The new Sonos Mobile App & Web App

How, 2 months on, have Sonos still not taken meaningful steps to fix this absolute cluster-*? Or even have managed to effectively communicate to their customers that they grasp just how badly they've messed this up and that they have any plan to fix it?

I think I've reached the point where I've just given up on Sonos. There's zero chance I'll ever buy another Sonos product at this point. 

*Moderator Note: Modified in accordance with the Community Code of Conduct.*

There’s this…

https://support.sonos.com/en-us/article/the-new-sonos-app-and-future-feature-updates

...which contains an admission that could be seen as a positive or alternatively as further evidence that Sonos is really struggling to make an app that works at least as well as the previous version:

"Local library search and playback delayed to July in order to address feedback from beta testing." 

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Either way, as long as it eventually works, who cares? It’s when it doesn’t work that we tend to complain. I was mostly hoping the Sonos engineers would first address ‘voice over’ issues anyway for those users who perhaps may need that accessibility feature.

i’m personally fine for the Local library search and the other things mentioned, as I have workarounds in any case for searching my library, clearing room queues etc.

It shows how far away from an actually working app they were at launch despite claiming it would work with everything as before. We are over two months in and still very far from a reliable working app at par feature wise with the old one. They misrepresented, one might say lied to use to ensure we installed the app. 
 

@Bumper,

My Sonos controller App here has worked fine, even from the first May 7th update - I accept the missing features are not back in their entirety yet, but none of those things have stopped my devices or MSP’s being discovered/working. The TV/Music audio here has never stopped playing.

I’ve not encountered any network issues, nor audio dropouts and my NAS library has been present and ‘rock solid’ 100% of the time.

Many (not all) of the issues I’ve seen reported here in the community have been either…

• LAN/WAN networking issues
• mDNS discovery issues
• Local Library protocol change
• Misunderstanding of the App UI

The first two issues were present with some users who visit this site anyway long before the App update and I include SSDP multicast issues in that comment, but no doubt the old S2 App was using mDNS aswell anyway.

The last two issues I’ve listed were/are expected, not everyone understands Samba sharing and the reasons for the change, or how to go about upgrading to the later version of the protocol, but there are plenty of guides out there now to address the majority of those issues, including one from Sonos.

As for the latter, that may take time to win hearts and minds, but it was the same when the (now) S1 App was first introduced - no one preferred it to the earlier controller App or the CR100/200 interfaces. In any event Sonos are ‘clearly’ moving forward with the new Sonos App now - I really can’t personally envisage them going back.

That said, I’m absolutely fine with the new App - it works for me (as mentioned) and in my view has great potential in its development roadmap ahead, that’s from what I have gathered so far.

The only issue I see is, it was released too early and in an unfinished state for many users, but it will provide an enormous amount of data along the way, on which to build a solid controller platform. It’s just not going to happen overnight. Users that stick around will grow with it and likely understand it far better than they did the previous S2 App, which has always faced a lot of user criticism in any-case.

I prefer to look forward than back anyway and my glass will always remain full, rather than half empty.

Can you give me a tl;dr?

Where to begin? I do not think that anyone will be happy with any product that will "eventually work" or with which they suddenly have to use workarounds, especially when it functioned normally (if not necessarily perfectly) in its previous form. The above quote from 'Your questions answered' exemplifies the gulf between the expectations that users were given and the reality in which many find themselves, so it is hardly surprising that many feel aggrieved.

It is certainly good to know that there are some owners of Sonos equipment who are experiencing little or no trouble with their often costly purchases, but that is no  compensation for those who are and even aggravates the situation into which they have been placed.

The goods that we own at this point in the 21st century are expected to function as advertised and absolutely no one expects to be compelled to be a partner in a beta testing project. It seems that the tipping point for the "time to win hearts and minds" has already been reached for many and there are other ways to "look forward rather than back" than simply sitting out missed deadlines and platitudinous press releases.

As many have discovered, reputations take a lot to build but can be destroyed oh so quickly.

For me the Sonos hardware hasn’t changed very much at all - it still works/sounds exactly the same as before. The App is just a ‘remote’ control and yes I agree some functionality was removed and Sonos acknowledge that and are in the process of restoring some (if not all) of the features back, and no doubt will go onto add new things to it aswell further down the line, but the App, as it currently stands, is still a controller and it definitely does work as I’ve demonstrated in my past posts, many times.

Where things may not work for some, seems to be in the four areas I listed in my last post and a majority of those can likely be fixed with some positive and constructive support, rather than the negative approach that some take here when trying to assist those users.

Of course we are not in a position to know the cases where users are using the software with no problems, but I suspect it’s far more than those that may land here looking for help and many who do turn up here, in many instances, seem to have non-related App issues, particularly when they say things like their speakers stopped playing mid-way through a track/playlist etc. Those things are extremely unlikely to be anything to do with the new App and yet they’re often being told by others here, that it is. 

(Oh this is for @Bumper - TLDR - as it’s perhaps far too much for you).

A week or so since last update. Haven't experimented or fiddled beyond just updating app on windows so now can see how both Mac and Windows go. Both OK and have allowed me to add a couple of cds to my existing library on NAS and update it without an issue, I can play it via both laptops, and the new material appears on ipad/ mobiles too. 

However, the iOS and android apps still for are slow/requiring multiple attempts/getting error messages and don't behave identically (iOS keeps Home screen content but android loses Favs/Recent almost straight away, so content from music services, which I pay for, not actually very useful still at over two months.

Can see library on both and play, without the accepted features to be returned in July we hear.