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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

nicka99
Local Superstar
October 6, 2017
I was a beta tester and under NDA cannot comment about any feedback they may have had on the app.
Sonos knows best?


ah, but you already violated the NDA with that admission ;-)

Suffice to say that there are lovers and haters and some in the middle.

Before any line of code is written, a proper UI/UX design should look at typical/ common 'scenarios' that a USER will want to perform and run though how well these scenarios 'flow' according to different designs and tweak accordingly. There should never be a situation where a scenario, which is performed regularly, is more cumbersome than in a prior design.

As mentioned earlier, it really seems like this design did not take the needs of a typical user into account for their most typical scenarios. Either that or Im just not a typical user !
Enthusiast II
October 6, 2017
I was a beta tester and under NDA cannot comment about any feedback they may have had on the app.

I can say that Sonos generally don't respond to negative feedback very well.

Sonos knows best?


That's the reason I stopped being in the beta program because I also brought to their attention serious (in my opinion) design faults and they just weren't interested. They are only interested in hearing about bugs.

In all my years in the IT industry I've never come across such an arrogant company as Sonos. I used to think Apple was arrogant but even they seem to treat loyal customers better than Sonos do.
Chromatic Producer I
October 6, 2017
I think they got away with ignoring customer feedback when there was little in the way of credible competition.

Unfortunately the competition are now very real....

From CNET this morning...

Sonos executives must be looking at vast tech companies making smart speakers and resisting the urge to hum a dirge.

Amazon launched its latest Echos last week. Google on Wednesday presented its new Homes -- including a charmingly unattractive Max that claims to offer quite a boom. Then there's Apple, whose music-based HomePod comes to market in December.


It could be time to start listening.....
renowden
Avid Contributor I
October 6, 2017
Hi - Can you clarify something for me please.

The App Store says iOS 8+
The Release notes say iOS9+ with limited support on iOS8.

I know I can't install this new version, but can you tell me if the old App on an iOS 7 device will still be able to do anything on a system that has been updated to version 8?
Enthusiast II
October 6, 2017
Horrible New layout (on IPad)
or is it because the app is optimised for a phone.

I would like to be able to see all my Radio stations on the main screen


It is just as bad on a phone. Ridiculously huge icons and unnecessary side swipes to see anything.
Enthusiast II
October 6, 2017
I’ve been waiting in the queue for support for 65 minutes so far and still no reply
Ken_Griffiths
October 6, 2017
I’ve been waiting in the queue for support for 65 minutes so far and still no reply

I guess it’s a busy time in the U.K. after the recent announcements and updates. You can always ask your question within the community here first of all, or email Sonos Support via a local contact link or via this online form: https://sonos.custhelp.com/app/ask
Enthusiast II
October 6, 2017
I’ve been waiting in the queue for support for 65 minutes so far and still no reply

I guess it’s a busy time in the U.K. after the recent announcements and updates. You can always ask your question within the community here first of all, or email Sonos Support via a local contact link or via this online form: https://sonos.custhelp.com/app/ask


I’ve already done both of those with no response so as a last resort tried to phone them. The call was eventually answered after 75 minutes but I was then told there was no way of reverting back to the previous version of the iOS app. So I’m stuck with this garbage 😞
Paulw123
Virtuoso
October 6, 2017
I think iOS7 is dead to sonos:-
https://sonos.custhelp.com/app/answers/detail/a_id/127
Although this page has not been updated for v8.
You could try sonophone:-
https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/sonophone/id815251931?mt=8
Lyricist III
October 6, 2017
Two thumbs down on the new app. I've got a large multipurpose room with 5 sonos devices, and it's a nightmare trying to make adjustments. I can get all of the speakers to play the same song, but can't get them all in the same group. So I'm having to manually select each speaker, adjust volume, manually select next speaker, adjust volume. Then when I change the song, it's only changed on one of the speakers with the other 4 all playing a different song. So I have to tell all the other 4 speakers to play the new song too. Such a pain.

With the old app, I'd group all the speakers, make sure the volume levels looked good throughout the group, then just play songs. Setup took 8 seconds.

Granted, a lot of my problems with the new app is I don't know where to click to make things happen, but it seems very glitchy in that when I do click something, nothing happens. I'm not sure how this thing passed quality control. The old app was fine --- wish we could go back to that while they beta test this new interface.