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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chickentender

I was angry, very angry … but if they can come up with a solution which enables all speakers, old and new, to work seamlessly with features extant today, and new features possibly being restricted to modern units, then I'm happy once more….Refer to earlier posts where I’ve picked up glimmers of such hope in media (BBC/Evening Standard/ Slashgear)

There are a few posts on here who can also see this through the fog of hysteria, which to my eyes might be lifting (slightly) and hope these thoughts are picked up by Ryan S and reported back ….

It's not happening. New units once updated will not be able to synchronise with legacy units. As soon as only the latest software will work with spotify etc, legacy units are landfill.

Sonos could choose to implement software that will allow newer units to be a master to legacy units and keep them all part of one environment. Or they could develop a control box to sit on the network and do this.

The truth is they dont want to, it's far easier to cut loose the "legacy" hardware and hope people will upgrade. If you are sat on £3k worth of connect amps, tough. Sonos dont want to know. They are moving to a 5 year premium subscription model for their hardware and that's it.

The solution is far easier for all of us with mixed environments as well, and that is to cut loose Sonos and not upgrade…. Embrace the legacy network environment and continue listening to music without investing further. If you’d like a new speaker, buy a 2nd hand legacy one - it’ll be cheap. If a streaming service stops working, move to another (they come and go anyhow and they’re largely the same), or buy another brand’s streaming box to feed a legacy Sonos Connect…. or even a smart TV app feeding a Connect or Playbar etc.
There are still many options for conceivably many years, and none of them need to involve either purchasing another Sonos speaker if you don’t want to (and you wouldn’t be blamed), or selling it all off and starting with something else. Stay the legacy course.

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robinm0

Enthusiast I

I have left a review of the Beam on Amazon; one which, I hope, damns with faint praise rather than just condemning Sonos outright. The products are still very good; it is the company’s philosophy that has turned sour.

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Cchris

Enthusiast II

Since this announcement a few days ago the share price has dropped 6.5%.

Thats a billion dollars wiped off the company value. A fair few “trade ups” would need to be sold to recover that.

Hows about just going back to plan A and not treating your existing customer base like a cash cow adn expecting them to just suck it up that their home sound system which has been added to over the years is about to get ripped apart.

Good thing Nicholas Millington, Chief Product Officer, sold 30% of his shares on January 2nd for $500,000.00 before the share price started going down. Shrewd trader that Nicholas :wink: .

http://d18rn0p25nwr6d.cloudfront.net/CIK-0001314727/5e4c0a01-abfa-4ea8-bf30-6a97f31fb24d.pdf

It’s probably already been asked, but isn’t that type of activity illegal? Knowing sh1t is about to happen and offloading your stock before the market knows??

Yes, it very much is. If you are aware of information that is likely to have a significant impact on share price, and act upon that information before it is made public, it is insider trading. Which is certainly illegal.

Sonos IPO didn’t crater , but …

The $2 billion valuation is far short of the $2.5 to $3 billion valuation that analysts expected before the IPO.

The tempered enthusiasm is based on fears that Sonos will struggle to compete as a single device manufacturer.

But stock market values are not only determined by the separation of Sonos units into modern and legacy categories - think world economic outlooks; US/ China tariffs; competitor actions; failure to meet pre IPO forecasts for a whole host of reasons…

But, the share price has taken a sizeable knock in the last couple of days but not to the degree implied above..

Its dropped 6.4% in the past few days, with a market cap of 1.54bn, its dropped around $100m

It's now dropped around half a billion from the IPO.

Competition aside, sonos alienating their existing customer base, which in their own words account for over a third of current sales is not going to sit well with investors.

Unless there is a rapid change of direction, this is going to run.

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Cchris

Enthusiast II

Then, each feature that is supported has capabilities that it requires. It is simply then a matter of matching capabilities when a feature is executed.

For example
Play:5 Gen1, Capabilities: A, B, C

Play:5 Gen2, Capabilities: A, B, C, D, E

If I want to execute feature "D" (maybe Atmos?), then the app only shows "D" as the speaker that can be used. If I want to say, just listen to music off a network drive ("A"), then both are enabled for use (in the 'grouping' function).

Exactly

A = My Music Library - YES

B = Spotify - YES;

C = TuneIn Radio - YES

All I have ever used an needed - across all rooms

As to the newer features

D - Voice Control by Applazonagoogle -Siralexablahblah Nope

E - Home Automation to turn off my smart lights when I press play - Nope

F - IFTTT Integration so when I ring the doorbell music starts - Nope

G - Etc Etc Etc Nope

The Connect goes to a 30+ year old hand-built amp, and 20 year old high-end speakers - all of which show no signs of forced obsolescence.

Sounds like you just need legacy mode. It’s people who want both that are screwed.

Until streaming service only works with the latest sonos api, then every legacy piece of hardware is junked

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Irrigant

Lyricist II

Then, each feature that is supported has capabilities that it requires. It is simply then a matter of matching capabilities when a feature is executed.

For example
Play:5 Gen1, Capabilities: A, B, C

Play:5 Gen2, Capabilities: A, B, C, D, E

If I want to execute feature "D" (maybe Atmos?), then the app only shows "D" as the speaker that can be used. If I want to say, just listen to music off a network drive ("A"), then both are enabled for use (in the 'grouping' function).

Exactly

A = My Music Library - YES

B = Spotify - YES;

C = TuneIn Radio - YES

All I have ever used an needed - across all rooms

As to the newer features

D - Voice Control by Applazonagoogle -Siralexablahblah Nope

E - Home Automation to turn off my smart lights when I press play - Nope

F - IFTTT Integration so when I ring the doorbell music starts - Nope

G - Etc Etc Etc Nope

The Connect goes to a 30+ year old hand-built amp, and 20 year old high-end speakers - all of which show no signs of forced obsolescence.

