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Your feedback on the new Sonos App

Corry P
Userlevel 7
Badge +18

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.

 

"Common sense is the collection of prejudices acquired by age eighteen." - Albert Einstein

2046 replies

jgatie

Please can we have timings on when local library will be searchable again. I’m still reeling from how little notice you gave us on the SMB1 issue. And please don’t mention your crappy headphones again, or I think I’ll throw every Sonos component I own out of the window - focus on fixing the app. Don’t alienate your existing customers in search of new, lightweight ones

 

 

Coming soon

  • Continued improvements to navigation for visually-impaired customers: mid-June
  • Adding to queue and playing next: early June
  • Sleep timer: mid-June
  • Local music library search and playback: mid-June
  • Update WiFi settings: mid-June
  • Snooze alarms: TBD
P
Userlevel 2

Rather than push this new unfinished buggy new app as an update, please explain why the decision to keep the existing S2 app as it was and release a new S3 app separately wasn’t chosen?

Sonos has instead chosen to cause existing loyal customers so much inconvenience that a large proportion will never trust you again, let alone buy any more products?

Your marketing emails told us that the update only enhances the experience and the products will work as they always have, which is clearly not the case.

“How will this affect my system?

We've taken great care to ensure that this update only enhances your Sonos experience. Your products, features and services will work as they always have, and all your settings will be saved.”

Where were the release notes that explained the changes?

Why are our speakers now controllable remotely with no option to turn this off, and no two-factor authentication to protect the accounts?

Why was it shipped when it’s not accessible to the blind? There are international laws governing accessibility.

Why are users that don’t subscribe to streaming services and use local music libraries being treated as second-class citizens?

They did it with S1 to S2 but they can’t with this? They don’t care. They never have. 

J
Userlevel 4
Badge

I have posted several times in this feedback group. Not one item has ever been answered - big surprise. Sonos’s way of approaching this issue is to pretend that the app is completely non-functional and ‘courageous’. Still makes me angry hearing that.

Reading another person’s comments - this HUGE change to the app should have been approached with a branch code divergence. Put ‘S2’ into maintenance release and create a new ‘S3’ release that people could test and see if it worked for what they needed. No need to FORCE this piece of GARBAGE onto us via the S2 app. 

For now - I am using the legacy Windows Sonos app that functions normally and does not poll the cloud for added latency, create WIFI security issues and make my speakers absolutely useless when the internet or Sonos cloud is having issues. I am using SonoPhone in other rooms and will bypass this CRAPPY app until maybe the fall. I might give it a look then. I am not wasting another moment providing development support to Sonos. I am ashamed of this company and will no longer be recommending it to others as I had before. Ready to sign onto the class action lawsuit whenever it starts.

K

Have Sonos detailed in their S2 iOS app repair roadmap when dual mono control for the Sonos Amp will be reinstated? Dual mono is a key sales point of the Amp and running two versions of their app (old and new) to maintain an important, advertised feature is both ridiculous and tiresome.

K
Userlevel 7
Badge +4

LOL, of course many of us long-time users with years in the software/tech industry know they already pull our usage data.  Then please explain the shift from local control to having to go through Sonos’ servers. It has proven to slow down commands and appears to require a live internet connection to function. 

And if you trust Sonos that much, good on you.  Many of us do not!  Their revenues/earnings are not good, Apple pulled them from the online store, +++, you don’t think the executive suite isn’t feeling the pressure to find additional revenue sources besides headphones?  Just b/c they say something doesn’t mean it’s true for ever!  Besides FTC filings can take years. 

 

I don’t know Sonos architecture, nor future plans, enough to profess any reasons why they are using a cloud approach.  But I’m not paranoid enough to assign nefarious reasons to everything a corporation does.  As to trusting Sonos?  I don’t.  I trust the agency which has a long track record of harshly punishing those who violate their own privacy policies. 

