowledge to support the old app if they made it available again.

O

I must be the only one enjoying ths SONOS application becasue I think it is fantastic!

Here’s why:

  1. I can play my Apple Music Library within determining if the CDs I uploaded and downloads would work with previous versions of SONOS.  +1
  2. My wife can connect her Apple Music on the network, without a separate WIFI system. +1
  3. No need to sync the SONOs library anymore when adding music to the Apple library. +1
  4. The local library is invisible (see #3). +1
  5. Top picks, made for you, stations for you, new releases for you submenus on Apple Music perform seamlessly now in SONOS. +1
  6. Haven’t checked out the alarms or sleep timer functions but never used before. -
  7. I used to be able to shuffle songs by artists with multiple albums, CDs, etc -- now I can’t. -1

So I listed 5 things I like, 1 i never checked out, and I like 1 I dislike.  

SONOS keep working the app and listen to the customer complaints and fix them….it will make it better for all of us!

I’m running the Sonos Connect with the app on my Mac computer and iPhone….no problems!  Very enjoyable...

It’s a big step forward and give the app 4.5 rating now.  

Out with the old, in with the new...LOL!🤣

D
Userlevel 4
Badge +1

I must be the only one enjoying ths SONOS application becasue I think it is fantastic!

 

Here’s why:

  1. I can play my Apple Music Library within determining if the CDs I uploaded and downloads would work with previous versions of SONOS.  +1
  2. My wife can connect her Apple Music on the network, without a separate WIFI system. +1
  3. No need to sync the SONOs library anymore when adding music to the Apple library. +1
  4. The local library is invisible (see #3). +1
  5. Top picks, made for you, stations for you, new releases for you submenus on Apple Music perform seamlessly now in SONOS. +1
  6. Haven’t checked out the alarms or sleep timer functions but never used before. -
  7. I used to be able to shuffle songs by artists with multiple albums, CDs, etc -- now I can’t. -1

So I listed 5 things I like, 1 i never checked out, and I like 1 I dislike.  

SONOS keep working the app and listen to the customer complaints and fix them….it will make it better for all of us!

It’s a big step forward and give the app 4.5 rating now.  

Out with the old, in with the new...LOL!🤣

Yep, you sound like exactly the customer the app was written for - one product, so none of the issues with grouping etc.   Just curious as to what led you to sign up to the forum today of all days, when (sadly) most people are coming here to find workarounds for problems, which I am very glad to hear you dont have.   The rest of us are just that “sad 1%” who have massive investments in multi-room systems that just stopped working the day the new app dropped.   

Grateful you are still able to enjoy your music, I am sure Sonos will be pleased...

O

I must be the only one enjoying ths SONOS application becasue I think it is fantastic!

 

Here’s why:

  1. I can play my Apple Music Library within determining if the CDs I uploaded and downloads would work with previous versions of SONOS.  +1
  2. My wife can connect her Apple Music on the network, without a separate WIFI system. +1
  3. No need to sync the SONOs library anymore when adding music to the Apple library. +1
  4. The local library is invisible (see #3). +1
  5. Top picks, made for you, stations for you, new releases for you submenus on Apple Music perform seamlessly now in SONOS. +1
  6. Haven’t checked out the alarms or sleep timer functions but never used before. -
  7. I used to be able to shuffle songs by artists with multiple albums, CDs, etc -- now I can’t. -1

So I listed 5 things I like, 1 i never checked out, and I like 1 I dislike.  

SONOS keep working the app and listen to the customer complaints and fix them….it will make it better for all of us!

It’s a big step forward and give the app 4.5 rating now.  

Out with the old, in with the new...LOL!🤣

Yep, you sound like exactly the customer the app was written for - one product, so none of the issues with grouping etc.   Just curious as to what led you to sign up to the forum today of all days, when (sadly) most people are coming here to find workarounds for problems, which I am very glad to hear you dont have.   The rest of us are just that “sad 1%” who have massive investments in multi-room systems that just stopped working the day the new app dropped.   

Grateful you are still able to enjoy your music, I am sure Sonos will be pleased...

Just wanted to report on the perfromance of my SONOS Connect with the app….tried to do it several weeks ago on the iPhone app but comments never appeared publicly, to the best of my knowledge!

O

 

 

Preface:

Warning, this post was written with many negative emotions towards Sonos and the new update. Keep that in mind when you read this review.
Sonos is generally good and offers sufficient user experience quality; nonetheless, this is my “emotional” review, which I would still stand by even after writing it.

Why should my review be relevant?

    Sonos has made over 4,000 CHF in revenue through my household.
I have been using Sonos for 5-6 years.

