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The latest on the Sonos App from Nick Millington

 

Please also see the latest statement from Nick Millington regarding the app updates.

 

October 28, 2024

 

This is Nick Millington, Chief Innovation Officer, with an update on the Sonos app.

As our CEO Patrick Spence has said, we know that too many of you have experienced significant problems with the new app we introduced in May. Over the past several months, I, together with hundreds of Sonos engineers, have been focused on a singular objective: to improve the Sonos app and overall software experience such that it not only meets, but exceeds the experience of our previous app.

We built the new app to improve our ability to drive innovation and make future updates and improvements when needed. Since its May launch, we have rolled out ongoing updates, and while we will never stop improving our software experience, today I am pleased to share that our new app now surpasses the old one across several important performance metrics: 

 

Issue

Equal to or better than the old app?

“Add Product”/Setup Success rate

✓

“System not found” and “Products not found” errors

✓

Configuring stereo pairs and home theater

✓

App responsiveness

✓

Crash-free sessions

✓

 

The items above correspond to the top issues we heard from you upon release of the new app, as measured by the volume of customer support contacts driven by each. For new customers, the experience of setting up your Sonos system or a new product for the first time is critical, and I’m pleased to share that our success rate here is now the highest we have ever measured, significantly exceeding the previous app. 

Other quality benchmarks – such as eliminating incidents prompting a “something went wrong” message– were not measurable in our previous app yet are today, thanks to improved monitoring capabilities. This means we can now better ensure we’ve not only reached, but will maintain a high quality experience. (Currently, fewer than one percent of app sessions result in a “something went wrong” message.)

Although we are working with urgency to improve the app, we are also mindful of our commitment to roll out change more gradually, and apply more stringent testing. For this reason, moving forward we’ll alternate between major and minor releases, maintaining our momentum of making improvements while also ensuring adequate beta testing.

For example, today’s update is a major one, including significant improvements to system setup and reliability of adding new products, as well as improvements to volume control and responsiveness, and Local Music Library search, sharing and stability. At the same time, some features are still missing. We know that these have devoted users as well, and we are eager to restore them. In November, we’ll roll out performance improvements to Trueplay, Add Product, and general system reliability, at the same time that we beta test missing features targeted for restoration in December. These include:

  • Improved volume control & responsiveness (Android)
  • Playlist editing
  • Album art for music library (Android) 
  • Support for Android users moving between multiple systems 
  • Improved music playback error handling
  • Snooze Alarms

As always, you can also view detailed updates on each new release, including today’s release as well as previous ones, on our Release Notes page. 

Even with improvements made to date, we know that customers will at times still run into issues. That is why we have expanded our Customer Support capacity, adding dozens of trained agents as well as weekend support. If you are still experiencing issues with our app, know that we have a team standing by to help debug or troubleshoot any challenge you are currently facing.

Having recently marked my 21st anniversary at Sonos, I want to express my deep gratitude to you for being a Sonos customer, whether you’re a first-time or long-standing one, and personally commit to you that the next 20 years hold so much more. The ease, reliability, and magic of our products is the most important thing to me and everyone else at Sonos, and the best is yet to come.

You can expect to hear from me again soon with another update on our progress.

 

Looking for the original update on the Sonos app from CEO Patrick Spence? You can find this archived on the Sonos blog.

I find this not to be true. Seems like with every update, something else goes bad. I truly wish you all would swallow your pride, admit you did wrong and go back to the old app and work on the new app without experimenting with paying loyal customers who have a lot of money invested in product that no longer works. I’m so bummed. LOVE(d) my SONOS system, with NO complaints up and until you forced us to use a new broken app that renders our systems un-usable. PLEASE fix this. 

 

Danny Miller

It's all undelivered promise until you introduce TrueCinema for Ace.
I ain't buying the Arc Ultra until sonos sorts this out

Are these people serious?  This app has been one of the biggest failures that I have ever seen.  It has not worked correctly since it became available, and only seems to get worse over time.    It was once a functional app, but has now rendered thousands of dollars in speakers to be completely useless. I will never buy another Sonos product again.   Almost six months after it’s release, I can never get the app to actually connect to anything, no matter what I do.  I most certainly did not spend thousands of dollars to be treated like a test subject or lab rat. Completely unacceptable. I’m going back to Apple and Bose.

