Skip to main content
Ryan S
Ryan S
Retired Sonos Staff
January 22, 2020

End of Software Support - Clarifications

  • December 8, 2022 at 11:29 AM
  • 4256 replies
  • 270051 views
  • Translate All
End of Software Support - Clarifications

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.

    4256 replies

    Show previous replies
    MadAtSonosAsWell
    Lyricist I
    January 23, 2020

    You’ve got to be kidding me!!!! I haven’t spent as much as some of the others in this post on legacy products. However, I will lose half of my system due to this reckless greedy position you are taking. If you don’t change your tune on this soon. eBay will be getting my Sonos speakers and Heios will be getting my future thousands I’ve been planning to spend on future upgrades. 
     

    Wasteful. Greedy. Thoughtless. Annoying. Mean. Greedy. Wasteful. Environmentally thoughtless. Horrible PR move. Oh, and down right mean. 

    I am not pleased with this move and not pleased with your company. Own up. Take some responsibility for a bad call and figure it out. This is unacceptable. Oh, and just mean. I’m mad at you Sonos. Really mad.

    Translate
      rAndison
      Enthusiast I
      January 23, 2020

      Does anyone know how long other streaming devices will be supported, such as bluesound, as instead of upgrading, I’m looking elsewhere?

      This is an official post relating to Node 1 introduced in 2012 (bluesound). Of course, things change but they seem to have a handle on it and I guess, the reaction to what Sonos has done is a bit of a warning to all others. 

       

      “Thanks for the feedback. The original Bluesound NODE was released in December of 2012. We still to this day support it with our firmware. We currently have no sunset plans for development with it. Any discussions we have had regarding this situation have revolved around how potential hardware limitations with future models be alleviated so the older models can easily co-exist.

      As for the sales part of your question, it has been passed along for review...”

       

      Edit - I would add a link but it looks like it would result in the whole post being deleted. By the way, the, “Sales” issue is about the question raised by a Sonos customer asking whether they’d consider a discount for Sonos customers if they moved/replace Sonos gear for Bluesound gear due to this recent Sonos Scandle.

      Translate
        agarciat
        Lyricist III
        January 23, 2020

        No point investing in a company that does not respect its customers particularly at the price point they sell their equipment. How do we know they will not cash in again in 5 years time? 

        They never wanted to add Bluetooth, they never want to add Atmos, they never want to add HDMI. and for what. So we are lock-in and now they stop supporting it and making our investment useless

        We need to boycott this money-making driven company and find an alternative. Bring back John MacFarlane ( Sonos founder and former CEO) He had principles to loyal customers

        Best alternatives to Sonos

        https://usa.inquirer.net/18732/the-best-sonos-alternative-for-a-wireless-home-sound-system

        Translate
        Ken_Griffiths
        Ken_Griffiths
        January 23, 2020

        Quote from Sonos Annual Report: Our product roadmap is largely focused on delivering products with voice control.

        Might be a nice to have, but not what I bought into Sonos for and not something I’m particularly bothered about. And still not a reason legacy products should stop working - no-one expects them to miraculously become voice-controllable. 

        Strange, I’ve not seen any announcement that a legacy product will suddenly stop working. Just no more updates for them, post May 2020. 

        It seems a rather classic case here of that popular game called “Chinese Whispers”, me thinks.

         
        Translate
          amun
          January 23, 2020

          Does anyone know how long other streaming devices will be supported, such as bluesound, as instead of upgrading, I’m looking elsewhere?

          I don’t think that you should bother with any product that has a proprietary design, although newer products like Bluesound shouldn’t have the hardware constraints of the older Sonos kit.

          I’d look at cheap, easily replaceable means of getting a signal into a speaker, and then spending more on the speaker - preferably digital, as they can be tuned to the room’s acoustics.

          Translate
            Fallon
            Lyricist I
            January 23, 2020

            I have persuaded 11 other individuals to upgrade their audio systems to Sonos. I now feel totally ashamed that I have persuaded family and friends to spend their hard earned cash and adopt Sonos.

             

            Fortunately there does seem to be an alternative to Sonos; Bluesound. Check them out. Admittedly more expensive but a far superior sound from a company that seem to value good customer relations.

            Translate
            user_end_of_lifed
            Enthusiast II
            January 23, 2020

            I spent 15 minutes last night writing polite, balanced but ultimately strongly negative reviews for the Symfonisk, Beam, play 5 and play 1 speakers that I own on the Ikea and Amazon websites making clear to future renters (sorry, purchasers) of Sonos kit exactly how fragile and short term their investment may be. 

            I have also emailed the various family members who have Sonos kit to make it clear that they should not invest further in this ecosystem.

            Everyone on this thread should be doing similar. 

            Translate
              Rob NYC1
              Enthusiast II
              January 23, 2020


               

              If you have any further questions, please don’t hesitate with asking.

              Here’s a question - is it really technically infeasible/economically burdensome to continue support of legacy products?  Legacy products just need to sync with the system and stream music.  That is it.  Your customer base is upset because its pretty obvious that Sonos is doing this as an attempt to bolster its bottom line and not due to some technical hurdle.  I understand why a PC or a mobile phone or a game console must be replaced after a period of time; but, not a speaker that streams music.   

              One recommendation:  In the future, perhaps the senior leadership at Sonos can just break into our homes and steal our legacy components.  Its effectively the same thing.  And I’ll at least have the chance to act in self defense if I catch them!  

              Translate
              stefanlindmark
              Lyricist I
              January 23, 2020

              I’ve got an amp+speaker from 1984 still doing what they did when I bought them. 
              Sure, 36 years later they won’t have gained any new functionality but it’s not expected. The original functionality is still there just as before.

              I’ve got a Dell printer with lots of moving parts from 2007 still working with 3 operating systems after 13 years of regular use. Sure, it doesn’t support wifi or any new mobile printing. But insert the same USB cable and there’s a printed color sheet delivered. The original functionality is still there just as before.

              Sonos now lacks a well-designed compatibility layer between older and newer systems. This seems to me like just a deliberate move to save money by not investing the necessary Engineering resources into designing and coding this into the software.

              I’m waiting and also expecting a turnaround on Sonos’ position well before May. What I can’t for my life understand is why nobody at Sonos was able to spot and stop this PR disaster on the drawing board.

              Hiring engineers would have cost a fraction of what you now need to spend to try to compensate for the overnight lack of a loyal recurring customer base.

              And for voice control: “Hey Sonos: <blip> There’s no more money coming from me. “

              Translate
                preveo
                Contributor I
                January 23, 2020

                SONOS, you need to explain WHY FROM A TECHNICAL STANDPOINT these are considered legacy products! They are speakers. THE SPEAKER PART WILL WORK FINE FOR A 100 YEARS. Exactly what technical issue is it that can not be overcome? There are lots of music apps which will work with sonos. 

                All you are talking about is music ‘bits’ being sent to a receiver built into the speaker. 

                EXACTLY WHAT IS THE TECHNICAL ISSUE?

                UNTIL YOU ANSWER THAT QUESTION, YOUR COMPANY IS FOR INTENTS AND PURPOSES DEAD.

                 

                Translate
                  Show more replies
                  Terms & ConditionsAccessibility statement