 

I‘m going to address a few things in this post, things i hated in the past and things i do not like in the new update and in how sonos is handling this entire situation.

 

Review:

The alarm clock was removed in this update!
Ongoing alarms cannot be deactivated, and new alarms cannot be added.

You have millions of users, but the system is not fully tested….

I have been waiting for 5 working days now, and the problem has not been resolved.

    aka no update has been released.

For a company that relatively speaking, produces high-quality consumer electronics hardware, such errors should not occur. Or rather, it can happen that such an error occurs.
But without obvious workarounds, I expect high-priority handling in the development department for a feature like the alarm clock.

I hate to repeat myself, but there has been no hotfix for a week.
When something happens with Google/Tesla, an update is published within a few days.

Problems:

    •    The app is loaded with Sonos advertisements.
This is a music player; you should only play music.
    •    Why change the design so drastically?
When I open the app, I expect to make 2-3 clicks and the music plays. It cannot be that something like this is not intuitively learned within 5 clicks. (This point is a personal opinion and has not been included in the rating, as I might be the problem.)
    •    Minimum volume is too loud. Implement exponential volume control (?)
    •    When I open the app and an alarm rings simultaneously, a pop-up to stop or snooze the alarm would be helpful.
    •    Integration with YouTube Music (and possibly other streaming services)
is very lacking. If I want to play music, it feels like it takes 10 clicks. Hyperlinks to the albums being disputed would be helpful.
There are hyperlinks that I can create directly to an album, but unfortunately, I cannot go directly to my YouTube Music albums with one click. (Basically - click > list of music albums from YouTube Music)

The rest is actually pretty good; I just needed to vent my frustration that has built up over the past few days or years.

In summary:
I am disappointed. Sonos has lost my trust. I will consider alternatives during a renovation/replacement or even completely dismantle the sound system.

Best regards,
A customer

 

H
Userlevel 4
Badge +2

Have you noticed that app performance is exponentially worse during times you would expect a lot of people using it, like weekends?  I strongly suspect the back-end is running on azure or aws and Sonos is paying for the equivalent of 2 servers when they need 50. 

S
Userlevel 2

It’s not about these little features!  The app at its core is bugged to the point where functionality of even connecting to your system or making music play as desired simply fails to work.  Network issues galore — and this wasn’t happening until you guys rolled out this new half baked app update.  Forget the timers and alarms.  I CANT EVEN PLAY MUSIC RIGHT NOW

D
Userlevel 1

Major F’up with the new app. C’mon guys are you actually testing this prior to rollout. The old app wasn’t that great but at least it worked. New app constantly defaults to speakers I’m not even using and interface is pretty damn confusing. Really thinking about finding an alternative to SONOS at this point. Get it together!

M
Userlevel 1

The new app is HORRIBLE! Trying to figure out what speakers are available, terrible. 

Volume control is difficult to figure out. The previosu app was much better to use.

please bring it back.

M
Userlevel 1

I am a long time Sonos fan but this is questioning my loyalty. I am an apple fan, and the user interface that they do is very user friendly. You can learn alot from them. 

J
Userlevel 3

The new app has become completely unusable. 

Every time the app is opened it does takes around 2minutes to show any of my speakers (3 rooms). Changing rooms music is playing is jumpy and usually skips or restarts the song currently on. 

The alarm features have been removed without the ability to modify currently set alarms.

I have downgraded back to the old version to make the app usable, and even after disabling auto-update, the app reverts to the newest version overnight making it once again unusable. 

If I go off the app for a mere couple minutes, and return to it to modify the song or volume, it does not register any music currently being played making it impossible to change song or volume without having to manually go and use the buttons on the speaker. 

The link to Spotify has become unusable, on the old app all 3 of my speakers would show as playable direct from Spotify, since the update there seems to be no direct link at all. 

Widgets (the only way I used to use the app) have been removed meaning I have to fully open the app every time, as mentioned before the app opens without registering any link to any speakers and does not show any of them playing music. 

S
Userlevel 3
Badge +2

We're almost a month later after the update. Do we by now have gotten an actually good reason to why they won't roll back the old app and relaunch the new one when it's actually finished (at least has parity with the old one) ? 

It would make many of their customers happy.

G

The answer is no. 

But, I do agree with you! 

🎵 First We Take Manhattan Then Berlin 🎵
M
Userlevel 4
Badge +2

After 3 separate emails pushing the headphones, I've unsubscribed from Sonos emails.  Come on guys, seriously?  

On the plus side, my problems with the new app are now all resolved.  I've stopped using it.

