I love my Sonos, but I seriously hate the interface of the new App.
Surely this isn't a sneaky ploy to make everyone want to buy new voice controlled P1 because the new Controller App's UI so clunky, unintuitive and so darn white you want to look away whenever you see it?
It's time to admit you made a mistake, releasing an early Beta version into Production.
We will forgive you.
Now let us unhappy folk download the old version back on our iPhones(and android devices too), whilst you fix up this mess.
Come on Sonos, listen to the growing hoard of very unhappy customers 😞
Really dislike this new version, hard to change rooms, give us the option on rolling back
App seems an improvement on the last, but will burn my eyes out when listening in the dark / subdued light. Please can we have a dark mode back?
This is essential - the Rooms view is horrible now, with no line between rooms and the retina-burning whiteness. OLED screens like black too, and so do batteries. The iPhone X will be out soon and apple will be able to take credit for inventing OLED 😉
Really dislike this new version, hard to change rooms, give us the option on rolling back
They won't (or can't) do it - they're in the 'death or glory' camp of software development, so can only 'move forward'.
We were on the beta. I complained about all the white on those forums and said I would probably get rid of my Sonos system if it wasn't changed. I got jumped on for saying that and that it was a beta and they'd probably fix that. Using the app outside at night really hurt my eyes. Left the beta since the app was unusable to me with all that bright white. Three months later, it's still the same. But they don't care. Look at this message board, it's all white background. That's what is in vogue. Someday when all the devs are older they will realize that blaring white screens were not good for their eyes all those years. Hopefully I can keep using the old app and that they let us use a dark them. Otherwise, I don't know. (I have other complaints about the app but like others said I'd probably get used to the UI after a while) Steve
Lets try this...
like this reply if
1 you want the choice of WHITE or DARK
2 you want the icons size to change back to original size (smaller and thus be able to fit more on a view)
perhaps this will show how many of us actually do not like the changes (and were not part of the beta)
Changing rooms is very buggy for me. Scenario:
1. playing music in roomA, want to change to roomB
2. touch red "roomA" at bottom of screen, this brings up the room-chooser
3. deselect roomA, select roomB, hit "done" (have also tried select-first-deselect-second...no better)
4. returns to main screen with roomA still selected
5. lather, rinse, repeat until Sonos finally understands that I want roomB (typically 3-4 reps will do it)
6. @#$%^&!
This problem exists both on my iPhone (ios11) and an older iPad (ios10.3.3) so it is not os-specific. Please fix ASAP! Changing rooms has to be one of the most basic use-cases for Sonos...
...and yes, like most others, I find the all-white UI glaringly bad (pun fully intended 🙂
I have had that lots in the beta too.
Often you think you have changed room but end up starting/stopping music in other rooms.
Closing and re-opening the app sorts it.
Controller for MAC greatly broken. Cannot start and top music easily.
Personally, the New UI is not as intuitive as the previous version. I'm using it on my Samsung Galaxy 8" table. Took a couple times to navigate. 😞 Will have to keep testing but feeling a little disappointed with UX.
Changing rooms is very buggy for me. Scenario:
1. playing music in roomA, want to change to roomB
2. touch red "roomA" at bottom of screen, this brings up the room-chooser
3. deselect roomA, select roomB, hit "done" (have also tried select-first-deselect-second...no better)
4. returns to main screen with roomA still selected
5. lather, rinse, repeat until Sonos finally understands that I want roomB (typically 3-4 reps will do it)
6. @#$%^&!
This problem exists both on my iPhone (ios11) and an older iPad (ios10.3.3) so it is not os-specific. Please fix ASAP! Changing rooms has to be one of the most basic use-cases for Sonos...
...and yes, like most others, I find the all-white UI glaringly bad (pun fully intended :)
If I may ask, by changing rooms, are you looking to switch to control what's playing in another room, while leaving the room currently active the same?
To do that, you'd want to slide the page down, press Rooms, and select the room to control.
If you're looking to move the music playing in Room A to Room B, you press that red name, press to select Room B. That will group the two together, playing the same thing. Then, unselect Room A. It'll stop playing and the music will have moved over to Room B.