Also, common sense says the personal data you think is going to be sold is really only useful in the aggregate.  It’s a list of what people listen to, not browsing history, or shopping interests, or any other number of actually valuable things that are harvested every single day.  Now tell me, compared to what I look at to buy, or what I bought last week, or what ads I look at when flipping through Facebook or Instagram, how valuable is the fact that @kassey22000 played Baby Shark on repeat when school got out every day?  Who cares that my alarm was set to NPR on Tuesdays and Thursdays? Nobody!  It’s useless outside of showing trends, and only the aggregate can show a trend. 

Seriously, stop being paranoid. 

 

Seriously, stop being so naive. 

Of course aggregators are the key to why companies scrape off our data to sell.  

Look @jgatie, you’ve been a big help of these forums for years, I respect and appreciate that.  But you also sometimes come off as all-knowing and arrogant.  Sonos has not been honest with its users/customers/press and there are more reasons than just Bluetooth headphones for this cock-up.  I don't give a hoot what they capture individually, they just need to tell us why they made this dumb-ass move in full detail. 

Have a nice music-filled holiday/weekend. 

 

O
Userlevel 4
Badge +1

You could give us, your loyal up until now customers, the old app back. The new one does not work! We know it, you know it and the rest of the world is hearing about it. It is shameful to have such decent hardware and software that is a total failure - put out without proper testing. The new app doesn't even recognize my existing system, but the old app did, how can you possibly do that? Sonos is rapidly destroying it's own reputation and will likely be losing customers to competitors at an increasing rate. Which means the company will lose value - and rightfully so. I'm selling my system on ebay and going with Denon Heos. From all accounts it works great and customers are very happy with the hardware AND the software.

Too bad for all the expenditure of time, grief and frustration you are causing all of us. And shame on Patrick Spence and your entire management team, not only for allowing this to happen, but also for refusing to take responsibility for your mistake.

It is universally acknowledged that the new version of the Sonos app is a total fiasco, the fact that the promised fixes are coming far too late is unacceptable. As customers, we deserve a minimum level of respect, and this should include the option to revert to the previous version of the app until a truly reliable release is available.

 

The current situation is untenable, and we need a practical solution now, not weeks or months from now. Allowing users to downgrade to the former app version would be a reasonable and respectful interim solution towards addressing the frustrations and issues we are currently facing.

Your company, as represented by it's leaders, is failing it's most valuable asset - happy and loyal customers. For this reason you are doomed unless you get your act together now.

The lack of response to anger and frustration you have caused your users is unconscionable. You should be embarrassed and ashamed. Articles about your self destruction are coming out in prominent periodicals and Patrick Spence is still in denial. What a shame! Do something other than trying to whitewash this debacle. People will accept mistakes, but they hate cover ups. JUST DO THE RIGHT THING.

jgatie

Well, that’ll show ‘em.  

jgatie

 

Seriously, stop being so naive. 

Of course aggregators are the key to why companies scrape off our data to sell.  

Look @jgatie, you’ve been a big help of these forums for years, I respect and appreciate that.  But you also sometimes come off as all-knowing and arrogant.  Sonos has not been honest with its users/customers/press and there are more reasons than just Bluetooth headphones for this cock-up.  I don't give a hoot what they capture individually, they just need to tell us why they made this dumb-ass move in full detail. 

Have a nice music-filled holiday/weekend. 

 

 

So, nothing to disprove what I stated, except accusations of arrogance and naivete?  About what I thought. 

V
Userlevel 6
Badge +4

Sonos: “Please share your feedback and experiences in this thread.”

 

Fanbois: “Ima go tell them all how they’re wrong.”

 

As I’ve said before, Sonos is damaging more than its reputation and brand. They’re also killing their fan base community.

AMPx2, One SLx6, Play5x2, SUBx2, Play1x2, Move, Roam (Yuck), ARC, PlayBar, Beam, SYMFONISKx2, Awful New App.
T
Userlevel 2

I'll start by saying I've been a HUGE fan for MANY years, purchased many many Sonos products, gotten MANY clients and friends to purchase over the years. Love it.

