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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G

Goodbye Sonos

Enthusiast II

Here’s an extract from today’s Evening Standard:

Spence said the company is working on a way for customers to split these systems so the speakers still work together but receive the appropriate updates for each device.

This reiterates my earlier speculation from a BBC article that its the legacy units’ inability to handle greater memory requirement updates which necessitates creating two populations of Sonos units - legacy and modern. The ES article goes further by saying that the speakers still work together but receive the appropriate updates for each device.

If the storm (hopefully in a train cup) is ONLY about handling software updates and they can indeed work together after having been updated, I’m HAPPY again.

The speakers WILL NOT work together if you choose to update. See reply that I got via Twitter today.

Confirmation of what we’ve been saying all along.

If you have old and new speakers you cannot group them anymore - so lose the key function of the sonos system.

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MotleyMe

Lyricist I

I am with the crowd that is really upset with this announcement. I too am an early adopter of Sonos. This “change” means that thousands of dollars of investment in a great sound system was foolishly spent.

In addition after spending over $2000 on Play:5s, you are telling me for another $1400 I can replace my Play:5s with lower quality Sonos Moves?!?! How does that even make sense! At least your upgrade program should be like for like! And a discount for more the 30% would be better.

I am soooo mad that I am considering ditching my whole Sonos installations.

Sonos you really need to take better care of your early loyal customers as they are the ones who keep buying more speakers to expand their systems. (like me)

Best

...and remember … it says their new devices will now be supported with software updates for only 5 years …. Who would buy this price of product with such short-term built-in obsolescence. That’s more like a mobile phone than a home speaker system! They’re trying to blackmail us into paying 70% of the cost we already paid for an updated version of something that is pristine, works fine and is nowhere near the end of it’s life. The new products of course need absolutely endless updates to point of the system being a complete pain in the nick-nacks! This may suit Sonos but it doesn’t suit me and their customer base is all they have… Great eco credentials too Sonos!

That’s not what it says. What it says is 5 years after they stop selling the product. So if you buy a Beam, which has been on the market for a year and will likely be sold for at least 5 years, you then get 5 years minimum after that. So 10 years. Note that 10 years for tech is a really long time. The original iPhone came out 13 years ago, for instance. There was no Samsung Galaxy or tablets or anything. Totally different universe. Who even knows if we’ll still be using iPhones in 10 years or what the next devices will require to interface with Sonos.

Yep, but if you buy something that’s about to be (unbeknowst to yoursefl) withdrawn… it’s 5 years. Altho’ this may be considered “tech” and therfore like a mobile phone to some, to me it was always been speakers fro my sound system and my previous, though still functioning ones, are over 40 years old! I don’t believe many people expect a premium home sound system to have such a short life. [Oh … and just out of interest I had a Nokia N800 “Internet Tablet” in 2006, with touch screen, multi-app capability and things like Shazam on (so 3 years before the iPad). It was a rather small but not exactly attractive looking, hence the success of the iphone that I believe infringed many it’s patents according to media replorts.]

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Wim_5

Lyricist I

Agree totally with Mike886, totally disappointed in Sonos. Can’t trust any product you buy from them to work for a long time in the future. I have a stereo system from the ‘70 ies that cost less and still works perfecly.
Shame om Sonos. I’ll never spend another penny on their products!!!

Wim SK

Rotterdam, NL

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PaulMBanas

Contributor II

I’ll chime in here and also say I was a big SONOS brand booster. This is a huge misstep and the “mea culpa” really doesn’t do much to solve it without some guarantees. I’d expect them to say “your system will continue to work for at least 20 years. It won’t necessarily be able to handle unforeseen technology but will work as it works today.” That’s what any receiver/speaker set would for for 20 years or longer. If they think this is like an iPhone or MacBook, they better think again. There are just too many other options out there, including Onkyo and other receivers that perform all the same functions.

I was regretting missing out on the in-wall speakers for our kitchen renovation, but now I’m really happy I installed Polk Audio wired in-wall speakes for maximum flexibility. SONOS is only a solution if you want to hide wires. All the new receivers support music services and are far cheaper to replace if you had to to get new features.

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C

Cchris

Enthusiast II

Yet on the chart showing memory per sonos unit, there is only one lising for the connect:amp.

Smells like sonos just deciding that anything over 5 years old is legacy, regardless of its specification and thats their model. You’ve had it five years, buy another one.

That may be acceptable with a single phone, or even a TV. But almost 20 connected speakers at almost £6,000 you don’t replace every five years.

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chickentender

Here’s an extract from today’s Evening Standard:

Spence said the company is working on a way for customers to split these systems so the speakers still work together but receive the appropriate updates for each device.

This reiterates my earlier speculation from a BBC article that its the legacy units’ inability to handle greater memory requirement updates which necessitates creating two populations of Sonos units - legacy and modern. The ES article goes further by saying that the speakers still work together but receive the appropriate updates for each device.

If the storm (hopefully in a train cup) is ONLY about handling software updates and they can indeed work together after having been updated, I’m HAPPY again.

The speakers WILL NOT work together if you choose to update. See reply that I got via Twitter today.

Confirmation of what we’ve been saying all along.

