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Mike H
Retired Sonos Staff
May 14, 2024
Interview

Sonos App Redesign AMA

  • May 14, 2024
  • 770 replies
  • 65992 views
Sonos App Redesign AMA

Today is the day of the AMA!

The new app design has been out for a week, and most of you have had a chance to get used to the new UI.

Some of you might have questions when you have had a week to get to know the new Sonos App interface. Because of that, we want to give you all a chance to ask some of the people who were integral in its creation and design, the questions that have come to mind while you have used the app.

As we mentioned in the event.

Our panelists will be:

  • Diane Roberts, Senior Director of Software Development
  • Kate Wojogbe, Senior Director of User Experience
  • Tucker Severson, Director of Product Management

It will be hosted on the 14th of May from 11:00 until 14:00 GMT -07.

But instead of me telling you what they do and what their role with the app update has been, here are their own introductions:

 

Diane

Diane Roberts is the Senior Director of Software Engineering and Product Management at Sonos responsible for the Sonos Apps. Her group of cross-disciplinary teams build Configuration, Control, and Content experiences on a foundation of Core mobile application technologies. She received dual Bachelors’ of Science in Computer Science and Music from WPI. Diane holds 6 granted patents as a co-inventor.

 

Kate

As Senior Director of User Experience, Kate leads the UX team responsible for Sonos’ home audio hardware, software, and app user experiences. This includes user interfaces on speakers and soundbars, setup for hardware and services, first and third party content experiences, and a variety of methods of control of the Sonos system. Kate graduated from the University of California Los Angeles with a Bachelor of Arts degree in Design.

 

Tucker

Tucker Severson is the Director of Product Management and leads the PM team responsible for the Sonos Apps. Tucker received his BA from Bates College and his MBA from the University of Vermont.

 

We will do our best to answer as many of your questions as possible within the 3-hour window, but we can’t promise to answer every question, especially those you know we can’t discuss.

But if we see a question repeated or a reply getting a lot of likes, don’t worry. We will prioritize those to ensure that many people get the answers they seek.

 

Remember, we can’t talk about things on the roadmap - but if you have questions or feedback about the app redesign, want to know more about our panelists, like their background or favorite band, then the sky is the (cough cough.. NDA) limit!

Thank you, everyone, for participating. We covered as many of the most asked questions as possible. We know tracking the responses wasn't as easy as we had hoped. But we wanted to let the community air frustrations and have their questions answered.

I got a lot of DMs during the AMA, and I will be sure to answer them when I can. Thanks for reaching out!

Keith and I will work on recapping all the questions and feedback we have responded to, and we will update the post here when that is complete. If we didn't get to your question, don't worry. Keith and I are grabbing all the feedback from this thread, even the things we didn't respond to, and ensuring the right people will see the message. This was the first time we created a live AMA in the community, and we learned a lot for future AMAs.

We appreciate all the feedback and questions you gave through this AMA. It helps us understand your most significant feedback and your reasoning. We hear you, and we will ensure the right teams get your feedback. They are listening.

We look forward to rolling out the updates with features (new and old) as soon as they are ready. Keith shared an overview of the timeline for expecting these features to return to the app. Today was the first update, reintroducing alarms and improving the iOS voiceover.

We look forward to seeing your reactions to our future app developments. We hope you all appreciate the work our developers are putting into making the app as fast and easy to use as possible for the general user.
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770 replies

Enthusiast II
May 14, 2024

I just want to say there has been allot of negativity surrounding the new app launch. I just want to say the app is fantastic. I've been using it everyday since it came out last week. I know there is some future additions coming in the next weeks and will just be patient with the future roll out. Thank you Diane, Kate, Tucker, and the rest of the Sonos development team for everything you do. 

This is a joke - correct? We should be patient while we wait to get back to where we were? 

No Derrick it is not a joke. 

Wow SSL you are an easy one to please.  

Pretty much and the things that I am wanting I voice my option and patiently wait for them. 

 

Example when Sonos screwed up True play. Voiced my option and eventually they fixed it. 

well if that works for you...I prefer that companies that I spend hard earned money on respect that and do their job, If they mess up - apologize and make it right. I see none of that from Sonos. 

Enthusiast II
May 14, 2024

Why was the app released when, by your own admission "there is still more work to be done"? Why didn't you ensure that all features met the standards of your listeners before releasing it?

Lyricist III
May 14, 2024

I just want to say there has been allot of negativity surrounding the new app launch. I just want to say the app is fantastic. I've been using it everyday since it came out last week. I know there is some future additions coming in the next weeks and will just be patient with the future roll out. Thank you Diane, Kate, Tucker, and the rest of the Sonos development team for everything you do. 

This is a joke - correct? We should be patient while we wait to get back to where we were? 

I suppose if you have one speaker and use Sonos Radio alone, it’s probably a great release.  