That's actually why I'm spending time to come here. I've gone from biggest fan to most frustrated user.

It's one thing to make a new app, make it available for those who want to try it out, and if it works well and they like it, then they'll choose to keep using it...  In the meantime get your feedback and work out your bugs while not interrupting the current version that people enjoy. 

It's entirely different to force this app on your customer base, have all these crazy issues, make everyone experience these frustrations, then have no options to go back to what was working.

So before I took time to find this forum to express my frustration I reached out to several friends I've referred Sonos to over the years, to make sure it wasn't just my incompetence.

Here are some of their comments:

"It's a terrible ui experience, frustrating and confusing to use, drops connections when didn't use to. Not happy."

"Don't even get me started. I'm so freaking frustrated. Menues are terrible. Can't figure this out!"

"Pissed. I went from loving Sonos to wanting to get rid of it. I've already been looking for an alternative speaker setup."

"How could they have possibly missed the mark this badly? I was literally looking at getting more speakers for my shop, but I can't even stand using it now."

"If a song is playing and I want to just skip it, I open my phone screen and the app isn't on the same screen I left, it seems to go to some other screen, so each time I want to just do something simple it feels like a puzzle I have to figure out each time. It's frustrating. I hate it."

PLEASE at least make the old app available ASAP so we don't have to suffer through this any longer. While you're fixing an obviously poorly designed and poorly tested product, we should at least be able to continue using what we paid good money for.

Nobody wants to be forced into something they didn't choose, so please give us a choice between the old app or a better one. Otherwise only choices are to patiently suffer through it (for who knows how long??) or just start over with something else.

Thank you for understanding and for an amazing product to date!

P.S. It's awesome Audibles is now available, but i only listen to books on 1.5 or 2x's speed, which for some reason isn't available?? Thank you!

S
Userlevel 5
Badge +8

Just got a prompt about data collection for recently played and noticed if I go into all recently played it will work. That's handy at least.

"I saw the Stooges and the MC5"
N

The new app is terrible. Please * can the new app and let us use the old one until your ding dong programmers can get it right. I’m actively seeking Sonos alternatives. I was about to buy a bunch of new Sonos products but am rethinking the wisdom of that considering how bad the new app is and how contemptuous to its users Sonos is about this failure of this “courageous” new app. Since when did courage become conflated with abject failure?

*Moderator Note: Modified in accordance with the Community Code of Conduct.*

C
Userlevel 5
Badge +4

For an audio company Sonos is literally tone deaf. I, and so many others are screaming into the void about our frustrations and there’s zero reply from the company. I know this has to be a strategy they’ve chosen, and the PR and crisis management engagement strategy is to just ignore us entirely. Not one serious reply or engagement on a thread that is hundreds of posts and thousands of views deep/

 

But if you want tone deaf and oblivious, please enjoy the fact they keep sending us all marketing material for their new products. Not only that they wedge the ads in the app. An app we all hate with a passion to start with.

 

BUT SURE: keep advertising a new product to the very audience who now hate you, and will never buy your products again. This whole strategy is insane when you could have just re-released the old app. I just laugh when I see you emailing me about the headphones and a new roam. So tone deaf. An apology and a re-release of the old app and you might have had another sale at some point from me.
 

But now, no I’ll just save my rage along with my pennies for another product. Honestly to be getting marketing material still like none of this has happened is bizarre. Was it all just automated and you didn’t think about how awful the mood is?

M
Userlevel 4
Badge +2

Yep, sorry guys, I'm out. 

Sonos is in trouble financially, and has been for some time.  We all know that.  The attitude shown by the company (from the CEO down) in the way this app release has been handled, and how it has exposed the culture of the company is now enough for me to look elsewhere.  It's a sinking ship.  The software has never lived up to the quality of the hardware - and perhaps crappy software and an arrogant attitude might have cut it back in the day when there wasn't much competition, but not any more.

