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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Show previous replies

melvimbe

Let's say that Spotify make the hypothetical fundamental change you refer to. So what? So one of my more capable units has to decode the stream and I have to group my older kit with it to be able to play it. No problem with that AT ALL. If that's what they’d announced nobody would have raised more than a grumble.

Note - THIS IS EXACTLY WHAT THEY ALREADY DO FOR THE AIRPLAY/NON-AIRPLAY UNITS.

Just a comment regarding this solution. You are correct that airplay/non-airplay units operate under this fashion, but it hasn’t been exactly a satisfactory solution to customers. It’s not uncommon for customers to be confused about how this all works, complain that their non-airplay units don’t work on their own, or that they have to group speakers for it to work. People have grumbled about this.

If as you’re suggesting, Sonos eventually used the same model in order to continue streaming Spotfiy, then people would make the same complaints as they did about airplay. They would als be upset that Spotify is not working as it always had before. And of course, the people who only have legacy products could not take advantage of this solution.

All that said, people generally do accept airplay for what it is after being informed that airplay has hardware requirements that are out of Sonos control. They don’t like it, but they accept it.

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Danny

U

user_end_of_lifed

Enthusiast II

Let's say that Spotify make the hypothetical fundamental change you refer to. So what? So one of my more capable units has to decode the stream and I have to group my older kit with it to be able to play it. No problem with that AT ALL. If that's what they’d announced nobody would have raised more than a grumble.

Note - THIS IS EXACTLY WHAT THEY ALREADY DO FOR THE AIRPLAY/NON-AIRPLAY UNITS.

Just a comment regarding this solution. You are correct that airplay/non-airplay units operate under this fashion, but it hasn’t been exactly a satisfactory solution to customers. It’s not uncommon for customers to be confused about how this all works, complain that their non-airplay units don’t work on their own, or that they have to group speakers for it to work. People have grumbled about this.

If as you’re suggesting, Sonos eventually used the same model in order to continue streaming Spotfiy, then people would make the same complaints as they did about airplay. They would als be upset that Spotify is not working as it always had before. And of course, the people who only have legacy products could not take advantage of this solution.

All that said, people generally do accept airplay for what it is after being informed that airplay has hardware requirements that are out of Sonos control. They don’t like it, but they accept it.

In the situations you've outlined though, the customers are ‘at fault’ and Sonos are genuinely doing the right thing. Old hardware (as far as I am aware) can't be made to support airplay - the grouping solution is genuinely the right way of extending the function of that hardware for as long as possible.

In the ‘Spotify’ scenario, a scenario in which something has changed which the older hardware genuinely can't support then it’s absolutely fine for Sonos’ older hardware to not support it and while you're right that some users won’t understand that the user base as a whole would.

Nobody’s expecting Sonos to work magic and make old hardware do something it can’t, they’re expecting them to make a genuine effort to keep old hardware working as it does now, not prematurely kill it to try and extort repeat purchases from customers who already gave them their money once.

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SonosManu

Enthusiast II

I bought my Sonos system in 2019 - Boost, Connect:Amp, and 8xPlay1 speakers. How can this be a “legacy” system when it’s only a year old. This month I added a Move to the system. It’s working well - how do change the system so I get no more updates that might break it in the future. I will never ever buy another Sonos product.

This is absolutely not acceptable! How can they justify this?

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melvimbe

I bought my Sonos system in 2019 - Boost, Connect:Amp, and 8xPlay1 speakers. How can this be a “legacy” system when it’s only a year old.

Did you get an email saying any of your Connect:Amp was a legacy product? If not, then your system should operate as normal.

This month I added a Move to the system. It’s working well - how do change the system so I get no more updates that might break it in the future.

It’s not a matter of updates breaking your system. It’s actually the lack of updates in order to keep your system running as it currently does that people are concerned about. That concern is only in regards to people who are using legacy products. Based on what products you have and when you got them, you do not have any legacy products.

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Danny

S

szkorupa

Lyricist III

I think we all still need some clear answers from the company. The pathetic apology from CEO does not clear anything.

Are you Sonos still a premium multi room sound solution or are you chasing cheap boom boom £50 speaker millennial market?

If the former I expect for the premium price you charge for my audio system to work 20+ years with full integration and be able to play music from NAS, listen to radio, stream music from any major streaming platform.

For me it to ever buy anymore of your products you need to be clear right now about your plans for obselanc for all current products and end of support. 5 years will not cut it I can tell you that much.

Is there a point of buying for example a subwoofer if my playbar and play1s is going to be made legacy next year? I don't think so!

I have never felt so betrayed by a company. I bought into your ecosystem just 3 years ago and I feel like a mug and let me tell you this is not a feeling you want from your customers!

You need to get real very quickly and decide what is the direction you are heading for and what is your customers base. You will never win with the likes of google, amazon or apple. They will always beat you on price, but then people don't buy their speakers to furnish to whole house with high quality sound.

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ewolkoff

Enthusiast II

I bought my Sonos system in 2019 - Boost, Connect:Amp, and 8xPlay1 speakers. How can this be a “legacy” system when it’s only a year old. This month I added a Move to the system. It’s working well - how do change the system so I get no more updates that might break it in the future. I will never ever buy another Sonos product.

This is absolutely not acceptable! How can they justify this?

Sorry - There is no way this person bought a pre-2015 Connect:Amp in 2019 brand new unless it was from some sketchy store or they got scammed by someone. Sonos didn’t even sell Connect Amps altogether after they replaced it with the Amp in 2019. This story either isn’t correct or this person needs to go back to the person that sold them the legacy Connect Amp. Sonos can’t control for this kind of scammy behavior on behalf of independent sellers.

I mean I just lost $2k as a result of this announcement, which really stung, but let’s not get crazy here.

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ScottKC

Lyricist II

The SEC filing in November makes it all very clear folks.

If SONOS had come out and said… Hey folks… I KNOW that we have always promised that all hardware will continue to work in the future and when we made those claims, we didn’t really think about the changing world of technology or the cost to do that. Sadly, our company is losing money by providing on-going software support for our older products. These products are limited in what they can because they are built using older tech. Thus, we have decided to lock those devices into the current software revision so that you can continue to enjoy them as you do now. Down the road, online streaming protocols and features in software tech may change and there is a remote possibility that they will not be able to stream directly, but we will provide avenues to stream to these devices through a legacy base software that would run on the major computing platforms so you can continue to enjoy SONOS into the future.

OH… and if you feel the need to upgrade, you can get 30% off. :D

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Mel_L

Avid Contributor I

Thanks Danny. No I did not get an email telling me my Connect:Amp is a legacy product. I read the Sonos announcement which included the Connect: Amp in the legacy list. I’m confused - how do I tell?

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ewolkoff

Enthusiast II

Thanks Danny. No I did not get an email telling me my Connect:Amp is a legacy product. I read the Sonos announcement which included the Connect: Amp in the legacy list. I’m confused - how do I tell?

This changes things. If you have a play/pause button on the front it’s a post-2015 connect:amp with 256mb of memory (8x the pre-2015 Connect:amp). You are still modern/will get software updates. They were selling these through 2018 or early 2019, so under their policy, you’ll be supported until at least 2023.

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Mel_L

Avid Contributor I

I buy all my Sonos kit from a company called Smart Home Systems which is an authorised Sonos agent in the UK.

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