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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yanikdude

Contributor I

Also concerned by the silence from SONOS. Is this arrogance or panic?

They have so misjudged their proud, loyal and commuter community. So much trust and faith has been lost

i fully understand technical Why things can’t be supported but these are normally single Household items not multiple expensive items.

Also, there is nothing to replace my amps

2 x sonos 3

1 x play 5 (first gem)

2 x amp

4 x play 1

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Sacguy

Lyricist I

Look at the Sonos SEC 10-K filing and it explains it all. It’s all coming down to a critical cash infusion to keep the company alive. Sonos tech is solid but I think that the elephants are going to crush them. The “upgrade” for me would be almost $3000. I’ve been a Sonos buyer for a very long time. Long enough to collect a number of their “abandoned products”. From what I understand from their 10-K Sonos expects to continue loose money. Sonos also announced that they are about to embark on a patent dispute with both Google and Amazon. Patent suits suck cash out of a company. Looking to going back to a central system. Thank goodness the wires are still there.

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John V

Enthusiast I

Look at the Sonos SEC 10-K filing and it explains it all. It’s all coming down to a critical cash infusion to keep the company alive. Sonos tech is solid but I think that the elephants are going to crush them. The “upgrade” for me would be almost $3000. I’ve been a Sonos buyer for a very long time. Long enough to collect a number of their “abandoned products”. From what I understand from their 10-K Sonos expects to continue loose money. Sonos also announced that they are about to embark on a patent dispute with both Google and Amazon. Patent suits suck cash out of a company. Looking to going back to a central system. Thank goodness the wires are still there.

Can’t agree more Patrick started the lawsuit with Google and wants his loyal base to pay for it Patrick got Sonos in this mess Patrick needs to find a way out before the board boots his ass to the unemployment line

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User126361

Contributor I

There are many like me who just want sound, we don’t want Alexa, Google Home Airplay 2 or any other ”intelligent features” other than music and TV integration. Sonos is not proposing any sonic improvements and frankly I have no desire to partake of any intelligent directions they are trending to.

If a new product became available for DTS or Dolby Atmos it might be a consideration. But Sonos has defiantly rejected these protocols against all requests. I would still expect all my other products to continue to operate and share the sound without the other intelligent features. Surely software can be developed for the different classes of equipment to separate intelligent functions from sound (which is why we bought your systems).

This announcement has been a great betrayal of trust and to be honest I would not be prepared to consider further purchases unless Sonos clarified even the smallest grey area that still exists. Once trust is lost it is a long way to recovery. Your announcement was truly regrettable. The back-step announcement I’m afraid is only little comfort. It will take time to see just what Sonos does from here and it will cost your company dearly in the interim. No one in their right mind would recommend a company capable of changing direction so destructively as this.

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klschroder

Lyricist I

I won’t invest any more money in Sonos if the older part of my system won’t work with newer parts.

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pompadi

Lyricist I

Hey Sonos ..

You’ve certainly shot yourselves in the foot here, most of your loyal customers have several components in their system , I don’t think anyone will be considering expanding their system from this point forward..!

So if additional sales was the goal (with 30% discount) forget it .

I see you’re taking Google to court , hope you get some cash to make up for lost future sales ..!

Time for a rethink 🤔

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Kirk33

Collaborator II

The CEO message is a good start. It’s nice to know we’ve been heard, but he’s not clear on THE most important detail.

Will legacy and modern devices be able to be grouped together to play the same music at the same time?

I’m not sure which CEO statement you read, but the one I read is crystal clear. The system will be spit. Modern products will work with each other. Legacy products will work with each other. It never says, or even implies, that modern products will work with legacy products. This was a VERY carefully written letter. If all the products will work with each other, they most definitely would have said so. In fact, it would have been bolded in large letters.

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Mike886

Lyricist II

The letter from your CEO is not acknowledging one of the key complaints, and the language implies it is being swept under the rug.

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.

You clearly haven’t heard us. One of the main complaints and points of purchasing Sonos speakers is so they work together, not to have two split “modern” and “legacy” groups in my home, and figuring out which ones work with which. I want to be able to play music from some, or all of them. Your speakers are clearly capable of doing this because they can pass a music signal from one to another with ease currently, so it stands that they should be able to do this long into the future. It’s not rocket science, its just a music data stream. Maintaining backwards compatibility with that can’t be difficult. The technology already exists and you’re already using it. But you keep wording your responses quite specifically to state that you are intending to fragment your speakers in the future so that they cannot work with each other.

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hyperlite34

Lyricist III

To my fellow Sonos Community,

Don't be fooled by Patrick's response. Remember, Sonos planned for this backlash. They are proceeding with their agenda, not matter what they say. See below.

https://www.zdnet.com/article/why-is-sonos-dropping-support-older-speakers-and-does-the-reason-hold-up/

Tech outlet The Register did some digging through Sonos's Q4 2019 10-K financial filings and discovered that the company had both been planning for the obsolescence of its products and the associated backlash from customers.

"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," the filing explains. "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."
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My Sonos Universe: Sonos Sub | Sonos Playbar | Sonos Amp | Sonos Play:5 | Sonos Play:3 | Sonos Play:1(2)

Gifts to family -- Sonos Play:1 and Play:5

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swajames

Enthusiast I

Spence was an SVP in Sales and Marketing at Blackberry.

So it seems he helped kill one brand which once enjoyed the support of fervently loyal customers.

And it seems clear he is now on a path to destroy another. With two ill-considered emails.

In years to come this will be a business school case study in incompetence.

You really can’t make this up.

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