I'll use Roon (which is excellent btw, perhaps the Sonos execs should try it ...) to control my Sonos speakers, and progressively replace them with something else. 

T
Userlevel 4
Badge +2

Like so many others, most of my speakers are missing from my app - specifically the living room surround sound set up. My living room “room” is gone from the app. The app on my android phone is different (color is black now instead of the gold/brown color) but I didn’t update it manually. I haven’t had time to mess around with it until today and found this forum. Has anyone gotten the new app to work? Is it worth trying to reset my system and/or trying to add my missing speakers? Where do I begin to fix it? Any suggestions as what not to do? I can try with an iphone if necessary. I just didn’t want to spend a bunch of time trying to reset everything if that is not a solution. And not to beat a dead horse but honestly the anger and frustration is real so it would be nice to have an explanation as to why it isn’t possible to revert to the old app. Did that break, too? TIA. 

They cannot go back at Sonos because they have moved the architecture to the web from a local executable across your LAN/WiFi. This is why you will always get intermittent connectivity and functions because the new app is polling for web services to perform the functions that your previous local app simply executed. Apart from the performance and connectivity there are serious security, regulatory and privacy issues with this as they have opened up your WiFi to the internet. And the app won't work if you don't have internet access. 

You can restore the previous app from apkmirror.com. it's 16.1. Make sure you turn off auto update on the app and Google Play. If you're on iOS you can get 3rd party apps Sonophone or Sooner to replace the app. 

The question keep coming back to WHY does Spence et al now force us to use their servers to make our local music/stream function?  jgatie posted that Sonos will never sell our data (sure they won’t ;-).  This crap-app wasn’t just foisted on us b/c of new Bluetooth headphones.  It IS NOT faster Ken G. for the majority of us.  It’s much much slower in response timne, why, b/c it’s now traveling the internet to Sonos’ own servers to do even simple tasks, gleaming a lot of user use-data along the way. 

Sonos has proven it self to be a dishonest and arrogant company.  And this 99% of users are satisfied is the biggest lie yet! 

I agree. As well as the data collection (and the associated regulatory court cases they can enjoy) the only business reason for taken away control from within our home audio system is to introduce subscriptions. As I've asked before and received 0 answers, what happens when you don't have access to the internet? 

I wouldn't take any notice of Ken's GIFs. I'm sure he's well meaning but he can't fix the irretrievable - the app disconnects al the time because it now sits on the internet and uses web services rather than being a local executable connected to our WiFi. I've got recorded screens but they are too big to share on here because it takes too long to do anything on the app, including loading it. I have @a dozen app opening recordings the quickest of which is @54 seconds. So just sitting watching the splash screen with me tapping to ensure my phone doesn't time out.

X
Userlevel 1

What you're saying on the architecture make sense. Nevertheless, it would have been wise to propose this new application aside the older one, giving customers (I prefer this term to users, as Sonos should be less reckless with those who pay 😊) time to fix the main issues while some users would be able to stay on the other app as long as they could/want 

 

Like many other, I have had problem on connected apps l, could not put any radio anymore, people in my house would only be able to put music if logged in with my account, etc ... All restored with the roll back to version 16.

 

A bit shameful the management, as for the communication, I love the minimisation (some user, we have seen a few posts.... 🤣🤣🤣) quite blind and a short if denial for the definition of a catastrophic change.

T
Userlevel 4
Badge +2

Assuming updates are coming to improve performance before making additional functionality changes….? 

Spence says the app is great so I wouldn’t assume anything until they commit. They’ve said they will add missing features. Performance issues will prob be chalked up to your network as before🤣🤣🤣

Except it's not and that response defies the laws of physics. I have 2 identical phones with the same Android system. 1 runs the new app and is up to date, 1 runs the old app. The new app polls to the internet to get web services and everything is intermittent including connectivity. The old app works fine.

N
Userlevel 3

Folks, I think I may have hit on the only practical solution to the lack of Sonos functionality.

