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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Christopher_19

Lyricist III

The worst part is that i bet Sonos already have a clear plan of what they are going to
They just won’t share it with us, because they know the backlash will be bad.They released this fluffy “lets se what we will do” to keep people guessing, while they cool down, and then they hope, that come may, everyone will have forgotten about this.

That’s a lot of heavy speculation on your part. It may be true but Occam’s Razor suggests that they probably don’t know for sure because they boned up with the initial announcement and probably had a roadmap dependent on that plan. Now they are scrambling to walk it back because they saw the fallout. Management has committed their developers to something and I expect they are now off trying to figure out how to implement it. That’s how it typically works in every company I’ve ever worked at.

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Obsoleted

Lyricist III

Naturally, we must go forward, but it has to be done in the right way. Sonos has created all of this confusion by not having a plan to announce to its customers. Now we have to wait weeks or months for clarity. That’s not good business practice as it stops most from buying more Sonos. Even on social media when Sonos release a tweet or instagram post, the negative response is not going to help them replace the pause in purchases by its current customer base.

Sonos have the data and my guess most are streaming music, listening to radio and NAS media servers. So just provide a box to allow these services to continue. A box that can be updated with the latest firmware etc. Many would buy it imho.

As someone mentioned earlier, have a discount to upgrade based on how many units and years you have been a customer. The longer you’ve been a customer, the higher the discount.

The issue isn’t technology progressing. It’s the haphazard way Sonos has communicated this with no plan and seemingly not thinking about their very loyal customers who have been their best brand ambassadors. It’s not rocket science.

Again I agree with some of the viewpoints mentioned here, but just as an example, someone who trades-up say a single play 5 (gen1) against one of the more expensive Sonos ‘speaker-sets' can save ‘almost’ $500 discount off that purchase and that seems to be rather a good saving to help ‘float the boat’ a little. I personally like the fact all customers are treated equally, both new and old, however that’s just a personal thing.

As an aside, I also recently saw mentioned by some long-term 'regular' users here in the community, that it’s perhaps time for a new playbar and/or PlayBase (or HT Center Speaker) from Sonos too, later this year… so I might keep my fingers crossed for those type of devices to show up, as I’m (perhaps) in the market for that type of device. (with 30% off..?).

Anyhow, I think Sonos could have chosen to put out the message in this way in order to ‘listen’ and gauge customer reaction and to study what their users truly want ...and to see how it fits in with their proposed action, or if they can maybe alter/adjust a few things perhaps to maybe able to suit the majority.

Yes, of course, I think Sonos underestimated the reaction, once the message spread, which was not helped by so much misinformation and lots of untruths spreading quickly online (accidentally, or in some cases, maliciously, perhaps?), but it does mean they have to now ‘sort the wheat from the chaff’ to then produce their chosen planned course of action. I think waiting until May is fair enough.. I’m sure there is a lot of work to do between 'now’ and 'then’.

Sadly, some people appear to be extremely impatient at the May-delay and from some posts I’ve read within the numerous threads here, seem to get themselves rather worked up over such issues. I prefer to not stress over such things and having music on around the place helps. My glass still remains 'half full’ on these matters. I’m fairly confident our Sonos system will continue to play here at home for a good many years still to come. I do plan to trade-up some legacy products and give some to the family and move forward with Sonos, with what I still think is a great audio system. (...but It’s each to their own, I guess).

It's a rather negative pov you have of your fellow customers.

TBH the misinformation I keep seeing posted is the Sonos surrogates such as yourself who pretend it's all no big deal.

It's rather tedious to keep seeing massive walls of text with one posters opinion on how it's no big deal to wait till May, it's no big deal cause you can spend 1k to trade up to a bundle, it's big deal cause I trust SONOS.

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Ken_Griffiths

It's a rather negative pov you have of your fellow customers.

TBH the misinformation I keep seeing posted is the Sonos surrogates such as yourself who pretend it's all no big deal.