The latest on the Sonos App from Nick Millington

 

This is Nick Millington, Chief Innovation Officer, with an update on the Sonos app.

As our CEO Patrick Spence has said, we know that too many of you have experienced significant problems with the new app we introduced in May. Over the past several months, I, together with hundreds of Sonos engineers, have been focused on a singular objective: to improve the Sonos app and overall software experience such that it not only meets, but exceeds the experience of our previous app.

We built the new app to improve our ability to drive innovation and make future updates and improvements when needed. Since its May launch, we have rolled out ongoing updates, and while we will never stop improving our software experience, today I am pleased to share that our new app now surpasses the old one across several important performance metrics: 

 

Issue

Equal to or better than the old app?

“Add Product”/Setup Success rate

✓

“System not found” and “Products not found” errors

✓

Configuring stereo pairs and home theater

✓

App responsiveness

✓

Crash-free sessions

✓

 

The items above correspond to the top issues we heard from you upon release of the new app, as measured by the volume of customer support contacts driven by each. For new customers, the experience of setting up your Sonos system or a new product for the first time is critical, and I’m pleased to share that our success rate here is now the highest we have ever measured, significantly exceeding the previous app. 

Other quality benchmarks – such as eliminating incidents prompting a “something went wrong” message– were not measurable in our previous app yet are today, thanks to improved monitoring capabilities. This means we can now better ensure we’ve not only reached, but will maintain a high quality experience. (Currently, fewer than one percent of app sessions result in a “something went wrong” message.)

Although we are working with urgency to improve the app, we are also mindful of our commitment to roll out change more gradually, and apply more stringent testing. For this reason, moving forward we’ll alternate between major and minor releases, maintaining our momentum of making improvements while also ensuring adequate beta testing.

For example, today’s update is a major one, including significant improvements to system setup and reliability of adding new products, as well as improvements to volume control and responsiveness, and Local Music Library search, sharing and stability. At the same time, some features are still missing. We know that these have devoted users as well, and we are eager to restore them. In November, we’ll roll out performance improvements to Trueplay, Add Product, and general system reliability, at the same time that we beta test missing features targeted for restoration in December. These include:

  • Improved volume control & responsiveness (Android)
  • Playlist editing
  • Album art for music library (Android) 
  • Support for Android users moving between multiple systems 
  • Improved music playback error handling
  • Snooze Alarms

As always, you can also view detailed updates on each new release, including today’s release as well as previous ones, on our Release Notes page. 

Even with improvements made to date, we know that customers will at times still run into issues. That is why we have expanded our Customer Support capacity, adding dozens of trained agents as well as weekend support. If you are still experiencing issues with our app, know that we have a team standing by to help debug or troubleshoot any challenge you are currently facing.

Having recently marked my 21st anniversary at Sonos, I want to express my deep gratitude to you for being a Sonos customer, whether you’re a first-time or long-standing one, and personally commit to you that the next 20 years hold so much more. The ease, reliability, and magic of our products is the most important thing to me and everyone else at Sonos, and the best is yet to come.

You can expect to hear from me again soon with another update on our progress.

 

Looking for the original update on the Sonos app from CEO Patrick Spence? You can find this archived on the Sonos blog.

Who signed this off, my experience is as follows:

 

Issue

Equal to or better than the old app?

“Add Product”/Setup Success rate

✓ - I have not had to add a product so cannot confirm.

“System not found” and “Products not found” errors

Still see this message every day but I NEVER saw it before 7th May

Configuring stereo pairs and home theater

✓ - I have only had to reconfigure once since the 7th May when the App lost a room and it was a nightmare. I am not going to risk checking if this is any better today. 

App responsiveness

Volume changes and grouping speakers still takes 30 seconds or more a good percentage of the time, this was instantaneous before 7th May

Crash-free sessions

Before 7th May I  never saw the App crash the improvement for me is that this is happening weekly and not daily with the latest update.

I’m guessing that the claims are based on today’s release.

80.11.32 (Android)

80.11.38 (iOS)

Release date: 28/10/2024

Which is not available to me yet.

Can someone please tell me when I will be able to test it?

