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Ryan S
Ryan S
Retired Sonos Staff
October 2, 2017

Now Available, the New Sonos App

Related content:Software



Sonos version 8.0 is introducing a brand new controller for iOS and Android. The new Sonos app makes it even easier to navigate, access, and control your music throughout your home. This new app comes side by side with voice control through Alexa devices, more about that here.

Check out our blog for the Remastered Sonos App. Full details on the new apps can be found here on their respective product guide pages. Let’s take a look at the new app:



Introducing Navigation with Tabs:


The Sonos app now has five tabs visible at the bottom when not in the full playing screen. The tabs are My Sonos, Browse, Rooms, Search, and More. See here:



Now your most used options are available with just one click, and Now Playing is always just one tap away.

My Sonos
We’ve consolidated all your personally curated Sonos Playlists, music service playlists, and Sonos Favorites into one, easy to use page on the Sonos app. You can edit fields to move around the order, or delete them entirely. You can now have up to 40 favorites total, up from 32.

Browse
Browsing your music is even easier as it no longer hides your other options. You can browse and move to different rooms all while keeping your place in the browsing menu. There’s also a dock on the bottom of the app that gives you easy access to the navigation tabs. You can swipe it up to reveal it at any time, then back down. We’ve separated browsing your music and the menu for Settings, so it’s even easier to find what you’re looking for.

Rooms
The menu starts highlighted on the active room, featured right on the app so that it’s even easier to see what’s playing in each room. There’s now an icon on that screen to show you where the music is coming from too. That includes if it was started by Alexa. The active room has a Group button to have it add others to the party.

Search
It hasn’t changed, just moved to an easy to find spot.

More...
All the settings and options are in here. You can add services, make alarms, get some help, and access all your settings. We think this will make it a lot easier to find what you’re looking for. And speaking of settings…


Explicit Language Filtering


Within Settings > Parental Controls, you can set a system-wide setting to filter songs with explicit content. Right now, this is working for Apple Music, and we’re hoping to add it for more services soon. Once the setting is on, Apple Music songs with the explicit tag will no longer play on your system.

Long Press to Group


Making it even easier to play music. With 8.0, you can press and hold the Play/Pause button (or mute on older players) to have your player join the most recently active player as a group. First, you have to start playing music on a player, (it can be from an alarm or any other source), and then just hold the button for a few seconds on another player. That second player will join the first one’s group and start playing the same music in sync.

There's another function of the long press, and that's being able to move recently stopped music to another room. First, stop playing music in any of your rooms. Then, press and hold the play/pause on another player for a few seconds. (Make sure that you don't start playing music anywhere else.) The queue or source will move to the unit you held the button for and start playing. The players won't group together and any existing queue will get whiped out in place of the new one.

iOS 11 and Android O Support


Lastly, version 8.0 has support for the latest operating systems from Android and iOS. This includes iOS 11 support for Trueplay on Sonos. Trueplay isn’t available on Android at this time.
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    somemoore
    Lyricist I
    October 25, 2017
    I’ve been using Sonos products for 12 years and have always loved the end-end experience. The past few weeks have been torture. I’m actually using my system significantly less because I hate the app so much.
    https://en.community.sonos.com/controllers-software-228995/user-guide-for-v8-app-6792817/index1.html#post16158856

    Your user guide is well written, but I still hate the app. It’s not for lack of trying or understanding how to use it.
      TheHellers
      Enthusiast I
      October 25, 2017
      I'm just hoping that Sonos will not force us to use the new app in the future. If that happens, I don't know what I will do. I cannot even use the new app due to the ridiculous blinding whiteness of it. I swear, looking at the eclipse without special glasses was safer then looking at this app in the dark. I'd love to comment on the actual usage of it but I cannot because (and I cannot stress this enough)...IT'S TOO BRIGHT. The sad thing is that was pointed out in the beta by many, many people back in the summer and they still did nothing about it. (I was part of the beta and left) I'm sure I'd get used to it although I didn't like most of what they did when I was in the beta and I see that they left it all in.

