Your feedback on the new Sonos App

I quite like Bluesound but tbh if the answer is Bluetooth everything then I'm junking any of these pretenders. Linn do some nice systems that you can pair with Bluetooth speakers anywhere and use "multi room-like". You can even get lossless cloud players like Cloud Beats. 

It’s still utter crap. Latest version, no firmware updates needed, usual WiFi total reset to get the volume bars behaving for a short while, used to it starting to play on random speakers until reminded etc. All the usual stuff I have to do every day I get home, since the new App was gifted to us.

Tried to play the new Spotify playlist created for me by my daughter, and it either stops partway through the first track (at different points each time) or just jumps to next track. No similar issues when listening on headphones directly from the app.

This is basic stuff, and just another sign of the total ineptitude of all involved.

Is anybody at Sonos proud of what they’ve done, because they don’t appear to either be improving things or backtracking)?

Joke

Just read an interview with the CEO which proves he really REALLY doesn’t get this issue at all. Basically says the app is redesigned to be faster and quicker.. which it is …?!? but is missing a few features…. What the actual??? Sigh….

Your work in progress is our Doesn’t Work, Lack Of Progress

1. APP CRASHES:  Simply opening another app (Spotify) crashes Sonos
2. USE OF OTHER APPS ON PHONE: Opening the other apps (Spotify) cancels what is playing from Plex
3. PLAYLISTS DO NOT REFRESH:  Changes in Plex Playlists cannot immediately be played in Sonos app, even if Both Apps are shut down and restarted. I have come to learn that changes made to the initial playlist, if songs are added to it, or the order is changed in the service App (Plex, Spotify) are not present in Sonos, even though they appear to be.  To play the changes, the playlist must be refreshed by playing a totally different playlist, just for a second, and then changing the playlist back to the initial playlist.  It continues to play songs that were removed from the play list and do not currently appear in the play list.
4. FUNCTIONALITY HAMPERED:  Any potential benefit of the new “functionality” of the new app is eclipsed by lack if functionality of basic features.
5. ALPHABETICAL INDEX. The prior alphabetical index within Plex Artist list was very useful, but not present in the new App.
6. SPEAKER SELECTION DYSFUNCTIONAL: The speaker selection not only always defaults to one room, but reverts to it, notwithstanding thethe fact that other speakers are actually playing, hindering control.
7. Its a nice feature that Plex can be played through Sonos via Apple Airplay, but the Sonos features, such as cross play are not available In other apps
8. There is no Alarm function, yet my previously set alarms continue to wake me at the previously set time. (The Alarm function was very useful)
9. APP NOT RESPONSIVE: There is a longer refresh time when opening the app while listening to music, delaying the time it takes to adjust volume.
10. NO PLAYLIST OPTION:  At time, access to Plex Playlists is completely gone.
11. MIND OF ITS OWN:  The App has a mind of its own, displaying songs either ahead of time, or late.

To change the default Room (the room displayed at the bottom of the screen), scroll up on the room at the bottom to bring up Room Selection, tap on the room you wish to set as the current room (tap in open space, not on the controls or grouping icon).  It’s simple once you know what to do. 

In my experience, “intuitive” is just another word for “muscle memory”.  The last app was called every name in the book, including “inelegant”, “unintuitive”, “clunky”, “slow”, “too many taps”, “too many swipes”, etc.  Magically, it has now transformed into the opposite of those and there weren’t that many changes from the first release.  A few years from now, the current app (if it ever gets fixed) will see the same calls to be rolled back to when Sonos overhauls the UI once again.  Lather, rinse, repeat. 

Intuitive is definitely over used but for me it addresses that period of time between starting to use a piece of software and muscle memory being established. I think that it is also fair to say that we describe something as intuitive when our muscle memory from other pieces of software applies.

With this incarnation of the app I find that a lot of information is presented in a way that feels unexpected and functions are not where I naturally expect them to be.

Speaker/room order confused me until some one mentioned that the “selected” device is always first from that I figured out that the next “block” was any active device in alphabetical order followed by the rest of my devices in alphabetical order. This is “logical” but was also confusing as the UI keeps presenting my devices in a different order whenever I want to manage one of them It also detracts from “muscle memory”.

The actual issue here is not that the app is bad it is that it was released before it was complete and stabilised so has become the focal point for the frustration some of us feel. Especially those whose system seem to have been disabled.

I know how to change the speaker when listening or temporarily, but how do I change the default speaker for good. Every time I open the app the system defaults to the soundbar for my TV and I’d like to change that as I rarely use it for music. 

I don’t think you can do that yet.

lol...of course not. 

I was pretty much across every possible option in the settings on the last app. But I do not remember any option to set a default speaker. So saying you don't think you can do that yet might be a bit misleading, like it’s still to come. Which I don’t imagine it is.

But I do seem to recall the old app used to open connected to the last room/speaker you’d used, which was helpful. 

My work here is done. 

In all seriousness, I’m not going to engage further so that this thread can get back on track.