Retired Sonos Staff

Now Available, the New Sonos 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.

This topic has been closed for further comments. You can use the search bar to find a similar topic, or create a new one by clicking Create Topic at the top of the page.

Show previous replies

S

southern gal

Chromatic Producer I

[quote=pwt]Everybody's experience and opinion is valid for them.

I'll say it again --- Everybody's experience and opinion is valid for them.

[deleted text]

The issue on this topic, on this forum, has been with the extreme hyperbole: folks reacting as if Sonos had committed genocide, rather than merely released an app update that was not to their taste.
===============================================
Here is my take. (and i replied when the app was updated)
Yes everyone has different tastes. However IMHO that is not the main issue here. The main issue is that MAJOR changes were made to several areas that ABSOLUTELY change the way the user interacts with the app and there has been no clear reasoning as to why these changes had to occur.

1 switching the background color - and NOT offering a choice between dark and white.
this is a physical change that many users (myself included) find HARMFUL to their eyes. if you read the complaints about this change, 99% of them are about the PHYSICAL issue.

why create a change that HURTS your users? and when so many write in and complain ... as so many have .. why does SONOS continue to ignore these responses? it can not be hard to offer two background colors (really - other apps do it)

2 the changes in the "menu options"
well this one is a no win situation - i say if it aint broke dont fix it... i loved the original app - many dont mind the changes, many do mind. it seems to me someone wanted to 'jazz the app' up and so they played around with the menus and formatting - and again many complained. (yes i know they have changed the stations icon size but not the rest of the menu changes)

Who buys SONOS? we do
Who uses SONOS? we do
Why alienate the people who purchase your products and ultimately pay your salaries?

I understand wanting to make progressive changes to an app - but honestly not ONE change that was made to the app is an upgrade of a feature or an additional feature - so again WHY CHANGE IT?

I have a long career in customer support in many industries from retail to legal to software... the CUSTOMER is always right even when he is wrong. its the PERCEPTION by the customer that is the most important part of a customer / vendor relationship ---- if you CARE about your customer and whether he will remain a customer. (And you can educate / train your customer to accept changes - its all in how things are done and then the way the company reacts to the customers)

I think most people are upset because of the randomness of the changes and have yet to hear any reason as to why (the background as the most glaring) they were made when the previous app worked fine.

Southern Gal

T

Toolio

Prodigy II

I’m a reasonable guy. I’m not going to ditch Sonos because of the latest crappy version of the app. Just like I’m not going to pretend that Sonos is the pinnacle of audio quality. I have better gear for “serious” listening. But, for the love of God, when I want my Sonos to do its thing—provide simple access to acceptable audio quality when I don’t need to delve into the intricacies of music or when I want to move around the house—I don’t want to fight with a third-rate app. Sonos should be about ease of use for multi-room audio, not about the mysteries of an app that has gone from decent to a textbook example of how to not keep customers satisfied. The longer I use it, the more I despise it. In a nutshell, as I and many others keep saying, this is because it is in no way intuitive. And it is too BRIGHT. It’s like the app shouts at me every time I look at it.

B

BoredofBalham

Prodigy II

I don’t care for the new UI. How are you supposed to switch rooms? I have to load a second room then dump the first one. And, that doesn’t always work.
How do you delete the ply queue?

I realize someone put in a lot of work here but it needs to bake some more.

You will need to put some work in and look at the screen. What does the tab Rooms do? What does the room shown at the bottom on the screen do?

B

BoredofBalham

Prodigy II

I may be in my 50s, but my two daughters are digital natives of 15 and 19 years. They live on their phones and know a thing or 2 about usability - and after this passage of time, with all their use of the new Sonos app; they both still hate it for the extra time that it takes to do anything, and they way it lights up the room because of the white background.

Teenagers. Don’t like the way it lights up the room? Lights up the room? Like Facebook? Whatsapp? And...too many to mention apps.

B

BoredofBalham

Prodigy II

[quote=southern gal]

Everybody's experience and opinion is valid for them.

I'll say it again --- Everybody's experience and opinion is valid for them.

[deleted text]

The issue on this topic, on this forum, has been with the extreme hyperbole: folks reacting as if Sonos had committed genocide, rather than merely released an app update that was not to their taste.

===============================================
Here is my take. (and i replied when the app was updated)
Yes everyone has different tastes. However IMHO that is not the main issue here. The main issue is that MAJOR changes were made to several areas that ABSOLUTELY change the way the user interacts with the app and there has been no clear reasoning as to why these changes had to occur.

1 switching the background color - and NOT offering a choice between dark and white.
this is a physical change that many users (myself included) find HARMFUL to their eyes. if you read the complaints about this change, 99% of them are about the PHYSICAL issue.

why create a change that HURTS your users? and when so many write in and complain ... as so many have .. why does SONOS continue to ignore these responses? it can not be hard to offer two background colors (really - other apps do it)

2 the changes in the "menu options"
well this one is a no win situation - i say if it aint broke dont fix it... i loved the original app - many dont mind the changes, many do mind. it seems to me someone wanted to 'jazz the app' up and so they played around with the menus and formatting - and again many complained. (yes i know they have changed the stations icon size but not the rest of the menu changes)

Who buys SONOS? we do
Who uses SONOS? we do
Why alienate the people who purchase your products and ultimately pay your salaries?

