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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PeteD

Enthusiast I

The letter from the CEO changes nothing. No promise to update software to cope with streaming service API changes and no promise to maintain interoperability of all units.

I imagine Sonos spent a fortune on market research which told them that customers would like wizzo new features on new products. However, I bet the market researchers never said, “oh by the way you do realise that if we give you these new features we will stop supporting the basic functionality on any existing product more than a few years old”

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Lars Magnus

Lyricist I

I would love to be a fly on the wall in the boardroom when they decided this. What is the reasoning? I have been very happy with sonos the last 7 years. Not so much now, and I dont care if they reverse this. Bye Sonos!! (PS: I will send you a screenshot of my bluesound purschase)

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Martin_90

Lyricist II

Will stop recommending Sonos.

Of course i will still use my system. But i will never recommend Sonos again. I convinced 3 people to spend roughly 800€ each. Told them, that Sonos gets it. Thinks for the customers. Mixing in old stuff was key.

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user_end_of_lifed

Enthusiast II

I imagine Sonos spent a fortune on market research which told them that customers would like wizzo new features on new products. However, I bet the market researchers never said, “oh by the way you do realise that if we give you these new features we will stop supporting the basic functionality on any existing product more than a few years old”

What’s happened is that Sonos have started to panic about the fact that Google and Amazon are eating their market share in the whole house audio space.

Unfortunately, since nobody at Sonos has had an original product idea since the early 2000’s, the only thing they can think of is to do the same thing in reverse and try and incorporate all the features that Google and Amazon have, like voice control. Features that might be a nice to have, but are not why anyone bought Sonos in the first place.

What’s utterly baffling is how Sonos can be so bad at engineering that this current ‘write off the old stuff’ policy ever got any momentum. For most technology companies the idea of different but interoperable codebases would be so basic it wouldn’t even be a matter for discussion.

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SonosManu

Enthusiast II

Post a 1 star review

https://www.trustpilot.com/submitted/review?correlationid=04bead73-f601-411c-b979-7dcda11ab67b

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wkbglobal

Contributor I

Sonos is still selling the connect on its UK website… says nothing about how it is already obsolete…

nice one...!

sums them up re

It is only units made before 2015 which are end of life - I thought my Connect/Connect Amp were going to be legacy but actually thankfully they are both showing as modern. Worth double checking that as the news isn’t clear about this.

For how long though that is the question

I bought my Connect Amp in August 2018, admittedly in a Sale from Richer Sounds in the UK, but it is identified as a legacy product in the e-mail I received.

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Henrik99

Lyricist II

To be honest, this may be a blessing in disguise. The actions from Sonos has gotten me to look closely at the market today, and it obviously has evolved quite a bit in the last 5 years.

Today I have the opportunity to (am forced to) replace my 6 Connect boxes with the Sonos Port replacement at a cost of $ 2’100 (with the 30% discount). My alternative, the Yamaha WXAD-10, which actually is more suited to my usage (and which allows for an easy way to shut off wifi and bluetooth) and appears to have a better DAC resulting in improved sound performance, would cost me $ 1’020 for the 6 units needed.

The decision here is quite simple! For much less than I paid when I bought the original Connects I can now get a brand new setup with more recent technology.

In any case, regardless of what Sonos does about this marketing blunder, I am moving away to an alternative solution. Thank you for the wake-up call!

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licenced

Avid Contributor I

An apology generally means that you realise you have done something wrong, you regret it and, crucially, you will either stop doing it, not do it again and make amends.

The CEOs statement does none of these things and therefore it is not an apology. Instead it is a PR stunt and all the more insulting to loyal customers for that.

Except in this case the apology is for poorly communicating the approach they are taking, not for the approach itself. Classic corporate move

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parsd51

Lyricist I

Sorry if this has been asked before.

What if I decide to put a modern product (anytime in the future) in a legacy system, is it then legacy forever or can I “restore factory settings” and put it in a modern system and receive updates?

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paultownsend5384

Lyricist I

For the legacy kit they just need to pick a single streaming service, and work with them for a solution. Keep the same functionality. There is no need to cater for all that they do. TuneIn radio and Spotify. Done.

Do we know how Spotify connect will work with the legacy devices? Even if Spotify update their App you are still streaming the same amount of data?

Yes Spotify update their services with song lyrics and videos. But from Spotify to Sonos we still get what we always have. Music and album cover.

For me it’s simple. In 5 years time I want my Sonos to work in the same way it did 5 years ago. I want to group the kitchen, garage and lounge original Play1 speakers. I want to play music through Spotify. If that means I can’t get new features, even on my newer SonosOne, such as Alexa voice control. That is just fine.

It’s the control of the system, which is where I see the issues. But if they are suggesting a legacy App. Again that is just fine.

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