I've been a Sonos user for many years with thousands of £s of kit. What an absolute disaster this new app has been and the protracted fixes that still haven't addressed fundamental issues like displaying album art. My confidence in Sonos has been destroyed and I have now bought a NAD streaming amp operated by BluOS. Perfect sound, easy set up and queue management with album art, will progressively move over to this streaming platform. Never again will I put all my faith and trust in Sonos. Sonos you have globally let down your once loyal users and you are not rectifying the problems that you created in an acceptable timeframe.

“Over the past several months, I, together with hundreds of Sonos engineers, have been focused on a singular objective: to improve the Sonos app and overall software experience such that it not only meets, but exceeds the experience of our previous app.”  

Well, you haven’t succeeded yet...
You just keep on patting yourselves on the back for fixing things you broke in the first place. The new app is still just as cluttery, over-complicated and hard to use. It takes to many swipes and going back and forth to do simple things like setting an alarm, choosing what to play or changing the volume.

Messages like this, when all you do is brag about the new app, is just ridiculous. 

I am one of those unfortunate enough to have downloaded the latest update about 30 minutes ago on my iPad and am currently staring at a “something went wrong” message while trying to play a selection from one of my favourite services. So I picked up my downstairs, not-yet-updated, iPad and it plays fine using the previous update.

So, thanks for the laugh.

  1.   Still no local library album art in the queue.
  2.   Still queue does not follow music progress.
  3.   Still no alphabetical search bar on the right.

     

I am a long term Sonos user and was a long term user of this forum until the rampant abuse that became prevalent around here following the May release.  I’m dipping my toe in the water here again in the hope that some sanity has prevailed.  Clearly there are same people whether continue to have issues,m. I sympathise.

I’m not forgiving Sonos for the pain they put people through, or the reputational damage they have done to the brand.   But I actually like the new app, and each update seems to improve the overall responsiveness and stability.  There remain occasional glitches but these are getting fewer and fewer, and shutting down and restarting the app clears most of these when they do occur.  
The only thing I’m now missing is the a-z slide bar for the local library, though I appreciate everyone has their own priorities in what they want.  

I do feel Sonos has made efforts in the promise to clear up the mess, that of course was of their own making.  I’m not missing the old app, and I was never fond of it.   I just wanted to ‘balance the books’ a little, as my experience now is overall a positive one.

 

Nick, 

Thanks for the update. I have one question. The release notes for the current update state the current build for android is 80.11.32. However when I just updated it says my system is updated to 80.11.33. Is that typo or a different build? Thankful..

 

 

Good to get a thorough update on where we are at.

80.11.33/81.1.58074 (Android)

Got update just now in UK. No problems with install from Playstore. 

More responsive. Navigation between rooms is more reliable.

Is anyone else getting partial Sonos Playlists? I can scroll about first 30 or so then they stop, can see all on iOS. 

 

coincidentally I can confirm the new app update has scan music library working. Just added a few things and it wasn’t working until I remembered I got an update on android. When I updated Sonos on my iPad it worked fine.

All good stuff, Nick, but while your hundreds of engineers are working on the Album Art issue, they might like to think about how other information is displayed on the Now Playing screens. These screenshots show how S and S1 show for a track from a compilation album (100 Eighties Classics/Various Artists) called Get Down On It by Kool & The Gang

 

 

 

The current version shows the track name then Artist then Album Artist.

The old version shows the track name then Artist then the Album name, which is surely what people would prefer.

The same issue occurs with single-artist tracks. I've lost my screenshot example but try it and you will see that the second line shows the Artist's name twice in the latest version. Surely they must have noticed that when testing it?

One of those engineers should surely be able to fix this in time for the promised November update.

Twice now I’ve left this new version open overnight on my iPad after closing the cover to put it to sleep. Both times the app has been unresponsive in the morning, requiring a forced stop and restart.

On the plus side, I’ve yet to see one of those ugly “no products found” pop-ups. And I’ve so far been unable to reproduce that weird snap-back effect with the volume slider that prior versions were prone to.

I’m guessing that the claims are based on today’s release.

80.11.32 (Android)

80.11.38 (iOS)

Release date: 28/10/2024

Which is not available to me yet.