Not liking the new app. and oh by the way...... here is something that's been asked for over and over again... How about the ability to SORT a playlist?????? surely it just cant be that hard. i love sonos, but believe you are not listening to feed back from your customers. disappointed!!!!!!
Lets try this...
like this reply if
1 you want the choice of WHITE or DARK
2 you want the icons size to change back to original size (smaller and thus be able to fit more on a view)
perhaps this will show how many of us actually do not like the changes (and were not part of the beta)
@Ryan S - Could you please respond to this?
I hate the new app and so do my teenage daughters (mix of Android / iOS). It is harder to find things and the worst aspect for me, it is too bright. And don't say "turn down the brightness on the phone" - it's a contrast thing. PLEASE go back to a black background, or better; make it configurable to user taste.
Anyone with an OLED phone screen also knows that black backgrounds are really battery friendly, because that type of screen has no backlighting, just individually illuminated pixels (like my Samsung Galaxy S7 Edge). Black takes no power. White takes lots of power. If you want to appeal to all the cool kids when they get their their shiny iPhone X, with its OLED screen made by Samsung, you NEED a black background, or at least a setting to choose dark or light. People that can afford an iPhone X will be in your target demographic. And a font size setting would be great too. Plenty of other apps have a choice of colour theme and font size settings.
The Rooms view is awful and where I could see all my Rooms without scrolling before, now I can't and the delineation between rooms is harder to appreciate at a glance. Do you have UX/CX designers that know how to run customer workshops, and have an appreciation of accessibility?
What a disappointment the new app is. The white background is really hard on the eyes and there is no option to change into a dark mode.
Also, it has become really tedious to switch radio channels in TuneIn. You have to do a few additional steps to load the whole list of stations and then to switch to another service if you want to.
The rooms view used to be cleaner as well, allowing you to check the status of each player at a glance.
Definitely the most disappointing update in the last couple of years for the Sonos App (Android).
The new app has a massive let down. Now when you try to select to play music in a room you have to either select the speakers you want and then deselect the speaker that was playing which is a right pain. For example I have 8 Sonos speakers and music was playing through one upstairs and none of the others. I then went downstairs and to play the music in the other speakers I had to click on the speaker list, deselect upstairs and then individually select the other speakers downstairs that I wanted to play it out of. And a couple of times it did not stop the upstairs speaker from playing!
You used to be able to have it selected for one set of speakers and also another set and then just flick between the 2. Please sort this out Sonos as I see this as a fault!
The new app has a massive let down. Now when you try to select to play music in a room you have to either select the speakers you want and then deselect the speaker that was playing which is a right pain. For example I have 8 Sonos speakers and music was playing through one upstairs and none of the others. I then went downstairs and to play the music in the other speakers I had to click on the speaker list, deselect upstairs and then individually select the other speakers downstairs that I wanted to play it out of. And a couple of times it did not stop the upstairs speaker from playing!
You used to be able to have it selected for one set of speakers and also another set and then just flick between the 2. Please sort this out Sonos as I see this as a fault!
Sounds like you're using the menu that comes up when you press on the name of the room, that's the grouping menu, so you're doing a lot of extra work. Slide the Now Playing screen down and press Rooms. From there, you can select the room you want to be controlling.
@Ryan S - Could you please respond to this?
Certainly. We're listening and continue to pass on feedback to the development team. They've been hard at work for a long time on this app, and this version is just the first public edition, there will be more revisions to come. The current app is a foundation, so make sure you share your feedback and suggestions. I don't have any details that I can share on what's up next, but I think it addresses many of the largest criticism so far. We look forward to hearing what you guys think when the next version comes out. I don't have a timeline to share on when that one is launching since they're still looking at feedback and working on incorporating it.
The new app has a massive let down. Now when you try to select to play music in a room you have to either select the speakers you want and then deselect the speaker that was playing which is a right pain. For example I have 8 Sonos speakers and music was playing through one upstairs and none of the others. I then went downstairs and to play the music in the other speakers I had to click on the speaker list, deselect upstairs and then individually select the other speakers downstairs that I wanted to play it out of. And a couple of times it did not stop the upstairs speaker from playing!
