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Mike H
Retired Sonos Staff
May 14, 2024
Interview

Sonos App Redesign AMA

  • May 14, 2024
  • 770 replies
  • 65983 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

Prominent Collaborator I
May 14, 2024

Ugh this is disgusting.  I have to admit that I didn’t have “Sell all my SONOS gear because the app is a UX train wreck” on my bingo card for 2024. 
 

Your AMA is a joke. 

AMPx2, One SLx6, Play5x2, SUBx2, Play1x2, Move, Roam (Yuck), ARC, PlayBar, Beam, SYMFONISKx2, Awful New App.
Trending Lyricist I
May 14, 2024

Just had a message from Mike R H saying personal attacks aren’t tolerated. Well I didn’t make a personal attack at all. So wanna explain yourself Mikey boy because I’m about to go all in

DianeRoberts
Sonos Employee
May 14, 2024

 

Wait, sorry, I screwed up. Swift native? That means there’s real hope of getting this right on iOS at least, and I’ll let Android users comment too. What parts are Swift and what parts are Flutter? This is crucial for accessibility.

@Nick6489 

The only portion of the experience that is in Flutter is what we call “wizards”. The cards that pop up from the bottom of the screen to either walk you through setting up your products or give you tips about how things work. With respect to accessibility, I can share that the wizards are reading the screen content on iOS. I just checked personally on today’s release.

Everything else is native UI. The home screen, search, browse, system view, now playing view, queue view, settings, etc.

One other piece of technology we use is a secure web view for areas that require authentication.

Overall, we think of this as one experience. We will not be satisfied until the entire experience is accessible.

Enthusiast I
May 14, 2024

The new app left me without my carefully curated URL-based internet radio favorites. How is this supposed to be accomplished in the new app?

To add radio stations via a custom url, you will need to add the station in the Tune-In app first. Then you can add this station as a favorite from the Tune-In app in Sonos. I hope that helps!

@tuckerseverson , I have many custom URL stations that show up properly in the TuneIn app.  Only a fraction of them appear in the TuneIn section of the new Sonos iOS app.  They do all still appear on the desktop Sonos controller that I have not updated (and may never, unless forced to).  Also, in the iOS app, the station names are truncated with no way to read beyond the first word, and no way to change them.  The TuneIn app (new) also does not have a way to change the names!

Lyricist III
May 14, 2024

Let’s talk about screen equity.

This is from my wall-mounted iPad. 

 

 

Mine does not look like that - I have full screen.

Apple Music generated “playlist”. Same on 3 iPad. Sad...

Enthusiast I
May 14, 2024

 

Wait, sorry, I screwed up. Swift native? That means there’s real hope of getting this right on iOS at least, and I’ll let Android users comment too. What parts are Swift and what parts are Flutter? This is crucial for accessibility.

@Nick6489

The only portion of the experience that is in Flutter is what we call “wizards”. The cards that pop up from the bottom of the screen to either walk you through setting up your products or give you tips about how things work. With respect to accessibility, I can share that the wizards are reading the screen content on iOS. I just checked personally on today’s release.

Everything else is native UI. The home screen, search, browse, system view, now playing view, queue view, settings, etc.

One other piece of technology we use is a secure web view for areas that require authentication.

Overall, we think of this as one experience. We will not be satisfied until the entire experience is accessible.

Okay.  This is an excellent answer.  

Enthusiast II
May 14, 2024

 Ya know, I'm just a simple guy with simple needs. That's why i bought a Sonos system. I have little interest in the nuts and bolts. I just want to turn it on and have it work. It's not doing that now. Last week it was. I really don't care what your challenges are. That's your problem. Now your problem has become my problem. Pull the plug and roll everyone back.

Lyricist I
May 14, 2024

After what i witnessed here, i believe a professional damage control team should be in order.

Lyricist I
May 14, 2024

Do you have a timeline for fixing the CBC Radio streams that have been broken in the new app?  Many people have complained on your boards.  Nobody appears to be fixing them.

Renowned Enthusiast II
May 14, 2024

Please address the rationale behind the removal of sleep timers and alarms. You must have telemetry showing that these were very heavily used features of the app. And yet now they are gone.

@CacheCoherence - we never intended to ship without Alarm Settings.

(I am copying this in since the threading is difficult to follow here)

On the morning of the app launch, we discovered a data corruption error around the new Alarms APIs. The corruption could cause alarms to go off in the wrong room at the wrong volume with the wrong content! In order to save your alarms, we made the difficult decision to remotely disable the alarm settings feature and then completely lock it out. It allowed us to make sure your alarms stayed as they were - but at the steep cost of taking away your ability to change them yourself.

The team rallied to make sure we could turn this feature back on safely. You can have Alarm Settings back right now!

  1. Update your app to:
    1. iOS: 80.00.08 - available now in the App Store
    2. Android: 80.00.05 - available now in the Play Store
  2. Update your firmware to 79.0-52294 - available now via the Sonos App:
    1. Tap the settings gear in the top right
    2. Select “Manage” next to your system name
    3. Select System Updates
    4. Select Check for Updates
  3. Launch the Sonos app twice in order to guarantee we fetch the latest feature flags:
    1. Start the Sonos app
    2. Force quit the app
    3. Start the Sonos app again

I don’t use the alarm function. If I update the app on the one device where I’ve already updated to keep that one up to date, will this mess up the older app on my other devices where I haven’t updated? I’d like to be able to keep the other devices from being updated as long as possible, so I can still control my system, while monitoring the progress of the new app on the one device.