The new Sonos Mobile App & Web App

More than right

Dear Sonos.  The new app looks great and feels easy to use for actually locating media,  but none of that matters to me as much as the fact that the functionality to manage the queue has been removed!  I mean what was Sonos thinking??? This is critical for me as it means I can no longer decide what is playing and in what order!  Please address urgently.  When I locate media I need to be able to choose whether it plays next, or at the end of the current queue etc.  I also need to be able to edit the queue without starting again.  

I've looked through the forum and am amazed at the amount of negative feedback. Sonos representatives are silent. It looks like they understand that they screwed up, but they don’t understand how to get out of this situation without losing face and the value of the business. The situation is more than sad. Empty, brainless, ambitious Managers manage engineers, alas, the world has gone crazy. Now they will start convincing us that the application is great and we don’t understand anything.

I've noticed that you can log in to the new Web app with the same loginname and password as here on the community (I can't remember but i assume that's the same login as is for the mobile app). 

Shouldn't there be some form of MFA on this Web app for security? 

Some feedback on navigation

[In case relevant, I’m using the Android app on a Pixel 6A with dark theme switched on]

When I’m away from the home screen the top left corner of the app shows “< SONOS”. After a couple of days with the app I’ve only just realised that “<” and “SONOS” are separate buttons and the SONOS button takes you back to the home screen regardless of where you are in the app. I think you can do a couple of things to make it clearer that a shortcut direct to the home screen exists and is not part of a back button to previous screen.

1. Perhaps you could shade the background slightly for each target/button to make it clear that they are separate buttons (like you have done with the “edit home” button on the home screen).
2. I don’t understand why you have used the word “SONOS” for a shortcut to the home screen. It doesn’t scream “this is a shortcut to the home screen” to me. I would suggest using a house icon instead. I think house icon would be universally recognised as a shortcut to the home screen. Furthermore I would suggest placing this icon in the top right corner of the screen next to the profile and system settings icons and have it always present. When on the home screen you could have it greyed out or alternatively keep it active and if someone presses it whilst already on the home screen you could flash up some text saying “you are already on the home screen”  

Feature request for favourites screen

The home screen provides ability to rearrange the sections (Recently Played, Favorites, Services, Sources) according to your preference. However, there is no option to rearrange the sections within the Favorites screen (Stations, Albums, etc). Please add this.  

Feedback on opening the app

Sometimes when opening the app you are greeted with a screen which says “No products found” and it takes a few seconds for the app to show the connected system. If this delay is unavoidable I would suggest changing this initial screen to say “Searching for system” (or something similar) and only switch to “No products found” screen if nothing is found after 10-15 seconds of searching.

The new app is dreadful and unintuitive.

• Complete lack of queue management features such as Edit, Delete, Play Now, Play Next, Add to End of Queue.
• Search doesn’t include Music Library
• No way to add or edit Alarms.

It feels like a beta

Sonos - you have to give us a way to roll back to the previous version until you’ve properly finished and tested this app. As it stands, it’s virtually unusable.

I would not be so confident with all of the ‘missing’ items. Have you seen anywhere that they were working on supporting searching local libraries ? This feature had already been skipped in the so-called “new search”.

One good thing about Sonos (in spite of the issues with the new app) is they have an API enabling third parties to build Sonos controller apps. I haven’t yet looked at third party controllers myself but it might be worth looking at these before deciding to ditch Sonos. Perhaps the dissatisfaction with the official Sonos app will even encourage even more developers to build and release third party Sonos controller apps.

Also, with a different manufacturer you could potentially run into the same issue we are currently experiencing with Sonos. At some point they will do a major system/software update and its hard to know in advance who will do a good job of that and who won’t.

I see the press release boasting about the “fantastic” new app is still there: Sonos Unveils Completely Reimagined Sonos App, Bringing Services, Content and System Controls to One Customizable Home Screen

How about a press release saying “We are sorry” and a timeline for reversing the broken features?

Hours wasted last night after updating our android phones to the new sonos app. Hey, wheres my music library gone? Where’s the album art gone? message says some missing info from this content. What a mess!!!! So it’s not our system, it’s an untested piece of crap that has ruined our music enjoyment. You MUST give us the opportunity to switch back to previous version and do it soon so please DO IT  NOW!