1. Take shiny little disc out of plastic case.

2. Place shiny disc in shiny disc spinning machine.

3. Turn amplifier up loud. Enjoy!

4. Gain additional exercise when each shiny disc is finished playing.

5. Use Sonos products to stop books falling off a shelf (Move can be used to stop paper napkins blowing away at summer barbecues).

 

There! More practical advice than ANYONE has had from Sonos! 

Oh yeah, I'm also a published musician who now can't "proof master" material on Sonos from my NAS - ho hum... Bluetooth to my Denon it is then.

Thank you!

S
Userlevel 7
Badge +15

I've read a few different things about this but is it confirmed that you now need an Internet connection to use Sonos? I read the local library actually disappears if the Internet connection is removed from the router.  Is that true?

J
Userlevel 4
Badge

Dear @Corry P , while I do appreciate your response, it’s simply not good enough (as per other community comments since).

People invested 1000s USD in your products and for the second time they feel betrayed. Many customers lost trust (!) and a simple post confirming a few features will come back won’t restore this.

Suggest these actions:

  1. CEO Patrick Spence apologises for they way he delivered the new Sonos app, its approach to customer success and the lack of communication.
  2. Be transparent and publish a full gap analysis and let your customers know which are on the roadmap and which will definitely disappear 
  3. Include your customers and community members in your user experience design, make the user interface more customisable so that more users can identify themselves with your product and you can collect the right usability information. Do a lessons learned so that you really really prevent this from happening again.
  4. And do all of this quickly so that you don’t loose customers and your share price doesn’t drop further… 

Hope this helps.

 

 

D
Userlevel 3
Badge +1

 

 

I agree. As well as the data collection (and the associated regulatory court cases they can enjoy) the only business reason for taken away control from within our home audio system is to introduce subscriptions. As I've asked before and received 0 answers, what happens when you don't have access to the internet? 

I wouldn't take any notice of Ken's GIFs. I'm sure he's well meaning but he can't fix the irretrievable - the app disconnects al the time because it now sits on the internet and uses web services rather than being a local executable connected to our WiFi. I've got recorded screens but they are too big to share on here because it takes too long to do anything on the app, including loading it. I have @a dozen app opening recordings the quickest of which is @54 seconds. So just sitting watching the splash screen with me tapping to ensure my phone doesn't time out.

 

Re: the bolded part, see my post here. I cannot access my local library if my internet is down. I asked @Corry P from Sonos to confirm this is expected and the silence was deafening.

 

 

Would be good if others tested and posted their results.

A
Badge

Android, nothing in the notification bar when playing….

J
Userlevel 4
Badge +4

I've read a few different things about this but is it confirmed that you now need an Internet connection to use Sonos? I read the local library actually disappears if the Internet connection is removed from the router.  Is that true?

 

No it's not.

I tried simply unplugging my router from the Web and could access and play my local library just fine, using Android V16.1 and V80.x on different controllers. 

I wouldn't like your chances of doing setups or modifications to your system while disconnected, though.

S
Userlevel 7
Badge +15

I've read a few different things about this but is it confirmed that you now need an Internet connection to use Sonos? I read the local library actually disappears if the Internet connection is removed from the router.  Is that true?

 

No it's not.

I tried simply unplugging my router from the Web and could access and play my local library just fine, using Android V16.1 and V80.x on different controllers. 

I wouldn't like your chances of doing setups or modifications to your system while disconnected, though.

Thanks for the confirmation.  It's interesting that it appears to be repeatable for the likes of @dpg50000 though.  The problem with this whole mess and the amount of bugs and incontsistent behaviour is that for some of the issues, it's unclear if it's a bug or intended/expected.

M
Userlevel 3

How about for starters try and fix the bug where the app crashes when you click on the <Sonos home link?

Then try and address the hopeless latency when the app loads up and also when you click on any functionality?

it won’t make it useable but it’s a start!

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