Retired Sonos Staff

End of Software Support - Clarifications

Dec 8, 2022 11:29 AM UTC
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We announced yesterday that some of our oldest Sonos products will be moving into a legacy mode in May of 2020. Our commitment is to support products with regular software updates for a minimum of five years after we stop selling them, and we have a track record of supporting products far longer.

Here is some public information we’ve shared, gathered into one place to respond to some of your questions in one easy thread, so that people can find the correct information easily.

Beginning in May, software updates and new features from Sonos will only be delivered to systems with only modern products.

After May, systems that include legacy products will continue to work as before - but they will no longer receive software updates or new features.

Sonos will work to maintain the existing experience and conduct bug fixes, but our efforts will ultimately be limited by the lack of memory and processing power of these legacy products.

We don’t expect any immediate impact to your experience, but access to services and overall functionality will eventually be disrupted, particularly as partners evolve their own services and features.

Customers with both legacy and modern products have time to decide what option is best for them. You can continue to use your whole system in legacy mode - in this case, it will stop receiving updates and new features.

You will also be able to separate your legacy products from your modern products, so that the modern products can still receive updates and new features, and legacy products can still be used separately. We’ll have more information on how to do this in May when you can take that action.

Another option available to all customers with legacy products is to take advantage of the Trade Up program, which allows you to upgrade older Sonos products to modern ones with a 30% discount. Trade Up will be open to customers at any time should they decide to upgrade.

We recognize this is new for Sonos owners, just as it is for Sonos. We are committed to help you by making options available to you to support the best decision for your home.

If you have any further questions, please don’t hesitate with asking.

Update 2/22: A message from our CEO

We heard you. We did not get this right from the start. My apologies for that and I wanted to personally assure you of the path forward:

First, rest assured that come May, when we end new software updates for our legacy products, they will continue to work as they do today. We are not bricking them, we are not forcing them into obsolescence, and we are not taking anything away. Many of you have invested heavily in your Sonos systems, and we intend to honor that investment for as long as possible. While legacy Sonos products won’t get new software features, we pledge to keep them updated with bug fixes and security patches for as long as possible. If we run into something core to the experience that can’t be addressed, we’ll work to offer an alternative solution and let you know about any changes you’ll see in your experience.

Secondly, we heard you on the issue of legacy products and modern products not being able to coexist in your home. We are working on a way to split your system so that modern products work together and get the latest features, while legacy products work together and remain in their current state. We’re finalizing details on this plan and will share more in the coming weeks.

While we have a lot of great products and features in the pipeline, we want our customers to upgrade to our latest and greatest products when they’re excited by what the new products offer, not because they feel forced to do so. That’s the intent of the trade up program we launched for our loyal customers.

Thank you for being a Sonos customer. Thank you for taking the time to give us your feedback. I hope that you’ll forgive our misstep, and let us earn back your trust. Without you, Sonos wouldn’t exist and we’ll work harder than ever to earn your loyalty every single day.

If you have any further questions please don’t hesitate to contact us.

Patrick Spence
CEO, Sonos

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timc995

Prominent Collaborator I

I have added to my system over time, and now have 22 devices, including 17 legacy ones. Even if I didn’t love my Sonos (which I do), I am pretty committed to the ecosystem.

My 17 devices consists of a mix of connect, connect:amps, and play:5. If I estimate an average replacement cost of $350 (which is based on an average of about $500 and reflecting the 30% discount), and add local sales tax (13% where I live), I’m looking at an upgrade cost of $7700. Wow - if I think about what alternative solutions I can achieve with that kind of money, I have a lot of options!

This change by Sonos allows me to escape from the ecosystem with no added cost vs staying in it!

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lawhhh

Lyricist III

this is precisely the actions we can and should take…. i.e spread it wider than this forum.

I think there are enough of us to leave 1 star reviews that the average product ratings will drop to 1 or 2 on major product review sites. They have significant impact on people’s buying habits and we should warn others before they potentially part with several thousand or hundreds of pounds/dollars for a system that will be knackered in a few years.

UKUser can I ask on which website this screen shot is from so I can register and contribute to Sonos’ average product rating?

