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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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    527 replies

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    testcard
    testcard
    Prodigy I
    October 6, 2017
    Although I haven’t tried it yet, I’m guessing that to Group speakers you go to the Now Playing Page, tap the room that’s showing at the bottom of that page, and then tick the other speakers that you want to group.
    TaiKuai
    Lyricist I
    October 6, 2017
    Can you keep the dock visible on all screens? It’s one extra tap to change rooms or music if you’re on the now playing screen. Having the dock visible at all times would make for easier navigation.
      nicka99
      nicka99
      Local Superstar
      October 6, 2017
      wish we could go back to that while they beta test this new interface.

      They already beta tested it. However, it was a bug fixing exercise only. Any view on the design was met with the stock response that they "make sure to pass it on to the team"
        jgatie
        jgatie
        October 6, 2017


        They already beta tested it. However, it was a bug fixing exercise only. Any view on the design was met with the stock response that they "make sure to pass it on to the team"

        As is the pattern. By the time it reaches beta, UI design is pretty set in stone (unfortunately). Minor quibbles may be settled in beta, but overall design input is not heeded. Just the way they do things, and I have been on the pro (this release for the most part) and the con (queue redesign) side of the fence.
          upstatemike
          October 6, 2017
          It would be interesting to know where the feedback that drives UI design actually does come from. The implication from Sonos after each update is that there was a strong positive demand for the various new design elements that far outnumbers the vocal detractors but where does that positive demand input come from? It would be good to know the feedback channel used in this process so folks could be more proactive in identifying which current design aspects are important to them before the decision to make radical changes is made.
          Local music library with carefully constructed playlists - no shuffling!, Integration with Homeseer Automation, No touch screen devices, No streaming services, No Apple products ever
            jgatie
            jgatie
            October 6, 2017
            I blame the marketing types. 90% of the time, I am right. 😉
              deljaso
              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.

              Grouping is one of the things that I think is a LOT easier with the new GUI.
              At the bottom of the "now playing" screen (that shows the album art), in red, you have the room name you are watching. If you click that, it pops up a box where you can group any speakers, or a slider switch to choose "Everywhere".
              testcard
              testcard
              Prodigy I
              October 6, 2017
              Not seeing a slider switch in iOS - iPhone or iPad.
              beardah
              Lyricist III
              October 6, 2017
              At the bottom of the "now playing" screen (that shows the album art), in red, you have the room name you are watching. If you click that, it pops up a box where you can group any speakers, or a slider switch to choose "Everywhere". And now, you don't have to remember what order to group them in. After grouping them, it asks you which source/song you want to play on them.
              This is the problem for me. When I click "everywhere", the icon spins for a bit, finally asks which song, I choose the song, and it plays everywhere. But the group never forms. I've now got 9 different zones playing the same song, but they aren't in a group. This would happen on occasion with the old app --- I'd try to group the whole house, and only 8 of the 9 zones would make it. I could then just manually add the 9th to complete it. But this new app seems like all or nothing. You either get all 9 zones, or you get none of them.

              I'm at work so I'll play a bit more when I get home. Hopefully this is just user error and I'm doing something wrong.
              deljaso
              Lyricist III
              October 6, 2017
              Maybe it's a problem with more zones - I only have 3. It has worked when I've tried it, but I probably don't change as much as you. I was just excited that when I click "everywhere" it asks me what I want to have playing on them, instead of having to group FROM the correct room. I always did that in the wrong order on the old app and had to close out, then go to the other one and group from there.
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