Sonos introduces New Search

Will we be able to prioritize the music service list so our favorite(s) come first and we don’t have to scroll down every time we search?

Hi @Stanley_4 

Not only that, but it will happen automatically!

Hi @Stanley_4 

To clarify a little, you cannot change the order of music services manually, but New Search will order the list based on the aggregate household listening history, so results from services listened to the most appear first.

This does not relate to “favourites” saved in My Sonos.

@Corry P  - Just to clarify, a search using Sonos App on ‘my’ phone, will be an aggregate of the searches of everyone on the Sonos system in the household, and not local/specific to ‘my’ searches on ‘my’ device? What if different users (devices) have different music tastes and/or use different music services, but share the speaker system?

Hi @craigski 

Yes. It is the speaker system that performs the search and relays the results to your phone, so the music services used the most will appear higher on the list of search results.

For example, if you predominantly use Spotify, and your housemate predominantly uses Apple Music, then when you search for a track, results from these two services will appear first on the list, before results from, say, Amazon (assuming an account for Amazon has been added). If you use the system more than your housemate, results from Spotify will appear at the top of the list. The actual search results that you see will have nothing to do with your housemate’s listening habits, however.

Please pass on my thanks to the devs for this one, I just had a play and it does seem like a massive improvement so far.

@Corry P  - will this feature just appear in the app without a new update?

I don’t have it yet on my android phone

Yes.  There have been a few cases of this over the years where an enhancement does not require a system or App update.

It just appeared for me without any app update or action from me.

I read a reference to it, that was the first I knew about it… looked and it was not there… it just appeared later on a day or so later

Thanks all - I will just keep an eye out for it 

Sorry, should have added I am on iPhone 

Is the plan to eventually add local libraries?

Hi @QuasiBags 

I don’t have that information right now, but you can certainly switch back to Classic Search and do so.

I hope this helps.

Following the update (but I gather as it’s being sent out slowly and not necessarily related to updates) the new search has appeared - and disappeared. If I close the app and restart it, and I’m very quick to hit the new search bar, I can use it, but mostly it just disappears and the classic search appears. I deleted the app, and re-downloaded it, but to no avail. 

It’s  not a great problem, particularly when Sonos has so much else going on, but has anyone else found this quirk?

also, what has happened to Audible search?

Hi @Traveller 

Please go to Settings » System » About My System and identify the product labelled as the Associated Product by it’s IP address. Look further down and find out which unit it is, then reboot that unit by removing power for a moment.

It may be, however, that you need to wait a bit longer - New Search is not yet available for all customers, and it’s not whether you have a particular update or not that determines if you get it, rather a configuration flag that is sent to your system - you might just be catching a glimpse of the feature before the system decides you’re not getting it yet. I have not heard of anyone else seeing this, however, hence my suggestion above.

I have reported that “Books” seems to be missing from Classic Search. Audible is not yet supported by New Search.

I hope this helps.

Thanks Cory.

it’s not a problem, it was just quirky, weird. I found that if I was quick, I could hit the bar and use new search - which looks great. But its like a Whack- a- mole fairground show - blink and it’s gone.

Today both my iPad have decided not to bother even showing a glimpse of new search, so I shall wait for it to arrive.

No problem!

Am I missing something?   The new search doesn't search my local library?   Or doesn't find songs (unless there isn't a band if the same name) ? It seems an extra step to find songs?

I thought I was using it wrong so googled a bit and found this and agree with lots of it… (https://www.digitaltrends.com/home-theater/sonos-new-search/) , hopefully the feedback will be taken inboard.

Apols for typos, 'Edit' not available for some reason. 

Hi @sjw 

At present, New Search does not search your Music Library. You can still do so by switching back to Classic Search.

As for being unable to find songs, I don’t see that behaviour - perhaps you’ve reduced the search to a particular service that doesn’t have your intended track with the selectors at the top? Please make sure “All” is selected in the Sources swim-lane.

If typos were a problem, I’d never get the chance to stop talking about it 

I hope this helps.

Has the Edit option been removed?

Back to the issue I was referring to, I saw the same as in the article I linked to above.

To save me repeating, I’ll quote from the article:

“Take a recent example: When I typed Us and Them (from Pink Floyd’s The Dark Side of The Moon album) into the new search, the first set of results were from Apple Music…

These results did not follow the artist/song/playlist formula, and none was from Pink Floyd. Only albums titled Us and Them by the band Shinedown appeared in the first three slots. Side-scrolling to see more matches didn’t get me any closer to my quarry.

At this point, I had a choice. I could scroll down to the next service (Amazon Music) to see if its guesses were more accurate, or I could dive into Apple Music’s full set of search results and scroll down to the songs section. Spoiler — both of these would have eventually given me the track I was looking for.

OK, let’s assume that this was an aberration. After all, the search feature is still new and there are bugs to be worked out. But the point is this: In the classic version of search, selecting the songs filter instantly shows me a string of matching tracks from Pink Floyd (it’s also possible that you may see different results in different countries because the music business is insane like that).”

My results were the same, did I miss an option to see the songs’ results?

Hi @sjw 

This is an announcement article, which behaves a little differently from a standard topic - that's why you can’t edit your post.

I performed the same search, and got a positive match. This is with YouTube Music and not Apple Music (which I don’t have installed), however. 

If I scroll down to the Amazon Music results, I don’t see the song unlike yourself. Nor do I after tapping on Amazon Music to expand it. Though it should be noted that I tried the same search in Classic Search and couldn’t find that track on Amazon that way either - maybe because I only have an Amazon Prime account and not an Unlimited account.

I did find a colleague with Apple Music and he was able to find the track, but as he’s on Alpha software, that doesn’t help you. I will feed this behaviour relating to Apple Music and New Search back to our engineers. Thanks for flagging!

@Traveller  - I just had the quick flash of the new search before it disappeared again. Did it ever come back for good for you, on your app? Or have you still got the old search still?

SaraN - if you are quick you can click on the new search and then it works.

The iPad I’m using now has got the new search as standard when I open search. Classic search is available as option, just as Cory said. Not sure about m6 other devices, but yes, it works!

This happens to me py system too…..