I understand wanting to make progressive changes to an app - but honestly not ONE change that was made to the app is an upgrade of a feature or an additional feature - so again WHY CHANGE IT?

I have a long career in customer support in many industries from retail to legal to software... the CUSTOMER is always right even when he is wrong. its the PERCEPTION by the customer that is the most important part of a customer / vendor relationship ---- if you CARE about your customer and whether he will remain a customer. (And you can educate / train your customer to accept changes - its all in how things are done and then the way the company reacts to the customers)

I think most people are upset because of the randomness of the changes and have yet to hear any reason as to why (the background as the most glaring) they were made when the previous app worked fine.

A nice post.
Most people is a bit strong. I don’t hate it. I like the logical implementation of different tabs making it far more intuitive to use. I think it can be improved: a lot.
The white screen? Well, I don’t know. There are things I look at in the dark that have a white screen yet everyone is most pleased and happy about that e.g. email, messages and the list goes on.

But what is missing from virtually all this is how to improve it. What is wrong. What is right. And why. Without constructive feedback about changes nothing will happen. Constant reasonless complaint ain’t gonna change a darn thing.

Sonos has been caught on the hop with plans overrunning - release a spanking new speaker with voice control that uses a beta, yes BETA, skill! All a bit of a rush.

Meanwhile, back in the real world, I still listen to my music etc just as before. The app is easy to use, especially if you look at all the screens and find out what hapoens on them...it grows on you quite quickly. I don’t use my TV’s smart remote thingy because I can’t be bothered to learn how to use it as the TV came with a convential remote too. At some point I will have to use a smart remote. It’s different. Is it rubbish. Should TV manufacturers be derided. Damn imposition being forced to adapt to change.

I strongly advise those who really hate the new app (for reasons only known to themselves) to NEVER buy a new TV. You will absolutely hate it. Or an oven, or a refrigerator, or washing machine and at all costs avoid cars and trucks. Your head will explode.

T

Toolio

Prodigy II

“I strongly advise those who really hate the new app (for reasons only known to themselves) to NEVER buy a new TV. You will absolutely hate it.”
Most of the people complaining here didn’t buy anything new. They were forced to use an app they don’t like with something they already had. Actually, I buy a lot of TVs. I generally stick to Samsung because the remotes and menu systems are similar, so I’m not confronted with a steep learning curve each time. Mostly I buy them because I like them. Then, a year ago, I bought a Vizio that was controlled by an included tablet. Most people didn’t like that idea. (Athough I thought it was cool.) So what did Vizio do? Stopped selling TVs with tablets, changed the operating system, and sent everyone with an older version a new, free remote so they could dumb down their overly smart TV and stop using the tablet. Lesson learned.

R

riptorn

Contributor I

Love the new alarm features but if we could get a alarm duration in the seconds I would appreciate it. It's easy for the programmers to add and will allow us to have an alarm that plays for a few seconds in the warehouse (Sonos Connect) when it's breaktime or lunch time. Can you hear the yabba dabba doo now!

M

map_collector

Lyricist I

Ok, I have given this new interface almost a month of use, trying to get used to it. But, I have to say this is a severe degradation in the usability of the interface from the previous version. It has lost most of the intuitive interface, and continues to make me search for what I have to do. I was extremely happy with the previous version, bring it back. My wife is a technophobe, and could navigate the old version. Now she comes to me every day. How do I put the music on in the bathroom? How do I change to SiruisXM in the living room. I can do it, and I can explain it - but it is not intuitive like it used to be. I bought this to make my wifes life (and therefore my own) easier. We have recommended Sonos to many people in the past. That has stopped - I can no longer recommend it as easy to use.

R

redmondm0

Contributor I

It seems like most people like the new Android app, but I find it really frustrating. The bottom ribbon where most of the controls are often does not appear making it difficult to, for example, select different music for different zones. In fact, I never did figure out how to do this, and eventually just gave up and used the desktop controller. Apps ought to be intuitive especially for basic functions. This one isn't, at least for me.

Michael

chicks

It seems like most people like the new Android app, but I find it really frustrating. The bottom ribbon where most of the controls are often does not appear making it difficult to, for example, select different music for different zones. In fact, I never did figure out how to do this, and eventually just gave up and used the desktop controller. Apps ought to be intuitive especially for basic functions. This one isn't, at least for me.

Michael

Very simple, just touch the bar at top center or swipe down, and the controls are there. It's one of the most intuitively simple UIs I've used in a good while...

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Introducing Navigation with Tabs:

Explicit Language Filtering

Long Press to Group

iOS 11 and Android O Support

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