Retired Sonos Staff

News

The new Sonos Mobile App & Web App

Related content:Software

Forum|Forum|2 years ago
April 23, 2024
1674 replies
97108 views

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.

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 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.

Here you can find the full press release.

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J

Jens-O-Matic

Lyricist II

Wait! My Home automation system is based on desktop computers and applications. If the desktop application is going away, so is my Sonos. WTF!

Sonos is cruising at Mach 6 into becoming an “also was” if that is the case. Million-dollar homes with advanced home automation is a staple of Sonos, but if we move away from being able to play music on local drives and unable to run on a Windows/MAC desktop/Laptop, then Sonos becomes irrelevant.

J

Jason_54

Trending Lyricist I

Thanks. To be clear then, after updating from S2 to the new version (I'm not calling it an upgrade), users can still play from a local library but will have no ability whatsoever to search from it?

For now that is correct. There is an alternative though. You can use Plex, most NAS also support it. Universal Search does support Plex.

Well, this isn’t really accurate. You’ve removed the ability to put things into the queue in any way or to edit the queue. So you can play one song, then wait until its done an play another song, but you can’t actually use the new app to pick several songs from your library (after scrolling through it to find anything since the search feature is borked) or to load all the music from an artist or any of the basic features the app used to have. The only way to actually use your EXPENSIVE hardware is to downgrade the app (thank god I’m on Android and could apkmirror the old version). This entirely destroys the essential function of your whole system. Calling this an upgrade is a joke. Calling it courageous is a f*cking disgrace.

J

jjlangr

Trending Lyricist I

The ability to choose to “play next” and “add to end of queue” is gone, and apparently also the ability to put together playlists. I can’t imagine there’s any real cost to retaining the queueing features (w/ play next, play last, etc), and certainly negligible impact to the new vaunted UI. Why get rid of them? The iOS app becomes near-useless to me without them.

Why? My guess is that Sonos is only concerned with marketing & selling to streaming users. It’s easier for them, and I’m sure they’d just as soon not have to worry about the headaches that come with supporting personal music libraries. This is their 2nd move toward de-emphasizing people who use their own music library--previously it was when they released voice control without the ability to manage a music library.

Will Sonos make the mistake of sticking to their guns on this one? I’ve invested a couple thousand in Sonos products, but will absolutely find a way off the hardware if they do. I’ll also ensure no one else I know makes the same mistake.

I’ll just copy this link from an earlier post--here’s how to roll back to older version of the controller on Android. https://www.reddit.com/r/sonos/s/j5rbcMRh2H (Anyone have iOS instructions for doing so?)

As has been stated elsewhere queue management and other ‘missing’ items have not been removed per se, rather they have not yet been added in to the rewrite of the app. The end result is the same, I get that — and releasing the app prematurely has been a huge misstep. However queue management has been slated for an update I believe in July. With all the bad press, maybe it’ll come sooner - who knows!

Thanks. Sorry, didn’t have time to read all the posts. It’d be nice if someone could pin a summary.

Auto Trueplay / Quicktune Era (100 & Era 300) - Arriving in Late May

Snooze Alarms - Coming in June

Google Assistant Setup on Android - Coming in June

Sleep Timers - Coming in July

Find Missing Products Tool - Coming in July

Offline Devices - Coming in July

Queue & Playlist Editing - Coming in July

Appreciated.

Who in the world would deliberately cripple features in an app to (presumably) make an arbitrary date? Did they just figure, “turn off things we don’t see as important to the future and see who complains?”

M

MatthewMarshF1

Trending Lyricist I

Well, this was a craptastic experience.

I can no longer access my music on the music server,
The Sonos app was near perfect, so it had to be updated?! I could always open it and get a quick overview of the system, select the desired system and select what I wanted to hear, then easily expand it to the other areas as needed or desired. Now, I just want to give up.
The new Sonos application is not very nice. It is visually unappealing, it is not focused on using Sonos, rather it is focused on visiting the help center and shopping for more Sonos products. That is rather pedestrian. Sono's products are not cheap, and I certainly do not need to go shopping from my interface. Everyone knows how to type “Sonos” into their search bar. Is Sonos really that desperate?
I have a smart home, and I use Samsung pads to control my Sonos system. Sonos used to be something I showed off with pride, but with the new interface, it is an embarrassment. Now I am faced with the dilemma of how to address it:
1. See if I can change back to the classic look (which was elegant and architecturally pleasing to look at (plus it matches all my smart lights, the gate, etc.)
2. Switch to another system (yes, there are Sonos alternatives)
3. Pay someone to develop an application to control my Sonos (I would probably hack the classic one to do that since it was perfect) and then use it instead.

If you really wanted to update something, you should have updated the security of the system which is non-existent. The Sonos system can be accessed by anyone with no username/password required, no certificate-based authentication or anything. Anyone who can see your IP address can access your Sonos and use it to pivot into your network and likely attack all your other devices with only a moderate skill-set and publicly available tools.

It begs the question: Why mess with something that worked well?

You might want to look at the Sonophone app.

S

Seng Hwwa

Trending Lyricist I

Anyone received this email? I find it upsetting and also insulting. They must think that all their customers are complete idiots.

Definitely not better. How dare they even suggest that.

If this communication was approved by the CEO, that is a clear statement that they do not value the early adopters.

S

Seng Hwwa

Trending Lyricist I

if Apple can apologies, why not Sonos? Too big for their customers?

U

User519801

Enthusiast II

Just adding my voice to the crowd. Use our system to play from NAS, rarely use ‘services’ - new app is hopeless for this use case. Please let us go back to the 16.1 version (on iOS so no way to go back)

If no rollback option soon I will be downgrading to S1. Yes it’s rubbish compared to s2 16.1 but it’s way better than the new version.

Sonos please listen to all feedback, forget being ‘courageous’ and sort out this mess today not over the next few months.

M

MatthewMarshF1

Trending Lyricist I

Just adding my voice to the crowd. Use our system to play from NAS, rarely use ‘services’ - new app is hopeless for this use case. Please let us go back to the 16.1 version (on iOS so no way to go back)

If no rollback option soon I will be downgrading to S1. Yes it’s rubbish compared to s2 16.1 but it’s way better than the new version.

Sonos please listen to all feedback, forget being ‘courageous’ and sort out this mess today not over the next few months.

I purchased Sonophone yesterday and got back to normal!

Belly M

If anyone from Sonos is monitoring this thread…

Using the new iOS App all my favourites from Deezer and local music playlists are greyed out,

They show and play using the web App, they also show and play via the old iOS App.

A

andbae

Lyricist II

This new version 80.0 is a bad joke. It was made in contempt of users based on stupid marketing arguments ! This version is unfinished and regressive.

I've been using a dozen ERA 100 connected speakers since early 2024. If I had to make that choice again today on the basis of this new application, I'd definitely go for another manufacturer.

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