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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

neilmcg
Enthusiast II
May 14, 2024

Just interested, @bstephens16 , what is the use case for using your Sonos system when not at home? (by the way .. this is a serious question, as I can’t think of a use case off the top of my head… but maybe there is one that could be useful).

@ian02054 - you have alarms set, you cannot access them locally. You’ve gone away from home.

You want to switch them off remotely.

 

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.

Just interested, @bstephens16 , what is the use case for using your Sonos system when not at home? (by the way .. this is a serious question, as I can’t think of a use case off the top of my head… but maybe there is one that could be useful).

 

This would allow for remote control for professional settings as Sonos tries to carve out larger swaths in already established markets (e.g. restaurants, bars, etc.).  It is, however, total gimmick to the traditional and core user of the product.  

Enthusiast II
May 14, 2024

Three hours in and we're at the end of the advertised window for the AMA.

Final numbers then, though of course people will probably continue posting in the thread (numbers in brackets are the count at 2 hours and 1 hour)

@DianeRoberts  - 9 (4, 0)

@KateW  - 6 (5, 3)

@tuckerseverson  - 3 (3, 2)

Total Sonos Responses - 18

Total Comments - 742
 

Looks like tucker got a little tuckered out at the 2 hour mark.

 

And some stats of my own counting:

Respect shown to customers - 0

Horrific discoveries - 2

  • Data corruption issue in alarms didn’t stop a release.
  • All speakers now available on the public internet protected only by a users password.

Feedback/suggestions actually taken by Sonos - 0

Awkward questions Sonos didn't want to address ignored - All of them

Commitments to do anything other than they'd already announced - None

Time wasted - 3 hours of my life anyway and I'm sure plenty of other customers

Also a piece of advice for anyone who side-loaded the 16.1 APK on Android, remember to turn off auto-updates in both the play store AND for the speaker firmware in the app.  The first will stop the new app overwriting 16.1 and the second will stop your speakers downloading new firmware, you never know when Sonos will break compatibility with the 16.1 version.

Well, I was really interested in the romoured Sonos headphones, but I won't be buying them and I'll probably be looking elsewhere for hardware in the future.

 

@Undergrid Where do you turn off firmware updates in the app? is that just the system updates ? (Tucker never answered my question on that :-) )

bockersjv
Local Superstar
May 14, 2024

30 pages of comment an I failed to see a single person who liked the new app. Why do you not realise, it’s not the new design it’s the fact that you have hobbled people systems by removing basic core functions rendering the speakers useless.  The arrogance of the management team is magnificent!

tuckerseverson
Sonos Employee
May 14, 2024

setting aside all the “why did you do this release like this”, can you tell us how you will ensure it wont happen in the future, and what the plan is to address customer input in a more coherent way

@hohotheclown and others,

Our goal is to build the best products for you—to add sound to your lives. Along the way we may make mistakes. What we learned this past week is that we should have communicated more openly with you about changes that may impact you.

Going forward we plan to be more communicative to you all about changes that are coming.
 

We are also committed to acting on your feedback—and delivering you improvements—rapidly. Over the coming weeks and months we seek to fix the issues that you have surfaced and earn back your trust.

Product at Sonos
Enthusiast II
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.

Just interested, @bstephens16 , what is the use case for using your Sonos system when not at home? (by the way .. this is a serious question, as I can’t think of a use case off the top of my head… but maybe there is one that could be useful).

 

This would allow for remote control for professional settings as Sonos tries to carve out larger swaths in already established markets (e.g. restaurants, bars, etc.).  It is, however, total gimmick to the traditional and core user of the product.  

Thx @Tvinecke (I feel like we get better answers from the group than the execs :-) )

Lyricist 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.

Just interested, @bstephens16 , what is the use case for using your Sonos system when not at home? (by the way .. this is a serious question, as I can’t think of a use case off the top of my head… but maybe there is one that could be useful).

 

Ooccasionally I leave the house and forget to stop the music, or I have visitors at home that wanted radio on when I left but cannot stop it themselves

Recently alexa has been able to start but not stop music in my daughters room.  So far I've been home every time,  but come school vacation time I know I'll end up coming home 8 hours later to still hear taylor swift blasting out.

webmink
Prominent Collaborator I
May 14, 2024

Do we get an extension because the answers started half an hour late?

Support musicians by buying music instead of streaming.
Headliner I
May 14, 2024

I wonder how many tech journalists were following this AMA for a story.

The media could be the only winner here as I think there’s a really negative story here.

Are Sonos now doomed to follow the BlackBerry path and become a footnote in the journal of innovation? 

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.

Just interested, @bstephens16 , what is the use case for using your Sonos system when not at home? (by the way .. this is a serious question, as I can’t think of a use case off the top of my head… but maybe there is one that could be useful).

 

Leaving home while the music is still playing. Then the kids or babysitter call and ask you to turn it off