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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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527 replies

Chopdog
Renowned Enthusiast I
October 5, 2017
I'm assuming there are some urgent meetings going on in Sonos right now - along the lines of 'well, we thought it would be better but really screwed up!'. A bit like after the new Skype was released and suddenly only got 1 star reviews on iTunes!!! It was a very similar screw up of simple functionality becoming stupidly complex - and white!!!
Contributor I
October 5, 2017
Joining the #WhiteMustDie campaign. Bring back dark/black ui!
Lyricist I
October 5, 2017
Great update! Alexa integration works fine for me - no issues so far. Agree with some of the comments above - too much bright white (can use the option to select a dark skin mode), radio station icon sizes are a tad too big.

Icons inside the app on the 'More' tab look pixelated - see attached screenshot. This is from an iPhone 6s. These icons look just fine on the iPad.
Ken_Griffiths
October 5, 2017
Great update! Alexa integration works fine for me - no issues so far. Agree with some of the comments above - too much bright white (can use the option to select a dark skin mode), radio station icon sizes are a tad too big.

Icons inside the app on the 'More' tab look pixelated - see attached screenshot. This is from an iPhone 6s. These icons look just fine on the iPad.


DigiListen,
Yes I agree and also my Alexa integration is working really well here too... all this added functionality and at no additional cost... what is there to complain about?

It’s really nice to see a company that continues to support its 'legacy' hardware and ALL its past and present customers and offer us all these new voice control features fir our home, instead of abandoning us and forcing everyone to upgrade to new hardware just for the sake of making further profit... 'good on ya Sonos'. I for one, appreciate this new FREE upgrade... I really love voice controlling my audio system.

For those who just love to complain here, in the words of Shakespeare ...”Methinks thou dost protest too much”.
testcard
Prodigy I
October 5, 2017
If you’re going to quote the Bard, at least get the quotation right.
“The lady doth protest too much, methinks.”
Hamlet, Act III, scene II.
October 5, 2017
When will You do some much needed work on the Windows PC controller?
Hopefully, never - it's the only one that's still halfway decent...
October 5, 2017
Yes I agree and also my Alexa integration is working really well here too... all this added functionality and at no additional cost... what is there to complain about?

The UI, by the sound of it...

I really love voice controlling my audio system.

That's great - for you.... For those of us who couldn't care less about voice control, it's just another messing about with an increasingly poor UI...
BCM
October 5, 2017
I don't care about voice control and I dig the new interface. Could it be darker? I dunno... I don't care about stuff like that. I like the functionality much better than what it was (once I figured it out).
jgatie
October 5, 2017
As someone who has been agnostic to downright virulent about UI changes before (the queue changes), I like the new changes. Aside from muscle memory stuff that will eventually go away, I find the flow to be better. Not a huge fan of the whiteout look, but overall, it is better than before.
Steve P
Contributor I
October 5, 2017
Absolutely hate the new app. How do I go back to the old one it was much more intuitive