Using Roon to control my existing Sonos speakers now.  There won't be any more Sonos products coming into the house.

M
Userlevel 4
Badge +1

The faces behind the biggest strategic product failure of the year (going for the decade). Must be nice to have on your resume. If someone gives you a fact-sheet with the state of what the new app is and you still decide to push it you really did not read the sheet.

https://investors.sonos.com/corporate-governance/default.aspx#section=bod

M
Userlevel 4
Badge +1

Literally just ignoring users and saying we need time to get used to change: 

https://livioacerbo.com/sonos-ceo-patrick-spence-addresses-the-companys-divisive-app-redesign/

S

The faces behind the biggest strategic product failure of the year (going for the decade). Must be nice to have on your resume. If someone gives you a fact-sheet with the state of what the new app is and you still decide to push it you really did not read the sheet.

https://investors.sonos.com/corporate-governance/default.aspx#section=bod

Clueless money grabbing kids!

Connect Amp x 3, Connect x 1, Sub x 2, Playbar x 2, Beam x 1, Play 1 x 4, Play 3 x 2, Play 5 x 2, Boost x 1, Amp, Arc, 2 x Era 300, Symfonisk x 2, Roam
S
Userlevel 5
Badge +9

Well that explains why the CEO hasn't been turfed. I don't think CEOs on the board are a thing here.

"I saw the Stooges and the MC5"
T
Userlevel 6
Badge +10

Just one more idiotic thing not to love about the new app. Intuitively, you would expect the X on the annoying  headphone ad to close the ad. But, no, it opens the ad. Then, strangely, the X on the next ad page that appears closes the ad. I'm not surprised because the app ignores most conventional iOS and Android app design conventions. Waiting for the CEO to tell me I'll have to get used to it, along with my broken CBC and Calm Rsdio Sonos services, the fact that Alexa no longer works, favourites and playlists that can't be modified or used intuitively, etc., etc., etc.

 

R
Userlevel 1
Badge +1

I guess I can finally join the crowd with mild annoyance. Yesterday before sleep updated my android tablet app. Today I thought sound is a bit off. Before work realised my sub is off.  Sub controls are there, does nothing, but sub is gone from my system. Opened iPad app on latest update? Of course sub is there and working as it should. Opened old app on the phone? Certainly, sub is there! You'd think I have learned my lesson with Bose years ago, but I guess not... 

 

I have to keep updating iPad app until I get truplay... 

Tablet app I guess I'll have to update couple more times until my sub comes back. 

Phone app I'll do my best not to update as long as I can. 

I guess best to disable auto update hardware too? But I have arc coming and I think on setup hardware update was mandatory, no? 

H
Userlevel 4
Badge +2

Hi Everyone

We moderators of the community - @Corry P, @Jamie A & @Sotiris C. - wanted to take an opportunity to explain some of what is currently happening on the community.

First of all, we value all the feedback you are providing about the new Sonos App. We hear you. Feedback is coming in fast and thick, however - for understandable reasons - and to be frank, we are having trouble just keeping up with it all. For this reason, some topics that have not yet been replied to will go unanswered. We will, however, do our best to amalgamate some of these separate threads into bigger, related threads (such as one big thread for Alarm complaints and another for Queue Management) to be answered en-mass. The threads that are feedback on other aspects of the new app will be merged with this post.

Threads that describe issues such as missing rooms and app crashes (those that are not just feedback, in other words) will be answered, as will threads not relating to the new app in anyway, but these will take a bit longer than normal.

Please be aware that we are reading every post, we are recording and collating all feedback, and all of it will be passed over to the app software development team. In addition, we are doing our best to identify previously unidentified issues and report them to our technical teams.

We know many of you are concerned about certain features going missing, so let us take this opportunity to say that the following features are coming back:

  • Alarms management
  • Sleep timers
  • Queue management
  • Playlist editing

In addition and contrary to some speculation, local Music Library is not going anywhere, though SMBv1 support has been permanently removed. Local Music Library searching is something that is still being worked on.

We’d also like to thank everyone who has taken it upon themselves to help others here with their questions and concerns - we appreciate you all!

Thanks for listening - take care of yourselves, and each other.

 

Combined threads:

General feedback (not relating specifically to those below):

Queue management: 

Alarms:

Playlists: 

Music Library:

Sleep Timers:

 

Please note that there is an official statement that can be read here.


 

 

You keep posting the same update. When are you going to post an update on the horrible performance of the app?  Fixing the alarm is of no use if the app is frozen, crashing, or just terribly slow. What’s being done about performance?  

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