Today we are introducing the most extensive app redesign ever, creating an unprecedented streaming experience that allows listeners to organize their favorite playlists, stations, albums and more from over 100 services on one customizable Home screen.
Home Screen
The new Home screen provides faster access to Sonos system controls with one easy swipe up, making tab to tab jumping a thing of the past. As a leader in sound experience that’s focused on creating a better way to listen, Sonos intentionally redesigned the app on a modern software platform for an easier, faster and better experience that can support more rapid innovation.
The reimagined app supports all existing S2 products and will be available globally through a software update for the S2 mobile app.
100+ streaming services, one Home screen
The redesigned Sonos app prioritizes a listening experience that’s human - allowing you to bring your true favorites front and center and giving you more control to make your streaming experience your own.
Get into your music (and off the app) faster: No need to tap between tabs —the new Home screen serves up all your favorite content and controls, all in one place. Quickly jump back into your recently played, browse libraries and recommendations from your preferred services, and fill your home with music and all the sounds you love.
Customize and curate: Enjoy unparalleled curation by designing your Home screen to reflect how you listen. Pin rows of your favorite content and services; then move, edit, or rearrange them to your liking.
Search every streaming library: Look for an artist, song, podcast, or audiobook across all your preferred streaming apps at once via an easy-to-use search bar that’s always available right on your Home screen.
Elevated system control: Swipe up from the bottom of your Home screen to seamlessly control your entire system and access a visual overview of what’s playing on each of your products, quickly group speakers, and dial in on the perfect volume from anywhere in the app.
Accessible from any modern web browser, a brand new web app allows listeners the same seamless system control as the mobile app.
The new Web App
The Web App will be available alongside the redesigned mobile app on May 7, 2024.
Want to find out more about the new Sonos App? Have a look at the Info Hub section of the community for a complete rundown of the new user interface.
A complete and utter disaster. System is so unstable through iOS. Laggy, can't group rooms properly, sounds levels hard to control and sound keeps dropping from speakers / stereo pairs. As a user of more than 12 years with 20+ speakers, absolutely gutted.
Two months on and I begin to wonder if Sonos actually has the ability to rectify the many failings that they have unaccountably chosen to inflict on their customers.
Being unable to stick to their stated schedule of rectifications is obviously further undermining whatever customer confidence remains.
Tale of 2 households -
1st - stayed with 16.1 -shut down App and Firmware updates on all devices (not an easy task as Sonos keep trying to sneak in the hard and soft updates). All is well just like prior to May 7th.
2nd - accidentally updated on one device which triggered a firmware update and then a mostly a useless whole home audio system. They can do some functions though the desktop app and other non-Sonos apps - Sonopad etc. but the Android and iOS apps are clunky, poorly laid out, missing key functions/features, and while still waiting for it to be a working system like it was on May 6th 2024, they spend hours of their own time with the trickle of minor fixes/updates/firmware changes!
Neither household will ever trust Sonos again = no future purchases (one family had a $3k Sonos shopping list for upgrades to older units).
No P.Spence, it’s not just a few complaining customers, it’s a huge portion of your once loyal and repeat customer base . You blew it, you are continuing to blow it, and you should bow out now! (see also Reddit’s Sonos subs, Sonos Community comments, reviews on Amazon, Trust Pilot, Consumer Affairs, + tech press articles).
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.
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.
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.
...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."
...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."
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.
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.
...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."
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.
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.
I hope my post will be answered, and not buried amongst the 64 other pages in this thread…
TLDR: I can’t see my audible books, of which there are thousands in my library, I only see the first… 200 or so, and the one that I want is beyond that… A little history for those who care.
I am a blind voiceover user who was fine with the app because I didn’t have to update… Then all of a sudden for one reason or another my Sonos Rome would not be seen by the Sonos app, bearing in mind it was the older version, so I literally was forced to update. don’t have much of a problem with it, except for the aforementioned Audible issues… I can deal with the sometimes focus issues, and things like that, just as long as it eventually gets fixed… What I don’t like however is the fact that you can’t search for books like you used to… You can search for pretty much everything else it seems, but not that… if/when those items will return? Or could they already possibly be in a beta? Any idea on how to join the new beta for those who are visually impaired? Unless the door for that opportunity has closed… I know that were a handful of people testing the app for accessibility…
Hey Sonos, we Need Dark Mode in the App.
