Retired Sonos Staff

News

The new Sonos Mobile App & Web App

Related content:Software

Forum|Forum|2 years ago
April 23, 2024
1674 replies
97138 views

Today we are introducing the most extensive app redesign ever, creating an unprecedented streaming experience that allows listeners to organize their favorite playlists, stations, albums and more from over 100 services on one customizable Home screen.

The new Home screen provides faster access to Sonos system controls with one easy swipe up, making tab to tab jumping a thing of the past. As a leader in sound experience that’s focused on creating a better way to listen, Sonos intentionally redesigned the app on a modern software platform for an easier, faster and better experience that can support more rapid innovation.

The reimagined app supports all existing S2 products and will be available globally through a software update for the S2 mobile app.

100+ streaming services, one Home screen

The redesigned Sonos app prioritizes a listening experience that’s human - allowing you to bring your true favorites front and center and giving you more control to make your streaming experience your own.

Get into your music (and off the app) faster: No need to tap between tabs — the new Home screen serves up all your favorite content and controls, all in one place. Quickly jump back into your recently played, browse libraries and recommendations from your preferred services, and fill your home with music and all the sounds you love.
Customize and curate: Enjoy unparalleled curation by designing your Home screen to reflect how you listen. Pin rows of your favorite content and services; then move, edit, or rearrange them to your liking.
Search every streaming library: Look for an artist, song, podcast, or audiobook across all your preferred streaming apps at once via an easy-to-use search bar that’s always available right on your Home screen.
Elevated system control: Swipe up from the bottom of your Home screen to seamlessly control your entire system and access a visual overview of what’s playing on each of your products, quickly group speakers, and dial in on the perfect volume from anywhere in the app.

Accessible from any modern web browser, a brand new web app allows listeners the same seamless system control as the mobile app.

The Web App will be available alongside the redesigned mobile app on May 7, 2024.

Want to find out more about the new Sonos App? Have a look at the Info Hub section of the community for a complete rundown of the new user interface.

Here you can find the full press release.

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G

Gaham

Headliner I

I am with you. I WILL NEVER PURCHASE ANOTHER SONOS HARDWARE PIECE EVER AGAIN.

Which begs the question: Why should they care if they already lost you as a customer?

Sad but true.

It would appear that they didn’t care to begin with!

Also true

M

Marty Nypan

Lyricist I

What do the people at Sonos think? Everything was working fine. Suddenly the app is updated with a UI that is terribly slow, lacks basic functionality and is just hard to navigate. Queue management is a disaster. What happened to basic things like add to queue, go to an album from a song? to just mention a few. Go back to previous UI !

D

Dcgman#1

Headliner I

Looks like I’m late to the Sonos app party. I thought I was the only one having issues with the newest app. Wow, 60 pages, too many to read. When can we get our old app back? Like some I’ve read here, I’ve lost My Library. There’s all sorts of issues I’m having with the iPad & phone app. This isn’t funny Sonos. Will there be a solution to this fiasco? Can we demand our old S2 app back? I went to the community site to ask about this new headphones (which I wasn’t thinking of getting) & see what everyone’s thoughts on it when most everyone was complaining about fixing the newest app release. Wow! Well this new app SUCKs!

D

Deadbone

Lyricist I

Hey, a rollback to the previous version would be a good alternative and they will have the time to correct the present crappy version

S

Saguaro7

Enthusiast II

Looks like I’m late to the Sonos app party. I thought I was the only one having issues with the newest app. Wow, 60 pages, too many to read. When can we get our old app back? Like some I’ve read here, I’ve lost My Library. There’s all sorts of issues I’m having with the iPad & phone app. This isn’t funny Sonos. Will there be a solution to this fiasco? Can we demand our old S2 app back? I went to the community site to ask about this new headphones (which I wasn’t thinking of getting) & see what everyone’s thoughts on it when most everyone was complaining about fixing the newest app release. Wow! Well this new app SUCKs!

And this is just one thread! Even the Washington Post knows how bad the Sonos app is!

https://www.washingtonpost.com/technology/2024/05/17/sonos-new-app-update-problems/

B

bee-ess

Lyricist II

I wonder if we are getting into class action territory with this - The crap software is making the expensive hardware unfit for purpose. I wonder if there are any good legal people on here that care to comment.

S

stevepow

Prominent Collaborator I

Thanks. To be clear then, after updating from S2 to the new version (I'm not calling it an upgrade), users can still play from a local library but will have no ability whatsoever to search from it?