If you have old and new speakers you cannot group them anymore - so lose the key function of the sonos system.

Only if you are interested in continuing down the path of future updates. I for one am going to embrace “Legacy” network, and purchase any additional expansion unit for my environment from a drastically less expensive (enormously so compared to valuation of old units in the past) 2nd-hand used market. It isn’t ideal, but I’m personally not much interested in future voice integrations and the like which are clearly driving what’s coming for future “modern” software iterations. After considering all of this for several days now, this will make the future far more affordable (and perhaps more stable) for legacy users.

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A

Adam Smith The Invisible Hand

Lyricist III

This is too funny. From the November 20, 2019 letter to shareholders:

https://s22.q4cdn.com/672173472/files/doc_financials/2019/q4/FINAL-SONO-Q4-and-FY2019-Shareholder-Letter-11.20.19.pdf

...one of the things that sets us apart from any company we can think of - is that our existing households accounted for 37% of our new product registrations. That means 37% of the products registered in the year were from customers who were adding an additional Sonos product to their home. We also increased the average number of registered products per household from 2.8 to 2.9 in fiscal 2019. Together, this illustrates our continued ability to 1) acquire new Sonos customers and 2) convince our existing customers to continue to add to their system.

Who are the idiots running this company and why do they still have jobs? Turning your back on 37% of your market is extraordinarily stupid. I am seriously wondering how long it will take this brain trust to run this company into bankruptcy. Google and Amazon are going to have a field day with these rubes.

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E

eg1

Lyricist III

Unfortunately, I’ve endured this transition once before in the digital music world, having suffered through the slimdevices becomes Logitech Music debacle -- eventually the systems got left behind where streaming services are concerned (though still workable for local music collections). That’s how I ended up with Sonos in the first place.

If this goes as badly as that transition, lesson learned: do NOT invest in systems which integrate the software with the actual speakers -- at least then come what may the only parts that get bricked are the networking dongles, and you’ll still have functioning speakers to use with emergent software/network systems.

At least I am able to use my old Squeezeboxes as glorified clocks -- my Play5, Connect and collection of Play1s appear destined to become paperweights.

Of course, maybe the big brains at Sonos are having a “New Coke” moment and will realize that legacy hardware can be retained if they create a “Legacy Master” device that can be upgraded which simply streams bits to legacy “slave” units …

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T

techno_train

Lyricist I

If the storm (hopefully in a train cup) is ONLY about handling software updates and they can indeed work together after having been updated, I’m HAPPY again.

indeed.

If the announcement for withdrawing software support just means theres no new shiny features then thats fine. We already have a situation that newer units have truetune, alexa and airplay features but older ones don’t. If this divergence is just going to be coming more striking, then fine.

I don’t think users in general are too unreasonable. All we want is the app to keep controling the units and the units to keep pumping out the music (and talk radio!) . How difficult is it to keep the status quo with the legacy units? ...and crucially (and not mentioned anywhere by sonos) the App.

Hopefully its just a case of inept PR people in Sonos with little language ability or engineering knowledge, who could have termed the move as a “divergence” of ability of newer and legacy units , indicating that the fully seamless experience is ending, rather than “END of software support” which instead strongly indicates that the units are one step from being bricked in a few months.

Sonos is fond of making promo videos nowadays. Maybe this announcement could have been better communicated by a 1 minute video with simulations of how the app will work in the future for controling music and linking zones, show what will work, show where you will see a divergence.

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G

Goodbye Sonos

Enthusiast II

Here’s an extract from today’s Evening Standard:

Spence said the company is working on a way for customers to split these systems so the speakers still work together but receive the appropriate updates for each device.

This reiterates my earlier speculation from a BBC article that its the legacy units’ inability to handle greater memory requirement updates which necessitates creating two populations of Sonos units - legacy and modern. The ES article goes further by saying that the speakers still work together but receive the appropriate updates for each device.

If the storm (hopefully in a train cup) is ONLY about handling software updates and they can indeed work together after having been updated, I’m HAPPY again.

The speakers WILL NOT work together if you choose to update. See reply that I got via Twitter today.

Confirmation of what we’ve been saying all along.

If you have old and new speakers you cannot group them anymore - so lose the key function of the sonos system.

Only if you are interested in continuing down the path of future updates. I for one am going to embrace “Legacy” network, and purchase any additional expansion unit for my environment from a drastically (enormously so compared to valuation of old units in the past) 2nd-hand used market. It isn’t ideal, but I’m personally not much interested in future voice integrations and the like which are clearly driving what’s coming for future “modern” software iterations. After considering all of this for several days now, this will make the future far more affordable (and perhaps more stable) for legacy users.

Fair enough, and genuinely good luck to you - I hope no API’s (that you use) break for you I really do.

But I wasn’t sold Sonos on the basis that I cannot get updates if I want to use my old and new speakers in a group. For me having a mixture of old and new is where I am, and I was never warned or told this could or would happen. I will never buy another Sonos item again if this comes to pass, and I will actively dissuade my friends by explaining what happened to me. These are simple systems, not laptops or mobile phones all they do is stream audio - they should last longer than this, and the environmental impact of bricking them and putting them in landfill in return for a 30% discount is beyond appalling.

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