Hey Sonos, we Need Dark Mode in the App.
I agree, but I guess it’s not a priority, as all later Apple and Android OS’s have it built-in for use with Apps anyway, as the attached screenshot shows…
I for one would like to be able to shuffle all my songs, the simple feature has never worked on Sonos if you had large librarie, but has been a known issue for years. Fix this kind of problems before you create new ones
I for one would like to be able to shuffle all my songs, the simple feature has never worked on Sonos if you had large librarie, but has been a known issue for years. Fix this kind of problems before you create new ones
It’s really quite easy to achieve this. Create an .m3u playlist of your entire locally held shared library and on viewing the track-list in the new Sonos App, hit the (middle) ‘shuffle’ button to shuffle ALL to the chosen room, or group. In the case of my own setup here, I am easily able to ‘shuffle’ 25,697 tracks from my locally held NAS library in the new Sonos App - See below screen capture recorded a few moments ago …
At say 3 minutes per track (many are of course much longer than that) - that’s about 1,284 (approx.) hours, or 53½ days of playback @ 24 hours per day (or 7½ weeks+ of music) by my reckoning.
Let me just add, I’ve never listened to everything using this method (ever)… ha ha
I for one would like to be able to shuffle all my songs, the simple feature has never worked on Sonos if you had large librarie, but has been a known issue for years. Fix this kind of problems before you create new ones
It’s gonna be years before they fix the current issues at the current rate. Plus they’ve ignored local library issues for years it just doesn’t seem like they care to invest any effort in improving it.
I mean they tested the new search for over a year and didn’t even bother to include local libraries in the test to get it ready for the new app. Now they are scrambling to add it in. Not to mention the smbv2/3 indexing bugs that required smbv1 as a workaround still not fixed and the workaround doesn’t work anymore.
I for one would like to be able to shuffle all my songs, the simple feature has never worked on Sonos if you had large librarie, but has been a known issue for years. Fix this kind of problems before you create new ones
If you look around the community too @vilden66, it’s even simple to export the playlists I mention from .xml files, like those available through iTunes.
In my own use-case I choose to remove the extraneous directives, extended directives and comments (they’re not used by Sonos), but it’s not necessary to do that if you don’t want to mess with those elements. All will work just as quickly anyway with such large playlists.
I for one would like to be able to shuffle all my songs, the simple feature has never worked on Sonos if you had large librarie, but has been a known issue for years. Fix this kind of problems before you create new ones
It’s really quite easy to achieve this. Create an .m3u playlist of your entire locally held shared library and on viewing the track-list in the new Sonos App, hit the (middle) ‘shuffle’ button to shuffle ALL to the chosen room, or group. In the case of my own setup here, I am easily able to ‘shuffle’ 25,697 tracks from my locally held NAS library in the new Sonos App - See below screen capture recorded a few moments ago …
At say 3 minutes per track (many are of course much longer than that) - that’s about 1,284 (approx.) hours, or 53½ days of playback @ 24 hours per day (or 7½ weeks+ of music) by my reckoning.
Let me just add, I’ve never listened to everything using this method (ever)… ha ha
Thanks, maybe I was unclear in my post. Your solution demands a local library on a NAS or a desktop computer running 24/7. I have Apple Music and tried all sorts of different solutions to add playlists contains all my songs. It just don’t work to add 20k+ playlist with Sonos… made a screen recording but I can’t attach it here like you did
Thanks, maybe I was unclear in my post. Your solution demands a local library on a NAS or a desktop computer running 24/7. I have Apple Music and tried all sorts of different solutions to add playlists contains all my songs. It just don’t work to add 20k+ playlist with Sonos… made a screen recording but I can’t attach it here like you did
It’s possibly timing out or a restriction imposed by Apple or Sonos - I seem to recall there is 15s time-out period to load tracks to the queue, but maybe there’s a limit of the amount of tracks too… Just as an example, I think Amazon impose a 500-track playlist limit. You might find it easier to use a locally held library instead, shared using the SMB v2 (or higher) protocol - you can do that with a PC or MAC computer, if you prefer to not use a NAS.