You used to be able to have it selected for one set of speakers and also another set and then just flick between the 2. Please sort this out Sonos as I see this as a fault!
Sounds like you're using the menu that comes up when you press on the name of the room, that's the grouping menu, so you're doing a lot of extra work. Slide the Now Playing screen down and press Rooms. From there, you can select the room you want to be controlling.
@Ryan S - Could you please respond to this?
Certainly. We're listening and continue to pass on feedback to the development team. They've been hard at work for a long time on this app, and this version is just the first public edition, there will be more revisions to come. The current app is a foundation, so make sure you share your feedback and suggestions. I don't have any details that I can share on what's up next, but I think it addresses many of the largest criticism so far. We look forward to hearing what you guys think when the next version comes out. I don't have a timeline to share on when that one is launching since they're still looking at feedback and working on incorporating it.
Now I am confused. When I press the room name in red text that appears on the Now Playing Screen, I can tick both rooms available and that “groups” them. If however I tap the Rooms icon on the menu bar, I can see both available rooms, plus a Group icon. If I tap that, I can then tick both available rooms and also create a group. So what’s the difference?
Ryan, are you joking? The app is a foundation!!! Next time you release ‘another’ version of the app, make sure you build the walls and whack a roof on it please.
@Ryan S - Could you please respond to this?
... The current app is a foundation....
A foundation!! It's version 8, not v0.8...
A foundation. 8.0, not 8.1, or 8.2, or 8.3.
As has been previously discussed, there were similar cries of rage with the last major change of the controller app. My guess is they're collating the feedback for this one, through the multiple threads, and prioritizing how to change the app for future releases. As Ryan suggests, they're already doing so, it appears.
This isn't by any stretch the end of the world. It's just modifying the thought process by which you deal with the app. Muscle memory, too. But I've not found anything that you can't do in the new app that you could do in the old one.
A foundation. 8.0, not 8.1, or 8.2, or 8.3.
As has been previously discussed, there were similar cries of rage with the last major change of the controller app. My guess is they're collating the feedback for this one, through the multiple threads, and prioritizing how to change the app for future releases. As Ryan suggests, they're already doing so, it appears.
This isn't by any stretch the end of the world. It's just modifying the thought process by which you deal with the app. Muscle memory, too. But I've not found anything that you can't do in the new app that you could do in the old one.
And so the defence rests its case.
But I've not found anything that you can't do in the new app that you could do in the old one.
... with additional clicks or swipes.
Now I am confused. When I press the room name in red text that appears on the Now Playing Screen, I can tick both rooms available and that “groups” them. If however I tap the Rooms icon on the menu bar, I can see both available rooms, plus a Group icon. If I tap that, I can then tick both available rooms and also create a group. So what’s the difference?
The red text menu is basically a short cut. It's a quick way to group other players with the active room you're controlling.
Sliding the page down, clicking Rooms, gives you access to all of your players, you can also make groups there.
A foundation. 8.0, not 8.1, or 8.2, or 8.3.
As has been previously discussed, there were similar cries of rage with the last major change of the controller app. My guess is they're collating the feedback for this one, through the multiple threads, and prioritizing how to change the app for future releases. As Ryan suggests, they're already doing so, it appears.
This isn't by any stretch the end of the world. It's just modifying the thought process by which you deal with the app. Muscle memory, too. But I've not found anything that you can't do in the new app that you could do in the old one.
I mean you no ill, but can you please tell me how you have enabled a dark background?
Meanwhile I have downgraded (upgraded?) to v7.4 and am much happier.
I am using one of the more interesting app icons.
The current one is so boring.
I am very disappointed with the new app. The colour scheme is much too bright and makes the thing completely unusable in the dark. I hate to think what it does for battery consumption too. Did anyone actually test this before releasing it?
Also I notice a bug/feature in that if I navigate to a music library folder, then select a file and start playing it, if I then swipe down the play screen instead of getting back to the same place in the music library I find myself back on the home screen. And if from there I select the music library I have to navigate back through all the folders again. Very, very tedious.
I would like the previous version of the app back as this new one offers me nothing I want. 😞
