This again - if they’ve disabled the feature, how come it still works flawlessly for me on iOS 12.4.2? 

True, Sonos removed the feature from their app,  there is an announcement from their rep in the community. But Sonos isn't supporting it going forward. 

It always worked flawlessly for a few people, mainly those without any Airplay devices on their network or those who don’t use a lock screen.  However, that means nothing compared with the thousands who have been complaining about the feature for the last year.  

'Apple have disabled the feature' is perhaps not rhe most precise way of describing what happened.  Apple made changes to iOS which had the effect of making the 'on this iPhone' feature unreliable on many users' Sonos systems. After a year of trying to rectify the problem without success, Sonos decided that on balance it was pointless continuing that effort.

I would personally rate the chances of 'on this iPhone' returning to Sonos as zero. Or possibly less than that.

I think that’s a bit optimistic.

Agreed. Especially since the removal of this feature coincided with several new sonos airplay 2 speakers to sell to (iOS) users who require this functionality. 

And yet Bluesound also had to remove this function, and they had no Airplay capable speakers at the time.

Bluesound has airplay 2, well Google says they do. 

@jgatie did not say otherwise.

He was not crystal clear that they do imo. 

Their Airplay enabled devices came out quite recently, whereas they eliminated the “On this iDevice” function last year.

They announced the hardware October 2018, released Feb 2019. Like Sonos IMO, new hardware to sell to the users who can use airplay 2. Not critical, they need to make money. 

It has nothing to do with selling new hardware.  The functionality had been degraded long before the release of Airplay enabled speakers.

So - the solution of connecting via airplay to a newer Sonos speaker and then grouping that music with others Sonos 1 speakers sucks too. It doesn’t play constant and cuts out for no friggen reason. Honestly - Sonos NEEDS to think of their customer base and loyal fans and not just about the music providers and other app developers.any of us bought all in on Sonos and invested Thousands or dollars. I pay for Sirius XM and Pandora. I’m not about to pay for Apple Music too just to get Sonos to be able to play from the damned library I own. 
 

again - this sucks!!!

Clarification - the airplay solution does work. It doesn’t work like Sonos does normally however! You must silence your phone some that other notifications (email, text, ring, etc...) don’t interrupt the stream of the music. Ironically, it doesn’t impact the stream on the main speaker that was connected - only those that were grouped in the so or app. Head scratcher. Found a work around but still liked the way it was before better. 

There will definitely be a good reason that your AirPlay audio is cutting out on your network. It works just fine for many other folk here. That sounds very much like a local network issue.

You certainly do not need Apple Music subscription to stream your locally stored music, I don’t understand why you 'mistakenly' think that?

Ken is right. Where did you get that idea from? Absolutely no need for an Apple Music subscription. Please see one of the dozens (hundreds?) of posts refuting that claim.

Yes, many of us liked the way it worked before and no doubt so did Sonos, but Apple unfortunately changed it all when they introduced AirPlay-2. Your gripe should really be with Apple. Sonos and other companies like Bluesound were left with little option, other to make these changes.

Bought speakers for every room to play off my iphone...this is infuriating. 

I dont have a PC, am not joining a streaming service. 

Now what????

What speakers did you buy? Your profile doesn’t say, but if it’s one of the more recent Sonos speakers, you could easily use AirPlay 2 to send your iPhone data to the Sonos.

Thank you. I just tried and music from my phone plays to the Beams. But, all the Play One’s I bought  within the last 9 months do not even show up on the phone as an option. And those are all over the house. 

Right, they don’t have the processing power to accept the AirPlay 2 signal and process it, but you can certainly group them with your Beam in the Sonos controller,  and they would play your content. 

And problem solved. Not the most elegant but works.

Thank you.

At the risk of getting flamed for piling on, and folks stating’ “it’s not Sonos’ fault, it’s Apple’s”, the customer ire generated by this poorly-communicated change is 100% valid. I like many iOS device owners bought Sonos products over the years because they were way better than the alternatives available at the time. The brand promise (to me) came down to three key things: 1.) the quality of the sound, 2.) the Sonos app’s integration with music services and my own media and 3.) the simplicity of setup and operation. All these combined to make a superior solution to the vast array of Bluetooth and other wireless speakers out there. What I found over time was that I enjoyed listening to my own music more than streaming services. And I discovered I didn’t need to pay for what is, in effect, online radio when I own a fantastic and vast collection of music I really like. 

So, with this change, Sonos has taken away most of the brand promise that attracted me to their products in the first place. Yes the sound quality is still great, but the app is no longer usable with my music collection. Yes, I hear you now saying, “BUT you can use an NAS”, “BUT you can upload or use an online service”, “BUT, BUT, BUT….” However those ‘solutions’ all violate the last brand promise for me; the ease of setup and use. I carry my music in my pocket because I just want to listen from where ever I am, and Sonos just worked without hassle.

So I hear some of you saying, “so what, you have old hardware and should upgrade anyway”. Perhaps, but understand that I, like many customers, really don’t like being forced to dole out MORE money to a company when they suddenly turn my (expensive and fully paid) devices into non-functional bricks. My products no longer work like they did when I purchased them through no fault of my own and that’s the bottom line for me.

I think Sonos may be missing something here. There are probably thousands like me that have been long-time strong promoters of their products who are fully invested in iOS devices for music, and they have made the choice to abandon us. Worse, by not broadly announcing it, they are making  loyal customers chase around support forums to find out that this was not just a “bug” that could be fixed with an upgrade or simple setting switched on/off, but a conscious decision to remove functionality.

So now that there is much less value to me in the Sonos solution I own, I am kind of being forced to consider purchasing more current technology to listen the way I want. Therefore I’m going to go out and research both Sonos’ and their competitors’ products. As where before I would have bought another Sonos unit without hesitation, they now have a major strike before I even start looking - they have demonstrated they are willing to abandon legacy customers rather than do the hard work to develop new and creative technical solutions. 

I doubt this missive will change any minds of the forum participants, or the Sonos powers-that-be, but from a business viability perspective, you cannot take your long-term customers for granted. I was once a vocal promoter of Sonos, and now I am looking for alternatives. And will certainly tell anyone that asks me why. I spent many years in customer service management roles and one thing always rung true;  “It is way more costly to get new customers than it is to keep your current customers happy.”

To be fair to Sonos, they communicated via email and in App many times for months leading up to the change.