Sounds like you just need legacy mode. It’s people who want both that are screwed.

Until streaming service only works with the latest sonos api, then every legacy piece of hardware is junked

The Doorbell thingie sounds neat.. The best would be if it turns on the Propane on the stove also before music starts ;)

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attacama40

Headliner I

Roon can send to Sonos speakers. $ 119/ year and it is suggested it can send to legacy and new, basically making a single network out of the split network. It needs to be seen whether that is the case but if it is then all the Sonos stuff remains working. IF it is the case then it may be a working solution.
It is used by a lot of genuine “high end”audio streaming manufacturers so is not fly by night and has had high reviews by reputable Audio magazines.

If Sonos does what it says right now and divides the system into Legacy and Modern, with no posibility to sync between the 2 groups and says that it does so, because it is not possible to do it otherwise, and ROON then has a product that enables this functionality anyway, how bad is SONOS gonna look then.

Basically Sonos would have to say “We can’t do it, but ROON can” on SONOS hardware.

The backlash would be even bigger then.

Was going to do the garden today but I think a day reading up on ROON sounds like time better spent.

If it does what folks are saying then £119 a year is no big deal. Ironically I’d have paid that to Sonos for a full solution had they made it an option.

Can the answer really be so simple?

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PeteD

Enthusiast I

Appreciate the apology, but the Exec Team at Sonos need to give very careful thought to their next step….

MY HOME SYSTEM MUST NOT BE SPLIT AND MY OLD SPEAKERS MUST KEEP PLAYING MUSIC

This is not like buying a mobile phone where it is OK to replace every few years - many like me have invested £1000’s - I will not risk any future investment if I can not be sure my very expensive speakers will keep working

You are right, it's not like buying a mobile phone. Three years ago I bought a Ssmsung Galaxy phone for around £650. I bought a Play:5 gen 2 for £499 around same time. The phone might last me another year, maybe 2. The Play:5 will be fully supported until 5 years after Sonos stop selling it. I would guess that will give me 10 years use, fully supported . Thank God that buying a Sonos is not like buying a phone.

Except you didn’t buy half a dozen or more ‘phones, and you expect them to do a lot more than just making a ‘phone call. You expect them to keep up with new apps, gaming, providing better and better lenses or whatever and it’s not unreasonable to need to upgrade to keep up with the latest technology. All most of us want our Sonos units to do is to carry on providing the basic functionality we bought them for, and that is the fundamental difference. And we have no guarantee of 10 years support - many much younger units will lose the functionality we bought them for after much less time than that.

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Samsonite71

Lyricist III

Probably one of the worst decisions/communications I have seen a company do. With just minimal effort you could foresee the backlash from a decision like this. Either the CEO just could not be bothered being involved in the communication upfront or he was not smart enough to understand the consequences of something like this.

It will piss people off, many people buy Sonos know they have a decent second hand value and base their purchase on that, you basically robbed everyone who has the old stuff. You could not give a shit about sustainability and think it is a great idea to throw away fully functional speakers because you want to up-sell. You create uncertainty for EVERYONE that buys a new product that you might brick it or not continue to evolve it in the near future. Sonos, you completely lost it to be honest and I have gone from once being a Sonos fanatic to really just feel you are a shitty company that deserves to be replaced by more humble and supportive companies.

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SkynyrdOX

Lyricist II

Hi all, like you I was very disappointed to receive the news on legacy. I have 8 different pieces of Sonos kit, 5 of which will become legacy. I had assumed both my connect amps would but from the answer below only one of them will be. More interesting is the reply I received when I asked about how I could continue to use my legacy kit bearing in mind I have no interest what so ever in Alexa or any of that guff. I do have a Beam but Alexa was turned straight off. I only use it for TV anyway.

Please read below regarding setting up 2 households. The chap also confirmed that you would not be able to sync the 2 together. I have since asked the question regarding controllers ie do I have 2 desktop controllers or could I swap between the 2 households on one controller. I await a reply on that.

From Sonos

The difference between the two connect amps that you have is the manufacture date.

The serial number ######### was manufactured in 2015-08-25 while the other serial number ######## was made back in 2008-05-30.

The older products (Legacy products) will no longer receive software updates but can still be used business as usual if you have 2 household IDs to seperate the old from the new.

To set up a new household:

- Factory Reset one of the speakers representing either the legacy or the new so that you can go through a brand new setup process.

- Set up the speaker as a new system instead of connecting to existing system (Use a different email address to register new system).

-Use the relevant email when switching listening from old to new households.

Your reference number for this inquiry is #########

Don’t hesitate to contact us if you have any further questions.

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Jennis

Lyricist II

Appreciate the apology, but the Exec Team at Sonos need to give very careful thought to their next step….

MY HOME SYSTEM MUST NOT BE SPLIT AND MY OLD SPEAKERS MUST KEEP PLAYING MUSIC

This is not like buying a mobile phone where it is OK to replace every few years - many like me have invested £1000’s - I will not risk any future investment if I can not be sure my very expensive speakers will keep working

You are right, it's not like buying a mobile phone. Three years ago I bought a Ssmsung Galaxy phone for around £650. I bought a Play:5 gen 2 for £499 around same time. The phone might last me another year, maybe 2. The Play:5 will be fully supported until 5 years after Sonos stop selling it. I would guess that will give me 10 years use, fully supported . Thank God that buying a Sonos is not like buying a phone.

You only tend to own one mobile phone, so that model works.

Many people have many SONOS speakers all over the house that cost multiple £1,000s - to replace all speakers every 5 years does not work.

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The $2 billion valuation is far short of the $2.5 to $3 billion valuation that analysts expected before the IPO.

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