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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melvimbe

No, it isn’t a dumb speaker - it’s a dumb speaker with amplification and a smart “dongle” built in. What has changed my view is that I should be able to count on hifi longevity for the 2 most expensive parts of that trinity. The smart part is very cheap, in comparison, as we’ve seen from all the streaming devices that abound these days.

Separate components (speaker, amp, and smarts) is a sold strategy in my opinion. My only comment is that I don’t think you can qualify the smart part as exactly cheap. I say this because Amazon and Google have come out with cheap smart speakers that they sell for very little if any profit juts to get you in the ecosystem. Other companies that don’t have big tech status can’t easily replicate that, unless they sell hardware with fully Amazon or Google software in it. It’s also worth pointing out that such cheap devices have more limited streaming and multi room capabilities, which might be just fine depending on your needs.

It now makes no sense to me to cripple, from the very beginning, the bulk of the unit with something I could easily replace in a different setup.

Depending on what features you need, yes you can replace with a different setup.

I also balk at the outright waste that the fully integrated solution entails. I admit that I haven’t looked into alternatives yet, because I don’t need to, but I imagine that the other solutions integrate well into home automation too - I have lightwaverf, hive, smartlife, arlo, and a wifi hot tub - and they all play nicely even if I have to “resort” to using IFTTT.

As an aside I find that Sonos doesn’t integrate well into voice control! I have Google Nest hubs and I always have to append “on Sonos Play 5” (or whatever) to any request because the Sonos/Google don’t work well enough together to default the music to a Sonos in the same room as the hub. Not saying it’s a Sonos issue, it may be Google/both - but it's an annoyance that means I don’t use voice much.

That’s something that was an issue on the Alexa side until Amazon created Alexa groups and fixed the issue. Perhaps that will change on the Google side, perhaps not. Besides being already used to Alexa, that missing feature also kept me from switching over to Google.

And with respect to the 5 year thing, I was pretty clear with my capitalised “MAY” that I was not saying they last 5 years, but that is all you can absolutely count on.

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Danny

J

JohnG666

Enthusiast II

I need to ask a question about a particular scenario and I don’t want to have to read through thousands of posts to see if it’s already been answered so apologies if it has :)

I’ve traded up one of my products and this means that I can turn off all my ‘ End of software updates’ products at any time.

But what happens if I have them all off and when the cut-off date arrives and I get the latest software, does this mean that I won’t be able to turn the old products back on again in order to do a trade-up? I probably won’t decide on trading the others up at the moment as I have to sort finances out but I may be looking to do so later.

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John B

Why not just keep everything going as a legacy system in May? It isn't a 'one off forever' decision. Only upgrade if and when something vital to you stops working or a must have feature comes along, That might be one month or five years or whatever.

Why would you turn your other speakers off?

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melvimbe

I need to ask a question about a particular scenario and I don’t want to have to read through thousands of posts to see if it’s already been answered so apologies if it has :)

I’ve traded up one of my products and this means that I can turn off all my ‘ End of software updates’ products at any time.

I’m not sure what you’re trying to say here. You traded up one of your products. Do you have any other legacy products, that are also eligible for trade up?

But what happens if I have them all off and when the cut-off date arrives and I get the latest software, does this mean that I won’t be able to turn the old products back on again in order to do a trade-up?

So you do have additional legacy products? If you, I would make sure they are plugged in and up to date. Your system won’t update beyond the legacy version if you have legacy products in your system. It is still unknown though if legacy products registered to you will also block updates.

As far as the trade up program goes. the products do need to be on and in your system in order to complete the trade in process. If you have them and just aren’t using them anymore, I would either keep them plugged in out of the way or just go ahead and do the trade in. You don’t have to buy a replacement product within any time frame after trade in.

I probably won’t decide on trading the others up at the moment as I have to sort finances out but I may be looking to do so later.

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Danny

J

JohnG666

Enthusiast II

Yes I still have 2x ZP90s and 1x ZP120 that I haven’t traded yet.

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John B

But what is it you are trying to achieve? What problem are you trying to solve? Why not just use your whole system post-May for a while, until such time as you really need to do anything, which might be years away? Why have you upgraded one device?

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sm75382

Enthusiast II

here is apples clearly defined policy on their product support - 5-7years after last sold 'vintage' - 7+ years 'obsolete' they also tell you how much 'memory' each product has so you can make an informed purchase decision.

https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT201624

i have a mid 2010 macpro which i still use today with no issues.

but i know i cant do airdrop or ask siri how to boil a cabbage - modern features i can live without.

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John B

Yes but you don't need your current iPhone to work cooperatively and in sync with your previous three iPhones, do you?

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rldigby

Lyricist III

@MIBUK, it would take years to develop and test such a “box”. It’s not coming.

They could do this very quickly for the Connect”amp and the play5. All they need to do is take the electronic guts from a current play1 and put it into a small package like an echo dot with line out. It does not even need speakers. This would keep those two legacy devices going for years. If they sold it at a very low margin, they could even win back some of the people who have said “never buying Sonos again.”

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DK_Madsen

Enthusiast II

But what is it you are trying to achieve? What problem are you trying to solve? Why not just use your whole system post-May for a while, until such time as you really need to do anything, which might be years away? Why have you upgraded one device?

Have you seen any guarantee from Sonos, that they are going to keep honoring the 30% upgrade discount ?

Can i be sure that if i wait until May, that i will get that discount….And what about if i wait until something “breaks” for legacy devices...For example if Spotify changes something ?

Am i guaranteed that i can trade it in at that time.

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