Volume control using IOS app on iphone and ipad

Topics are shut down after a period of no posts, regardless of content.  There’s no conspiracy going on.

As to the NYT app vs. Sonos, there’s a big difference.  The NYT app is a media player, the Sonos app is a remote control for third party hardware, and Apple has removed the capability for the hard buttons to control 3rd party hardware.  They’ve also cracked down on the hack Sonos used to usurp that rule, which was playing a silent file in the background so iOS would think the Sonos app was a media player.  Sonos either had to comply with Apple’s rule, or be removed from the App Store.

Bottom line, if you wish this functionality to return, you are barking up the wrong tree here at Sonos.  Go bark up Apple’s tree. 

This is always the response I’ve received related to anything Apple & Sonos… complaining to apple does absolutely nothing as a consumer. I’ve tried. Sonos would have more weight as a company, unless they’re in a dispute with Apple. At any rate, Sonos as a company appears to have thrown in the towel on this issue. As a consumer, I don’t care whose fault it is. It is up to the company (companies) to sort that out behind the scenes.  

Whether you care about fault or not, it doesn’t change the fact that Apple is enforcing their rules, and the only choices Sonos has is to comply, or be removed from the App Store.  Which choice would you rather they take? 

Re: “the only choices Sonos has is to comply, or be removed from the App Store”. Is there any specific documentation on Apple’s policy about this? Has Sonos discussed this directly with apple? Probably not public info, but seems to me that they are a big enough company with some weight to do so. I would be relatively ok with sacrificing volume controls if the Sonos app was any good (IMO it is horrible for music fans). The only reason I use it at all is because atmos is only available directly through the Sonos app. Aside from that, I’d be happy to not use the Sonos app & would be fine with it being removed from the app store. Assuming that speaker setup still works, of course. 

Nobody knows about this issue, but we do know the last time Apple did something like this (removed the ability to play songs located on the iDevice), Sonos tried for over a year to work with Apple, and Apple never budged.

As to removing the app?  Your system would not be able to be administered to without using the app.  No adding new devices, configuring rooms, voice control, Trueplay, etc.  So though you may be content without it, the vast majority would not.  Thus that choice is not a choice at all for Sonos. 

Let me rephrase - I’d be perfectly content with not using the Sonos App for the UX side of things with organizing / browsing / playing music / podcasts etc. Understood that it’s required for any hardware related management. That’s the problem though, it’s a catch 22 for the end user. 

As to documentation to the policy, Apple has rejected apps in the past for altering the hardware buttons:

In August, Apple rejected the photo app Camera+ when it included a volume-snap feature, because changing the behavior of the iPhone's external hardware buttons was strictly prohibited.

https://www.wired.com/2010/12/camera-plus-volume-snap/

Wouldn’t you expect that Sonos discussed this with Apple at length, long before we became aware of it? Certainly that would not be public information, but it would be madness not to. I’ve certainly had my share of conversations with Apple folks, while representing another company’s interests. It would seem madness to me that Sonos wouldn’t have fought tooth and nail about several of these changes forced on them by both Apple and Google, but a company the size of Sonos against behemoths that offer Operating System that Sonos relies on is a challenge, and of course Sonos won’t oublically shake the boat, no matter how unhappy they may be. They’re still beholden to these companies to run the Sonos software on their OS.

I understand that you’d be OK with Sonos pulling their software from the Apple Store, and making it a download from the website only. I’ve not got research and numbers to back me up, but I suspect that option was looked at, and discarded by the Product Managers at Sonos, as it might lose them a larger portion of their users. Sonos does seem to have a marketing thrust of ‘ease of use’ more than anything else. I look at that as ‘something my mother could run easily, not overly complex’. If my mother had to go to a website to update the software on her Sonos (were she still alive), she’d rather immediately stop using and purchasing Sonos. I suspect there is a large portion of Sonos users who are the same, much larger than the population savvy enough to frequent this forum, and post. 

It would be really nice if Sonos was more customizable. I see suggestions frequently here in this forum about adding this or that, all which make sense individually, but when you imagine each and every option and how it would fit in an ease of use application, it become no longer that…no ease of use, just a bewildering bevy of option that likely less than 1% of users would want to use, and way less than that which would use those options properly. 

I don’t always agree with Sonos. However, I want them to stay in business, and continue their support for the system I have in my home. Perhaps at some point, a competitor will develop a better system, and I’ll jump ship…but so far, in the last 15 years, that hasn’t happened, and Sonos continues to evolve in both areas I do care about, and areas I don’t. As long as they continue to exist, I’m happy. 

This was 13 years ago though. 

I’ve been a Sonos customer for over 10 years now, pretty heavily invested in the system. But I hate the app with a passion, frustrated that Sonos doesn’t appear to be interested in improving it beyond security and hardware functionality issues. Anyways, seems that there’s no more discussion to be had about the iphone button controls, which is unfortunate given that users are locked into using the sonos app for atmos.