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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Bruno Santos

Trending Lyricist I

Sonos, it is very disappointing!

suddenly forcing the system obsolescence will raise the simple concern: The list of “legacy” units can easily change in a short term.

With this, the appeal to have an experience with multi room units will die. Any customer when purchasing a new unit, instead of looking what fits better for their needs (playbar, sub, a small speaker, a large speaker?) will be “forced” to look for the new one (like a phone).
who is gonna pay for the playbar or the sub right now? Old models will always be a gamble.

And remembering that there are no price reduction each year (like phones), it is for me a no brainer decision.

Take the new one if you really want it and forget about adding units.
Have only one unit, like a phone. So, why should any customer buy an expensive Sonos unit to suddenly become obsolete and not be able to group it??

I have 2 connect:amp (legacy), 1 play 5 (legacy) , 1 bridge (legacy).

additionally I have 1 play3 (not available anymore for purchase), 1 Play one (still “ok”) and finally 1 beam and a playbar (old model, but still available).

If Sonos go ahead to end updates on legacy products (what will probably not allow me to connect them with the “no legacy units” and probably will quickly avoid me of playing from a music service) , I will not wait till my play3 to become the next “legacy” unit to start looking for other products.

Sadly, I bought the beam and the playbar to match them with my other units, including the ones that are now “legacy”
There is no meaning in creating a “system”, a music ”environment” / “experience” that will last for 5 years (maybe little more if you have lucky) at that cost!

Instead of creating new experience with new units to encourage customers to upgrade the system... In the other hand, Sonos is choosing the path to make the experience worst as possible ... in fact ending the experience of those who are longtime customers.

As I said, there is no meaning for me in having a system that does not connect (group) to each other and do not access streaming services. If the idea is to be more like an cellphone, start reducing prices each year as the unit will not last long.

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laudi

Lyricist III

Like, a home bridge unit to connect everything and a simple home controller to control everything.

Trademark.

But those hardware items are legacy, obsolete and out of production now, right?

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M

MrSwadge

Enthusiast I

Oopphh, Sonos!!! I’m techy but not an engineer. Soooo pissed that this serves as public disclosure.

Build and sell $25 module that bridges Legacy and Modern. Use speaker ethernet port to talk to module. Module is upgradeable, handles WiFi, making Legacy speakers/hardware dumber.

Honor customers, preserve their investment and your company. Somebody other than Sonos will do this if you don’t first.

They could do it on a raspberry pi. I don't know the full details of how Sonos protocols, but you just need something to send the protocols out in two formats, it's just translation of a common source into two streams. Getting it synced up might be a challenge, but it's not insurmountable and actually I think it's entirely possible.

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NO MORE SONOS

Trending Lyricist I

Hey there John B - the founder of SONOS (the one who built the company up to what it is) is no longer with the company. The new CEO behind this policy also (i) revised the privacy policy so if i didn’t agree to share my data my system would be bricked, and (ii) bricked the first SONOS controller that came out (and then settled a class action lawsuit that came from it). So, I would say SONOS’s current CEO doesn’t know jack s*** about what his customers want in multiroom audio. All he is trying to do is to turn a speaker system (some of which are physically built into a home) and turn it into a disposable product.

If SONOS wants to build “computers” then just build the computer part and allow me to plug whatever speaker I want into it.

I dont believe this is true, there was a point where we had to create an account but there was an option to opt out of personal data collection.

There is a minimal amount of 'anonymous' data sent back. I can't think of anything that connects to the internet that doesnt do this.

This just shows the recycle mode was another bad decision, now theres much hyperbole about Sonos bricking their equipment.

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#BoycottSonos

B

ballantony

Contributor I

Ah! I’ve just realised! That’s why Sonos introduced the Play One SL! So they could discontinue the Play 1 with its lower memory and therefore drop support for it in five years time.

Feel like I should have spotted that sooner. This is a much more cynical move than I thought, they’re going for the really old hardware first because they thought that would generate fewer complaints. They’re boiling a frog.

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amun

The system needs to do what it has to do. We all have features we want and don't want. This really isn't about evidence. It seems overwhelmingly likely to me that this is about technical limitations. That a certain amount of conmon capability is needed. To others it looks like a money grab. Although in the same breath they say Sonos are committing commercial suicide.

So believe what you like.

I dont expect the old speakers to stream flac…..

They have done for years…. I’ve never used anything else...

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M

macallan18

Enthusiast I

The system needs to do what it has to do. We all have features we want and don't want. This really isn't about evidence. It seems overwhelmingly likely to me that this is about technical limitations. That a certain amount of conmon capability is needed. To others it looks like a money grab. Although in the same breath they say Sonos are committing commercial suicide.

So believe what you like.

I dont expect the old speakers to stream flac…..

They have done for years…. I’ve never used anything else...

What bitrate?

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A

amun

The system needs to do what it has to do. We all have features we want and don't want. This really isn't about evidence. It seems overwhelmingly likely to me that this is about technical limitations. That a certain amount of conmon capability is needed. To others it looks like a money grab. Although in the same breath they say Sonos are committing commercial suicide.

So believe what you like.

I dont expect the old speakers to stream flac…..

They have done for years…. I’ve never used anything else...

What bitrate?

CD quality...

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M

macallan18

Enthusiast I

The system needs to do what it has to do. We all have features we want and don't want. This really isn't about evidence. It seems overwhelmingly likely to me that this is about technical limitations. That a certain amount of conmon capability is needed. To others it looks like a money grab. Although in the same breath they say Sonos are committing commercial suicide.

So believe what you like.

I dont expect the old speakers to stream flac…..

They have done for years…. I’ve never used anything else...

What bitrate?

CD quality...

My issues were with higher than CD quality flac rips, particularly with multi rooms running at the same time. Anyway glad it is working well for you.

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Rob NYC1

Enthusiast II

Hey there John B - the founder of SONOS (the one who built the company up to what it is) is no longer with the company. The new CEO behind this policy also (i) revised the privacy policy so if i didn’t agree to share my data my system would be bricked, and (ii) bricked the first SONOS controller that came out (and then settled a class action lawsuit that came from it). So, I would say SONOS’s current CEO doesn’t know jack s*** about what his customers want in multiroom audio. All he is trying to do is to turn a speaker system (some of which are physically built into a home) and turn it into a disposable product.

If SONOS wants to build “computers” then just build the computer part and allow me to plug whatever speaker I want into it.

I dont believe this is true, there was a point where we had to create an account but there was an option to opt out of personal data collection.

There is a minimal amount of 'anonymous' data sent back. I can't think of anything that connects to the internet that doesnt do this.

This just shows the recycle mode was another bad decision, now theres much hyperbole about Sonos bricking their equipment.

But, honestly, if Sonos just said “you can keep old and new products working together in the same group but from hereonout, here’s a list of stuff that won’t work on systems that mix old and new… “ I would have been fine and I suspect most other people would have been fine too.

There’s someone suing about the 2017 privacy policy change in Europe. Here’s a link to the article. The Privacy Policy changes were the same in the US as Europe but… I’m not sure American’s have a right to sue for this type of stuff. In any event, https://www.theregister.co.uk/2019/04/10/sonos_privacy_complaint_ico/

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