For now that is correct. There is an alternative though. You can use Plex, most NAS also support it. Universal Search does support Plex.

Interesting Sonos recommending a 3rd party solution to their problem, yet they don’t seem to be advocating the SonoPad / SonoPhone controller apps to backfill the holes in the current SONOS controller app.

My WD NAS has Plex and I finally set it up. It’s a bit fiddly and I had to enable “remote access” to get Sonos to see it. Not sure why - it is not remote and I have no interest in reaching it from outside my home. Initially some tracks would not play - “lost connection” issue which is covered in dozens of posts. My solution: sleep on it. I think there is some “processing” Plex is doing that took a while (our library has 5000+ files). This morning, they play. Tomorrow? Who knows. 🤞

Hard to know what is happening though with playback and “remote access” which seems to be required. If I disable my Internet (literally stop the gateway), then playback from the Plex services on SONOS stops even though my local network is fully functional. So that plux. Not obvious what is going on, but I hope my music is not streaming from my house into the “Plex ether” and then back to my house and to SONOS. At any rate, Plex as a solution for SONOS’s broken system seems a bit like duct tape and bailing wire.

And indeed, the search seems to work as long as you are happy to get non-qualified results - no way to search for a song/album/artist, etc - you get the entire lot of anything that is in the search string. Who knew the 2020s would regress so far from the early 2000s. Way to blaze a trail, Sonos.

That said, with no queue management, search is all but pointless - what to do with the results? Blow out the current playing queue? In the age of emerging AI, Sonos has latched on to artificial stupidity. Trail blazers for sure. 🙄

A

Anonymous

Thanks. To be clear then, after updating from S2 to the new version (I'm not calling it an upgrade), users can still play from a local library but will have no ability whatsoever to search from it?

For now that is correct. There is an alternative though. You can use Plex, most NAS also support it. Universal Search does support Plex.

Interesting Sonos recommending a 3rd party solution to their problem, yet they don’t seem to be advocating the SonoPad / SonoPhone controller apps to backfill the holes in the current SONOS controller app.

My WD NAS has Plex and I finally set it up. It’s a bit fiddly and I had to enable “remote access” to get Sonos to see it. Not sure why - it is not remote and I have no interest in reaching it from outside my home. Initially some tracks would not play - “lost connection” issue which is covered in dozens of posts. My solution: sleep on it. I think there is some “processing” Plex is doing that took a while (our library has 5000+ files). This morning, they play. Tomorrow? Who knows. 🤞

Hard to know what is happening though with playback and “remote access” which seems to be required. If I disable my Internet (literally stop the gateway), then playback from the Plex services on SONOS stops even though my local network is fully functional. So that plux. Not obvious what is going on, but I hope my music is not streaming from my house into the “Plex ether” and then back to my house and to SONOS. At any rate, Plex as a solution for SONOS’s broken system seems a bit like duct tape and bailing wire.

And indeed, the search seems to work as long as you are happy to get non-qualified results - no way to search for a song/album/artist, etc - you get the entire lot of anything that is in the search string. Who knew the 2020s would regress so far from the early 2000s. Way to blaze a trail, Sonos.

That said, with no queue management, search is all but pointless - what to do with the results? Blow out the current playing queue? In the age of emerging AI, Sonos has latched on to artificial stupidity. Trail blazers for sure. 🙄

The controller app now sits on web architecture and uses web services so you will need the internet on all the time and this is the reason for the disconnects, slowness and random bouncing functionality. And you're right, why do you need remote access for a WiFi/LAN system. This is what they've done, cut the app from local execution. You only have to ask why?

press250

Prodigy III

The controller app now sits on web architecture and uses web services so you will need the internet on all the time and this is the reason for the disconnects, slowness and random bouncing functionality. And you're right, why do you need remote access for a WiFi/LAN system. This is what they've done, cut the app from local execution. You only have to ask why?

Totally agree with your assessment and observations! As for ‘why’ I’m heavily inclined to apply Hanlon’s Razor: never attribute to malice that which is adequately explained by stupidity.

M

Marc_50

Collaborator II

The controller app now sits on web architecture and uses web services so you will need the internet on all the time and this is the reason for the disconnects, slowness and random bouncing functionality. And you're right, why do you need remote access for a WiFi/LAN system. This is what they've done, cut the app from local execution. You only have to ask why?

I think Sonos considers people wanting to play local media a thing of the past. Streaming is now the way people consume music. So if you have an internet outage streaming will not work anyway.

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