Hi!

Welcome, and good luck Tom. 
 

I’m sure you’ll get a let of responses to your post: let me be first. Can you please re-introduce the “what’s coming in the next few releases” alerts, please? 

Welcome ​@Tom Conrad and good luck.

For me the most frustrating thing about the current period is the lack of clear and transparent communications. It seems that even things that are “set in stone” get drip fed, the latest example being the split of the player software and knowing exactly what speakers are defined as “old”. We know now but why did a user have to ask? 

Speaking personally, the lack of transparency is the thing that has destroyed my trust in Sonos but its a new day and the future is unwritten.

Good to see a decision made.  Looking forward to what comes next!

Hey ​@Gaham,

Appreciate the feedback. We're always looking for ways to improve how we communicate with our users. We might not always get it right, but we’re definitely watching and learning.

FWIW, once that update is live, there will be a support article that lists exactly which players will have a distinct software version.

​@Tom Conrad TBH I think that you are between a rock and a hard place with the communications. You seem to have ended up in the middle ground by releasing enough detail to create doubt but not enough to give certainty, and this, from my experience as a product manager, is definitely the worst of both worlds. 

FWIW, and not wanting to teach my grandmother to suck eggs, I found that the most manageable approaches were very detailed and early or very detailed and late. The problem with option 1, as I’m sure you know, is it means you have to get it right on release day but you do make the users feel engaged. Option 2 works well for interim releases but only really works for larger updates if the user has an option to delay, even if it is only for a short while, a feature that your updater seems not to support as well as it might.

As a user I do not like option 2, for all the reasons that have been raised since May last year, but the product manager in me understand why it is effective. I just think you missed a trick with the user option to delay the update.

Every time I made the wrong choice I wished for a DeLorean and I’m sure you team know that feeling only too well. 

Delaying updates is frustrating for Sonos users since any controller logged into the system can pull an update from the App Store unless individually disabled and o ce pulled it then it wants to update the firmware. It can be changed  but many users don't understand that.

The "no going back" nature of Sonos updates is also an aggravation. Yes you can dig out a saved version of the old app (on Android at least) and sideload it but that is risky and beyond many folks comfort level. Firmware there is no going back.

​@Tom Conrad 

I feel as if Sonos is at a Blockbuster moment in it’s life cycle.  Much too confident in their customer base without realizing a good percentage are ‘have to’s’ (legacy speaker owners financially unwilling to unwind) rather than ‘want to’s’ (legacy speakers owners willing to upgrade or add to existing systems).   I’d wager your headphones sales would be a good litmus test for this. I know I decided on a Bose headphone over Sonos because of the App-aggedon.

Speaking of, I find the App much too laggy for my taste. Every time the “what’s playing” album cover doesn’t update or I have to wait for the speakers to actually increase/decrease volume, I think of the Ace App Update. One last bit, The UI isn’t clean, Its usable but it’s not a modern day UI. The floating search bar? The world uses the Magnifying Glass now.

Good luck ​@Tom Conrad you have a great opportunity to right this ship.

I've lurked here more to watch the trends, honestly to see if I want to invest more in a solid system.

Some things I've noticed if you step back out of the trees and look at the forest.

IOS seems to be problematic.

My system runs on an ORBI mesh and has been rock solid but there seems to be lots of Wi-Fi issues with... less than mainstream networks. Realizing you are using a lot of functionality there if you can calm the integration down lots of issues would go away.

The app thing was something beaten to death and seems to be smoothing out but something that would be useful for me out in the sticks here. I really only stream off of Pandora, which has multiple "stations" residing on my devices for when there is no Internet connection. To be able to use that as a music source in the advent of total loss if connection to the outside world happens would be helpful. Whether it would be integration through the Sonos app or a single BT connection to a Sonos device , playing from the Pandora app, that propagates throughout the Sonos devices on my wifi 

Anyway, good luck and I am looking forward to see what y'all bring forward.

Some models support Bluetooth Grouping.

My advice to ​@Tom Conrad would be that if you post your email address and invite people to contact you then it’s polite to have somebody read and reply to those emails.