Retired Sonos Staff

End of Software Support - Clarifications

Dec 8, 2022 11:29 AM UTC
4256 replies
270502 views
Translate All

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

This topic has been closed for further comments. You can use the search bar to find a similar topic, or create a new one by clicking Create Topic at the top of the page.

Show previous replies

U

user_end_of_lifed

Enthusiast II

Very disappointed with Sonos.

I understand that the hardware can't be supported forever and phone manufactures obsolete their hardware regularly, but the main issues I have with Sonos are

I feel this is a rather unhelpful comparison that you (and various others) have been drawing with phones. Mobile phones are probably THE iconic example of expensive hardware that consumers are expected to replace regularly - virtually nothing else we buy of that price bracket gets that treatment, and its worth noting that this is starting to slow down in the phone market too, with consumers moving to 3 year cycles instead of 2 these days.

By arguing why Sonos shouldn’t treat these speakers like mobile phones you’re entertaining the idea that that is a sensible comparison in the first place. How about Sonos persuade us why their product deserves to be replaced more often than hifi audio gear, or TV/home theatre kit to start with and we’ll work up from there.

Translate

D

debbie_113

Lyricist II

This is something I quoted in an email to Patrick Spence -

“Futureproof
Designed with tomorrow in mind, the speaker combines sleek looks with agile internal sensors and ongoing software updates. This ensures that you always have the most future-proofed audio solution, even as you grow your system over time.”

Above is on John Lewis’ product description for a Gen 2 Play:5 - I’m sure it would’ve been the same 2 years ago for a Gen 1 version...

Translate

D

debbie_113

Lyricist II

I bought my Connect:Amp in November 2017, so I expect you will update the software for 5 years from then.

Bought My Play:5 gen 1 in Jan 2018 - not updated (or whatever) after May 2020...

You should complain to John Lewis, where I recall you bought it given that Sonos stopped selllng the gen 1 3 years before that

Think I might….

Translate

U

user_end_of_lifed

Enthusiast II

Sonos speakers are not just speakers. They are essentially computers, and computers that need to constantly communicate with each other.

That’s a thing that computers all do, John. For reference please see the Internet.

Asking for a 25 year lifetime for a bit of traditional hifi equipment is reasonable. Asking for it from a multiroom wirelese audio system is stupidity and ignorance of the highest degree.

Ok, explain why. Produce one logical argument why a play 5 is going to lose the ability to be grouped with a play 1, especially given that Sonos control the protocol in use.

Translate

W

Wkelkel

Enthusiast II

Of course they can keep them functioning

It's just a money grab, no doubt about it.

Translate

I

IJN

Renowned Enthusiast I

Sonos speakers are not just speakers. They are essentially computers, and computers that need to constantly communicate with each other. Asking for a 25 year lifetime for a bit of traditional hifi equipment is reasonable. Asking for it from a multiroom wirelese audio system is stupidity and ignorance of the highest degree. And therefore consistent with much of the outrage on the ridiculous thread.

One bites ones tonge

Can’t bite mine! Many like me have huge investment (22 players across four houses, a mix of legacy snd modern). The Sonos sales pitch was the experience would only grow and get better over time with software updates. No one on here expects old units to handle some of the new features (eg as was the case with Airplay2; voice control) which may be coming (DTS? high-res? etc) but we DO expect continued functionality, including whole home grouping, at the levels previously enjoyed.

Translate

W

Wkelkel

Enthusiast II

Yep spot on

Makes you wonder what people are thinking when defending this mess.

Translate

J

John B

Sonos speakers are not just speakers. They are essentially computers, and computers that need to constantly communicate with each other.

That’s a thing that computers all do, John. For reference please see the Internet.

Asking for a 25 year lifetime for a bit of traditional hifi equipment is reasonable. Asking for it from a multiroom wirelese audio system is stupidity and ignorance of the highest degree.

Ok, explain why. Produce one logical argument why a play 5 is going to lose the ability to be grouped with a play 1, especially given that Sonos control the protocol in use.

Well, they will be able to if they stay on tbe same software. And we don't know for sure what the final outcome will be on legacy vs modern. But let's assume it won't be possible.

Sonos is an integrated system that has always relied on common software. Geouped speakers need to be able to perform identical tasks. Either speaker has to be able to act as 'group co-ordinator', running the show for the group.

Now, I find it entirely plausible that the more the system has to do, the more likely it is that a player with a paltry 32MB of memory cannot keep up. That seems far more likely than the cynical view on here that Sonos are making all this up and are just profiteering. You are free to believe otherwise.

Translate

F

Fobskid

Enthusiast I

You can fool some of the people some of the time

But you can't fool all of the people all of the time

Sonos management take note …..

Translate

P

PeteD

Enthusiast I

Sonos speakers are not just speakers. They are essentially computers, and computers that need to constantly communicate with each other.

That’s a thing that computers all do, John. For reference please see the Internet.

Asking for a 25 year lifetime for a bit of traditional hifi equipment is reasonable. Asking for it from a multiroom wirelese audio system is stupidity and ignorance of the highest degree.

Ok, explain why. Produce one logical argument why a play 5 is going to lose the ability to be grouped with a play 1, especially given that Sonos control the protocol in use.

Well, they will be able to if they stay on tbe same software. And we don't know for sure what the final outcome will be on legacy vs modern. But let's assume it won't be possible.

Sonos is an integrated system that has always relied on common software. Geouped speakers need to be able to perform identical tasks. Either speaker has to be able to act as 'group co-ordinator', running the show for the group.

Now, I find it entirely plausible that the more the system has to do, the more likely it is that a player with a paltry 32MB of memory cannot keep up. That seems far more likely than the cynical view on here that Sonos are making all this up and are just profiteering. You are free to believe otherwise.

Why should the system have to do more? I think 99% of the contributors to this discussion just want it to carry on doing the same. And grouped speakers don’t need to be able to perform identical tasks. Why shouldn’t I be able to group a speaker which takes voice commands (not that I actually care about having that facility, but that’s another matter) with one that doesn’t?

Translate

Show more replies

Sign up

Login to the community