Why don't Sonos commit to letting me play Spotify and some radio through my existing system? I know it can be done and dont give me the bumfff about memory, I have a degree in electronics and life in software dev. I (like many others here) know that there are easy solutions available to continue making your products WORK…. I am not talking about new features, I dont give a toss about new features… I can live without them, I am just talking about maintaining a few basic features. WHY are you trashing my £2k system?

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jensenbox

Lyricist I

Fail

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sm75382

Enthusiast II

should be interesting as from 6pm GMT Sonos will be clocking in at work (seems they have 1x employee, poor ‘ol Ryan)

I think if nothing happens until 6pm to 6am then i guess they are ok with whats happened and will wait until May.

‘thread closed, 1801’

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UKUser

Enthusiast I

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GWUk22

Lyricist I

Just joined this group to add to the frustration/outrage. Has anyone seen/heard a response from Sonos to the consumer anger at their position. In a world where everyone should be trying to reduce their carbon footprint this approach is scandalous

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pl2112

Contributor II

Like many others 4 of my 7 Sonos players are now “Legacy”, 2 Connects and 2 Play 5’s.

Can anyone else see the irony though?

Of the 2 Connects - 1 is connected to a 25+ year old Arcam amplifier and 40 year old Kef speakers, the other to a similar aged amplifier and 25 year old speakers. All of which work as good as new - who’d have thought the weakest link in the chain would be the newest?

Having been a Sonos evangelist and encouraged family, friends and work colleagues to buy it I’m now embarrassed and ashamed to have done so. They’ll never get another penny from me and if there is any justice this will turn out to be their Gerald Ratner moment!

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UKUser

Enthusiast I

this is precisely the actions we can and should take…. i.e spread it wider than this forum.

I think there are enough of us to leave 1 star reviews that the average product ratings will drop to 1 or 2 on major product review sites. They have significant impact on people’s buying habits and we should warn others before they potentially part with several thousand or hundreds of pounds/dollars for a system that will be knackered in a few years.

UKUser can I ask on which website this screen shot is from so I can register and contribute to Sonos’ average product rating?

Why don't Sonos commit to letting me play Spotify and some radio through my existing system? I know it can be done and dont give me the bumfff about memory, I have a degree in electronics and life in software dev. I (like many others here) know that there are easy solutions available to continue making your products WORK…. I am not talking about new features, I dont give a toss about new features… I can live without them, I am just talking about maintaining a few basic features. WHY are you trashing my £2k system?

These are the recent ratings for the Android Sonos App

Presumably there is a similar facility for the iPhone App

There is also a head of steam building up on the Trustpilot site - 11 pages of 1 star reviews and counting:

https://uk.trustpilot.com/review/www.sonos.com

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Cisume

Enthusiast II

Quote from Sonos Annual Report: Our product roadmap is largely focused on delivering products with voice control.

Might be a nice to have, but not what I bought into Sonos for and not something I’m particularly bothered about. And still not a reason legacy products should stop working - no-one expects them to miraculously become voice-controllable.

For voice control you have Alex and the like …. besides how many listening devices from different manufactures does somebody want in the house ?

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David_366

Enthusiast I

With it being written on the investors reports and filings page I’m pretty sure they won’t backtrack. They knew it would cause a fallout… why backtrack now? It would make them look indecisive.

“We may choose to discontinue support for older versions of our products, resulting in customer dissatisfaction that could negatively affect our business and operating results.
We have historically maintained, and we believe our customers may expect, extensive backward compatibility for our older products and the software that supports them, allowing older products to continue to benefit from new software updates. We expect that in the near term, this backward compatibility will no longer be practical or cost-effective, and we may decrease or discontinue service for our older products. If we no longer provide extensive backward capability for our products, we may damage our relationship with our existing customers, as well as our reputation, brand loyalty and ability to attract new customers.
For these reasons, any decision to decrease or discontinue backward capability may decrease sales and adversely affect our business, operating results and financial condition.”

Form 10-K page 16 https://investors.sonos.com/reports-and-filings/default.aspx

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