      I did see, on the Sonos sub-Reddit that they are fixing some things in the newest beta. Except there still is no dark mode. Seriously? We're not all 25 years old. I'm sad that Sonos, like many other companies, felt the need to make a change for change sake. And then, again like many other companies, they don't listen or respond. Especially the latter. Nothing. No "Sorry about the blinding white, we're working on it". We've all spent money on these products and now they don't care about us. Great system, terrible customer service. And I work in customer service. I would never, ever treat any of my customers like this.

      And, for those that are looking for the old version; Google is your friend. I have 7.4 downloaded and saved to our NAS in case one of us accidentally updates the app.

      Luckily, we were about to purchase a couple more speakers but the new app came out right before I pulled the trigger.

      Steve
        Anthony Lenk
        Lyricist I
        October 26, 2017
        I too have been using Sonos for many years and find the new app horrible to navigate. It's not that I'm adverse to change, I just find it cumbersome and uninspiring, as do others in my household.

        I don't write on forums as a rule but I feel compelled to do so on this occasion.

        Come on Sonos, role us all back to the previous version whilst you get this sorted...please!
          Ryan S
          Ryan SAuthor
          Retired Sonos Staff
          October 26, 2017
          Does the feedback posted here make it's way back to the management at Sonos? I sure hope so.

          It absolutely does. We make sure to pass up everything to the right teams, all the way to the top.

          We appreciate the feedback, and the criticism too. We're working on the new controller in several ways.
          Mark good posts by pressing the like button, and select the best answer on questions you've asked to help others find solutions.
          ROBBSKI
          Enthusiast II
          October 27, 2017
          I guess I'll put my 2 cents in, too. This BRIGHT WHITE background is PAINFUL to look at! With the high resolution of today's smartphones & tablets, there is WAY TOO MUCH screen real estate wasted on the app. It'd be nice to see more than four album covers, radio station logos, etc.. when looking to play something. I don't believe it's too much to ask to have the option for a "dark" theme, and have the ability to change the size of the album/station icons so you don't have to SCROLL forever to get to what you're looking for.
            miksnef
            Contributor I
            October 31, 2017
            DO NOT UPGRADE!! Selecting room is SO painfull. You cannot change room without selecting the new room together with the old one and save. Then go back again to deselect the old room and save. Now your new room is selected. Plain studpid!!
              Paulw123
              Paulw123
              Virtuoso
              October 31, 2017
              In sonophone app you can just drag and drop the rooms together, and then drag apart, seems light years ahead 😉
                Paul Grace
                Lyricist I
                October 31, 2017
                DO NOT UPGRADE!! Selecting room is SO painfull. You cannot change room without selecting the new room together with the old one and save. Then go back again to deselect the old room and save. Now your new room is selected. Plain studpid!!

                I've been using the update for a while to see if it's usable. General navigation is painful. The older version was better.
                  jesperth
                  Lyricist I
                  October 31, 2017
                  DO NOT UPGRADE!! Selecting room is SO painfull. You cannot change room without selecting the new room together with the old one and save. Then go back again to deselect the old room and save. Now your new room is selected. Plain studpid!!

                  I've been using the update for a while to see if it's usable. General navigation is painful. The older version was better.

                  The new user interface is SO horrible, you have to know what context you are in to understand if you are selecting a room to play music or you are grouping rooms.

                  You have to switch between multiple screens to change music playing in a room

                  The toggles are frequently hidden so you have no idea how to get to for example "My music"

                  What a complete and utter mess - and Sonos doesn't seem to be taking the feedback seriously - complete shitshow!
                    Guy_19
                    Guy_19
                    Enthusiast II
                    November 1, 2017
                    @Ryan S - Can you please show the change log for version 8.1 of the app?
                    There's an announcement for version 8.1, but largely it's the software for the Sonos One. It teaches your system what that product is and how to work with it. There aren't any changes for the app in that build.
                    I don't think that's true Ryan. Someone in the house has updated the controller to 8.1 and now I cannot use the v7.4 app on my android phone. Count this as barely contained rage that I will have to use the appalling new app. When are we going to get some proper feedback about when we can expect a formal upgrade/rollback to a decent app? You have completely broken a system that I loved and recommended to all - neither of those now apply. I have a Play:5 2nd Gen, Play:1 x 3 and Connect, so a reasonable investment.
                    7 rooms: One SL Stereo Pair, One SL x 2, Move, Play:5 Gen2 & Port into Arcam AVR with AE floorstanders, Port into Denon microsystem.
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