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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

Avid Contributor I
May 14, 2024

SONOS MANAGERS: You consider the complaints as it was for S1 to S2. IT IS NOT THE SAME!  S1 to S2 migration was clearly explain before downloading.

NOT THIS TIME! Your clients are hostages.

No warnings before dowloading this new downgrade app and since no appologies from you! Only polical answers from an internal point of you. Shame on you.

 

 

Enthusiast II
May 14, 2024

Can you please explain to me how I am supposed to trust the leadership of this company? 
 

the last week has seen:

-an app marketed as “better” remove core functionality without telling us. 
 

-a chance to receive and review feedback and still sending out promo emails saying the app is better when the consumer base is saying it does jot fulfill user needs. 
 

-a statement praising the company for the release and gaslighting the users who do not like it. 
 

-a statement outlining the dates at which features will be reimplemented meaning you were aware you were marketing a less functionally capable app as “better”

 

-a timeline of “months” to restore core functionality meaning that from the first promo emails on April 23 you knew that the the app would be functionally inferior to what we already had. 
 

-an announcement of an AMA seemingly in response to the overwhelming negative feedback

 

-a failure to host the AMA on a host actually capable of facilitating the conversation 

 

-a stunning lack of participation from the admins 

 

-PR speak in response to the most committed customers voicing legitimate complaints. 
 


frankly, the Sonos app launch was a failure. the response has been condescending, patronizing and flat out insulting. 
 

 

 

A ‘thumbs-up like’ on its own is not enough to support this post. Best post of the day and a succinct and accurate summary of the situation.

Collaborator II
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.  

I think if they would have come out and apologized right away and then laid out some semblance of a plan to make it right - they could have changed this trajectory quickly. 

Oh come on, I’m an adult — I don’t need an apology from someone I’ve never met.  And an apology would be derided on here as insincere — the staffers here have been put in an absolutely impossible situation, that absolutely anything they say will be copied, pasted and shot to pieces.  The release schedule up till mid-June already shows some semblance of a plan to make it right.  It’s a bloody app, for god’s sake - it was released too early, it’s buggy and bug fixes are coming.  Many in here need to learn how to behave.  

Whilst I agree to a degree with your comments. It was relatively calm at the start and most people were waiting for what was going to be said. Things only started to go awry when there was a considerable delay in responding to questions. Also I think certain attendees were expecting a different format.

Then when they answers did start to infrequently arrive, it was David Brentism’s all the way. Pure management speak which added nothing.

Not that it matters, but personally I think an apology would have calmed things down significantly.

Everyone knows mistakes are made and people on whole are pretty forgiving if you put you hands up and say sorry.
Unfortunately, sonos decided to take the route of doubling-down on their mistakes and further antagonised everyone in the room. This hasn’t helped and has made a bad situation worse.

As many people have suggested, just make the old app available while bugs are ironed out of the new app.

All Sonos products replaced due to appalling app and sheer arrogance of CEO.
Trending Lyricist I
May 14, 2024

Just been accused by Mike R H from sonos of attacks without any basis. This is what they are doing. Fighting everyone and ignoring all valid concerns. Boycott Sonos. Let them burn. 

Lyricist III
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.

Diane, at least on the accessibility topic, you are a star. You offered me real hope that you can actually get this one fixed. Thanks!

Lyricist III
May 14, 2024

Will EU customers have the possibility to opt out from transferring their data to play.sonos.com and use the app only locally as before?

Lyricist I
May 14, 2024

Will Last.fm scrobbling support be added back into the app?

Enthusiast II
May 14, 2024

@tuckerseverson the email from Sonos before the new app update rolled out stated this…

“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.”

Can we have an apology because this was clearly not the case.

Bring back the old Sonos app. It was clunky, but it actually worked!
Lyricist I
May 14, 2024

Another 2 minutes then the horror comes to an end

bstephens16
Contributor I
May 14, 2024

Regarding http://play.sonos.com/, I would rather not have to login every day if possible.

I would love if the sonos app redirected to this experience when not on my network. Home Assistant does something similar, using local network access when on home wifi, then switching to URL when off home wifi.