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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gary233932

Lyricist I

This is a real shame I was about to buy 2/3 new Sonos apps,. I have 3 Sonos one's around the house and was going to upgrade my real audio kit to Sonos but I'm now having a re think. This come after Sonos acquired voice assistant startup Snips. I was using this for my home automation but Sonos shut it down. Sonos what has happened to you if you keep this up Sonos will be no more you are aleanating people you need to keep ......

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Kumar

At this point I feel like someone from Sonos should start to myth bust this thread. It’s out of control and there’s so much not known. They’ve done a terrible job of explaining what’s happening to everyone’s system and been so vague. I don’t have the time to trawl through hundreds of pages! Given how badly this has been handled, it’d be good to have another update. Clearly they haven’t heard us or they would make it easier on us and themselves to provide some more info!!

@ledbyexample :A strange coincidence that this is very close to what I have said in the most recent post in my thread - different words, that’s all.

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ledbyexample

Enthusiast I

At this point I feel like someone from Sonos should start to myth bust this thread. It’s out of control and there’s so much not known. They’ve done a terrible job of explaining what’s happening to everyone’s system and been so vague. I don’t have the time to trawl through hundreds of pages! Given how badly this has been handled, it’d be good to have another update. Clearly they haven’t heard us or they would make it easier on us and themselves to provide some more info!!

@ledbyexample :A strange coincidence that this is very close to what I have said in the most recent post in my thread - different words, that’s all.

Haven’t got to the end of your thread yet!! Ha ha

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Guy_19

Enthusiast II

Frustrated by Sonos Support - that’s the 2nd reply to my email where they just paste in boilerplate flannel instead of answering direct questions. Basic customer service skills lacking.

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7 rooms: One SL Stereo Pair, One SL x 2, Move, Play:5 Gen2 & Port into Arcam AVR with AE floorstanders, Port into Denon microsystem.

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MikeOinToronto

Lyricist III

A friend of mine was out looking at soundbars last night. Knowing I was a huge sonos fan in the past he commented on how much he liked the sound of the playbar. Of course I suggested he look elsewhere now.

The real issue that surprised him is that Bestbuy sells both the Beam at $500 CDN and the Playbar at $900 as current products. He much preferred the sound of the playbar (he is an audiophile so sound quality is the most important thing), and has no issue with paying extra for the Playbar because it sounds much better to him. So I looked online at a chart regarding the ram in both units and the playbar seems to only have 128 mb of ram and the Beam has 1 gb. Knowing that the last round of cuts to the modern products were apparently based on low ram, how can your current top of the line sound bar have one tenth ram of your lesser sound bar. Of course a customer would not know this issue without digging very deeply as sonos is not advertised as a computer where all the specs are laid out right in front of us. When you buy a new pc, ram and cpu speed dictate cost but not in this case.

If you posted the specs at the best buy display beside each what customer in their right mind would pay more for a tech solution with one tenth the ram of their lesser product.

In the past no-one looked at specs because your business model meant no-one had to. Now they do. My friend is now looking at dumb soundbars not smart ones.

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attacama40

Headliner I

At this point I feel like someone from Sonos should start to myth bust this thread. It’s out of control and there’s so much not known. They’ve done a terrible job of explaining what’s happening to everyone’s system and been so vague. I don’t have the time to trawl through hundreds of pages! Given how badly this has been handled, it’d be good to have another update. Clearly they haven’t heard us or they would make it easier on us and themselves to provide some more info!!

@ledbyexample :A strange coincidence that this is very close to what I have said in the most recent post in my thread - different words, that’s all.

Is why to keep asking for a statement of intention or a road-map every few days.

We can pontificate all we like and it’s interesting. But the more we tech spiral and spar, the more the real clarity is avoided.

Rather than just metaphorically kill this Spencer’s guy’s words, I prefer read the content written by Ryan S. And in a way that puts too much pressure on a foot soldier (no disrespect intended Ryan, I appreciate the comms)

It is absolutely vital at this point for there to be a management statement … not a holding PR message, you can fool folks by agreeing with them for only so long.

Now it’s substance time … a clear statement.

This is Marketing 101 … no cleverness, no nuances, just time for some solid ‘what it is’ and ‘what it isn’t’ time.

Sonos …. ‘do as say and say as you do’!

Then folks can vote with their feet or their wallets.

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melvimbe

For those asking for clarity, it’s worth considering that Sonos likely doesn’t have the clear answers you’re hoping for right now. The original annoucement was that legacy products would no longer receiving any updates, bug fixes, or security patches. That changed in a matter of 48 hours to be no updates, but would get bug fixes and security patches. I seriously doubt Sonos has decided exactly how that’s going to be done, as well as other related functionality. Personally, I don’t want Sonos to announce anything new about this event until there is no chance that it could change again.

I get that people want answers to all their questions now, and that these answers are going to effect their financial decisions going forward. It seems best to just wait. May will come around soon enough, and even then you don’t have to make any changes to your system right away. There likely won’t be any functional updates for at least a month after the May update, and there is no reason you can’t skip that update (or a few after that) till you know exactly how you want to proceed.

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Danny

Smilja

Come May, Sonos systems with at least one ‘legacy device’ won’t be able to upgrade to a newer firmware version anyway, unless the system has been split into a ‘modern setup’ and a ‘legacy setup’.

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»And the world is like an apple whirling silently in space, Like the circles that you find in the windmills of your mind.« (›Windmills Of Your Mind‹ [1967]. Music by Michel Legrand ; English lyrics written by Alan & Marilyn Bergman)

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Kumar

If you posted the specs at the best buy display beside each what customer in their right mind would pay more for a tech solution with one tenth the ram of their lesser product.

Sonos stood out for not listing specs for their speakers; rightly so because the usual ones from the world of HiFi kit are irrelevant to Sonos speaker selection.

Are you saying that Sonos should now list the memory size as a spec item? And even if they did, the typical customer would be able to figure out how to make sense of this spec?

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MikeOinToronto

Lyricist III

If you posted the specs at the best buy display beside each what customer in their right mind would pay more for a tech solution with one tenth the ram of their lesser product.

Sonos stood out for not listing specs for their speakers; rightly so because the usual ones from the world of HiFi kit are irrelevant to Sonos speaker selection.

Are you saying that Sonos should now list the memory size as a spec item? And even if they did, the typical customer would be able to figure out how to make sense of this spec?

Not suggesting they should. I would prefer they go back to a model of longevity where it wouldn't matter. But if they are going to go to shorter lifespans and use ram and processing power to determine which products become obsolete, then the fact that the top of the line playbar has one tenth the ram of the lower priced beam is very important. Again, two weeks ago i wouldnt have worried about this and would have just happily recommended my friend buy the playbar. I can no longer do that.

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