Can someone please tell me when I will be able to test it?

It all depends on when Google has it in the Play Store for your system. I got it today with no problem, the last update I waited for several days after some folks saw it until it was available here.

The most disappointing thing through all of this is the tone the Sonos execs keep taking here. They keep trying to put a positive spin on everything and it communicates how out of touch they are with reality. I still can't search in the new app. I get the "something went wrong" screen everytime. Yes, I updated to today's build and it didn't fix the issue. I've also completely deleted all app data and it didn't help. This has been going on for months. I downgraded every speaker but one to S1 (which really felt like an upgrade) so my system would be usable again and left one speaker on the new app so I could track it's progress. I'm about ready to just give up and stick with S1 and eventually replace my system with something other than Sonos.

The most disappointing thing through all of this is the tone the Sonos execs keep taking here. They keep trying to put a positive spin on everything and it communicates how out of touch they are with reality. I still can't search in the new app. I get the "something went wrong" screen everytime. Yes, I updated to today's build and it didn't fix the issue. I've also completely deleted all app data and it didn't help. This has been going on for months. I downgraded every speaker but one to S1 (which really felt like an upgrade) so my system would be usable again and left one speaker on the new app so I could track it's progress. I'm about ready to just give up and stick with S1 and eventually replace my system with something other than Sonos.

 

They are not out of touch with reality — I’m pretty sure they are VERY aware of the reality, which is why they’ve pushed out 17-odd updates in the last 5 months or so.  Clearly they are also aware that the situation is not perfect for everyone but it is a positive trajectory of gradual improvements for the vast majority of people.  As indicated above Sonos have the telemetry from many thousands of users to track this.  This is not a positive spin, just the situation as it is.  There will always be ‘edge cases’, and I may be wrong but I don’t think the inability to search is common.  Have you tried contacting m support as I’m guessing they would be interested in exploring the cause of the difficulties you are having ? 

The most disappointing thing through all of this is the tone the Sonos execs keep taking here. They keep trying to put a positive spin on everything and it communicates how out of touch they are with reality. I still can't search in the new app. I get the "something went wrong" screen everytime. Yes, I updated to today's build and it didn't fix the issue. I've also completely deleted all app data and it didn't help. This has been going on for months. I downgraded every speaker but one to S1 (which really felt like an upgrade) so my system would be usable again and left one speaker on the new app so I could track it's progress. I'm about ready to just give up and stick with S1 and eventually replace my system with something other than Sonos.

As far as I can tell, you're in the dwindling pool of customers that Sonos has demonstrated they're ready to write off. In your shoes, I would totally replace every piece of their equipment.

Sonos user for a long time, it’s amazing prior to this new App I never had any issues! Boy since then then system has had nothing but problems. The sad thing is Sonos has told there was a problem my phone, my  iPad, also recommended that I buy Boosters which I did at my expense to be told I didn’t need them. They are now blaming my Router, what next Mr Sonos?

strongly recommend you buy a mirror and fix up your own back yard, The App 

Yes, I updated to today's build and it didn't fix the issue. 

Just checking - did you update the system as well as the app?

Good to get a thorough update on where we are at.

80.11.33/81.1.58074 (Android)

Got update just now in UK. No problems with install from Playstore. 

More responsive. Navigation between rooms is more reliable.

Is anyone else getting partial Sonos Playlists? I can scroll about first 30 or so then they stop, can see all on iOS. 

 

Hardware Update 81.1.58210 on 30th Oct in UK Nothing apparent. 

Am I going crazy?

On the Mac Sonos app, I can create new playlists and add tracks to existing playlists. Was this always the case throughout ‘appageddon’, or is this a new addition since the latest Mac app update…? Still no ability to create or add to playlists on the iOS app, but I’m sure I couldn’t do it on the Mac app either?

Or am I imagining things and this has been there throughout this period?

Can't vouch for your mental state, or anyone else  who owns Sonos at moment, but on Windows I am able to edit and save in Sonos Playlists. But get a message when I try to add to Sonos Favorites now from Amazon Unlimited that I've reach capacity on Sonos Favs, however my Sonos Playlists are much larger... 🤔🤔

Can't vouch for your mental state, or anyone else  who owns Sonos at moment, 

🤣

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