 

When you have 20 speakers, a NAS, and multiple streaming services, it is...not so much.

First off you obviously have no idea how to click on a persons profile to see how many Sonos products a user has or you would of not made such a ridiculous statement. Also if you had clicked on my profile you would known I DON'T use Sonos Radio. So next time do your homework. 

Second over 20 speakers? Bro you don't have 20 speakers so stop over exaggerating your circumstance. You ain't Peter Pee. 

Third, no this not a joke. I've have multiple Sonos products also multiple streaming services. Apple Music, Spotify, Amazon Music, YouTube Music, Sirius XM, Home Theater setup, etc. All of them are working great since the 80.0 update. 

Fourth, people are complaining about the missing features like the alarms, personal playlists, etc on the Sonos app. Who uses Sonos speakers for an alarm when we all have cell phones where we can customize what we wake up to in 2024? Many streaming services have personal playlists that you can customize for yourself. Why the heck would anyone want to take up tons of memory on their phone with music when it's available on streaming music services?  Also who the heck buys music anymore?  This isn't 1994 anymore. These features that are missing are for people that don't know it's the 21st century. 

Not that I NEED to prove anything to you, @SonosSpotifyLover, I’m going to choose to because you’re being a dick.  Some people DO use their systems different than you do and you saying “It’s 2024 and use your watch and quit complaining about your systems doing less than they did yesterday if they work at all”.  That’s 28 if you don’t want to do the math.  Okay, okay, TWO are Boosts, but some of us can back up what we say in public.  So, maybe STFU.

 

 

Prove anything? Come on bro you came at me with saying I only had one speaker. Next time look at yourself before attacking people online.

 

Lastly look who couldn't contain themselves without using explicit language. Have fun with your comment's being deleted. 

“Explicit language”  Bless your heart.  Really, we need a block function here.  I’m done.  Bye, now.

This isn't an airport, no need to announce your departure. 

Prodigy III
May 14, 2024

Will or can you please make an APK or API for sonos hardware available, so people can build there own app / UI?

 

https://developer.sonos.com/

https://docs.sonos.com/

Lyricist III
May 14, 2024

How do i stop this AMA from emailing me every reply????? 

Lyricist I
May 14, 2024

SO, will the forced update pending for the Windows controller screw up my system? We’ve been OK with rolling back to 16.1 on Android and disabling all updates, but now we can’t use Windows?

Nothing I’ve seen here has instilled any confidence that Sonos is slowing its roll or pumping its brakes in any way, which is a shame. No matter what I do I can’t avoid losing functionality I had days ago? Have to go with the lesser of all the evils and stick with 16.1 Android and pray nobody hits the Update button on me. No way am I updating the Windows controller, not a fan of Sonoscide.

May 14, 2024

I’ve only observed up till now.  There are only three respondents to, what — 400 users here ?  While the Sonos replies are too few and too infrequent, they each generate further exponential posts, many just to get in a snarky response.  This was never going to work.  There have been plenty of pertinent questions posed, but also far too much mud-slinging which was never going to add anything.  Maybe next time, a different platform for the Q&A, and hopefully a few more adults in the room.  

Lyricist I
May 14, 2024

Please upvote this post: Can you please provide an immediate easy way to rollback the mobile app to the prior version for those who can’t make the current version meet their needs.

Thanks @bkk. Also, @nelliott and others had similar questions.

Rolling back to the previous version of the Sonos app is likely to cause issues. As Sonos continues to advance forward with new updates to the firmware, the old apps will fall out of compatibility quickly. Our priority is to release improvements to the Sonos app rapidly to address your needs.

Well, I rolled back to the previous version a couple of hours after the upgrade, and I have had no issues at all. 

I am sure that they will "fix" this backward compatibility issue with the next firmware update.

May 14, 2024

I am not sure that this format for an AMA was appropriate.   You basically have people posting hundreds of questions with responses coming based on the popularity of the question. How is this different than any other forum within the community?  So, I am expected to scroll through 22+ pages of questions to figure out what has been asked and answered?  And the amount of pages are growing by the minute. 
 

Why didn’t you do a Teams/Zoom meeting? Or even a Twitch event would have been better than this!!!

Yeah this forum/community is a terrible platform for this type of event. 

But text-based forums can work. Reddit works well for this type of event because threads can be sorted by upvotes so the most popular questions rise to the top of the thread. Much easier to quickly see the most popular questions, and the answers associated with those questions.

Lyricist II
May 14, 2024

All I want is to be able to listen to music from my local library. Right now I’m able to access the files, but I can’t add them to a playlist (all my previews playlists, consisting of local music, are gone as well). Cover art is not showing as well. Please tell me that this function is still a priority to you. I didn’t invest in my Sonos system to be eventually be forced to pay for a streaming service…

Me too. This is why I brought into Sonos.