It's rather tedious to keep seeing massive walls of text with one posters opinion on how it's no big deal to wait till May, it's no big deal cause you can spend 1k to trade up to a bundle, it's big deal cause I trust SONOS.

I guess such things must work both ways then, as I’ve also seen the ‘trolling’ misinformation you have spread about the community here too.

You appear to have seen/read a great deal of things, since you suddenly became a forum member here on the 3rd February 2020, most of your chat, in your 19 posts so far, has been about the Sonos devices being ‘obsoleted’, which clearly reflects too in your chosen username.

No mention of anything being 'obsoleted' in any of the Sonos announcements, well not in the way that you claim will happen in May, in fact it’s mostly all about keeping the devices running for as long as it is practicable to do so. You’re not fooling any of the regular members around here.

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Obsoleted

Lyricist III

It's a rather negative pov you have of your fellow customers.

TBH the misinformation I keep seeing posted is the Sonos surrogates such as yourself who pretend it's all no big deal.

It's rather tedious to keep seeing massive walls of text with one posters opinion on how it's no big deal to wait till May, it's no big deal cause you can spend 1k to trade up to a bundle, it's big deal cause I trust SONOS.

I guess such things must work both ways then, as I’ve also seen the ‘trolling’ misinformation you have spread about the community here too.

You appear to have seen/read a great deal of things, since you suddenly became a forum member here on the 3rd February 2020, most of your chat, in your 19 posts so far, has been about the Sonos devices being ‘obsoleted’, which clearly reflects too in your chosen username.

No mention of anything being 'obsoleted' in any of the Sonos announcements, well not in the way that you claim will happen in May, in fact it’s mostly all about keeping the devices running for as long as it is practicable to do so. You’re not fooling any of the regular members around here.

Hi Ken name calling and ghettoizing my length of time on the community is very small minded. I'm not going to take the bait.

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Smilja

@Obsoleted, do you actually own any Sonos gear? In other words – are you actually a customer?

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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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Obsoleted

Lyricist III

@Obsoleted, do you actually own any Sonos gear? In other words – are you actually a Sonos customer?

@Smilja

Sure do. Are we asking for proof? See attached screengrab Also not shown another connect Amp (obsoleted) and a new amp.

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G

Goodbye Sonos

Enthusiast II

@Obsoleted, do you actually own any Sonos gear? In other words – are you actually a Sonos customer?

Sure do. Are we asking for proof? See attached screengrab Also not shown another connect Amp (obsoleted) and a new amp.

Why on earth are you being asked to prove you are a Sonos customer - the world has gone mad!!

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Obsoleted

Lyricist III

They are upset I am complaining. I've been called a troll and asked for my bonafides

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G

Goodbye Sonos

Enthusiast II

They are upset I am complaining. I've been called a troll and asked for my bona fide

Bizarre

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Ken_Griffiths

@Obsoleted, do you actually own any Sonos gear? In other words – are you actually a Sonos customer?

@Smilja

Sure do. Are we asking for proof? See attached screengrab Also not shown another connect Amp (obsoleted) and a new amp.

My Sonos profile is similar too, in some respects, I have quite a few products and five legacy ones to deal with... I was going to say ‘to deal with come May 2020’ ...but even that would not be true, as I can make any decisions well after the date of any formal 'Sonos Announcement'. There’s no real rush to decide anything according to the actual text they have published so far. The legacy devices will apparently still keep on working as they do now for the foreseeable future … that could still easily be many years still to come, I think, but we will have to wait and see.

Although as mentioned earlier, I don’t like to standstill with technology and so I personally plan to do a mix of trade-up and give some of my devices to the family, to add to their mainly legacy systems. Still there is no rush to really do anything at this stage, nor in May ...and the choice to obsolete the two traded-up products, to get the discount vouchers, will be my own decision. I remain quietly confident that the devices handed to the family will continue working too, just as they do now for quite a few years still to come and only time will tell if that is the case and so I will just wait patiently and see.

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