End of Software Support - Clarifications

End of Software Support - Clarifications
Ryan S
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  • Ryan S
  • Retired Sonos Staff
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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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4256 replies

J
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 Will the 4 modern speakers that I have not updated in order to keep them compatible with the 2 legacies for use on S1 be “updatable” to use with new moderns on S2 when the time comes that I have to replace the 2 legacies?

Kumar wrote :     

Hard to say because when you will do this is an unknown. Play 1 units started off at 64 Mb, so these may be the next to go - so the answer depends on two future events at different and uncertain time points.

Why does it matter today though, to your decision being made today?

John says : Obviously I was predicating the question on the assumption that the speakers currently considered modern will still be such at the time of the second future event. Otherwise the hypothetical wouldn’t make any sense. And it matters today because I’m interested in the answer today.

Kumar wrote:

Would you please confirm that if we say once to the quoted and bolded prompt in the quote above, that we will prefer to stay on S1 across the entire system, we will not be again prompted to update? In a way that carries a risk that inadvertently we will end up stuck with a split system?

John asks : Why does that matter today though, to your decision being made today, when you don’t have to know until June?

Probably because you’re interested in the answer today.

Get it?

               

 

K

No, and I will not take it further either.

K

For me, available June = great, available a bit later also = ok. It just did not jump out at me as being clear.

 

My reading suggests the latter, though June is also latter compared to a scheduled May release for S2. Sonos marketing will be more keen to have Hi Res than you, I imagine!

C
Userlevel 7
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For those interested in the Pi/LMS alternative, my earlier thread has been resurrected.   A place for your experiences and questions.

 

https://en.community.sonos.com/smart-home-integrations-229108/logitech-media-server-3rd-party-addition-for-sonos-devices-6835500

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A
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For me, available June = great, available a bit later also = ok. It just did not jump out at me as being clear.

 

My reading suggests the latter, though June is also latter compared to a scheduled May release for S2. Sonos marketing will be more keen to have Hi Res than you, I imagine!

I’d say so Kumar. And in fairness that would be ok for me. 

It just seems reasonable to clarify that.

Sonos have made a credible announcement which I like. I don’t need technical purity and nano detail but credible broad strokes to keep my interest or not.

And this is a little classical. Just honing the answer on the High Res will head off more threads, Q&A, frustrations later, maybe Sonos folks jumping ship as well.

A simple confirmation of that would be significant. Why? Well lets take a look back at the last 20 odd posts … Sonos enthusiasts who have wandered some and found their own form of enlightenment … you and I included to differing degrees. 

To make a delivery statement would kill ‘some’ of that. You can’t let the genie half way out the bottle.

I think deep down, if the Sonos guys were to say High Res comes in September (for example) that I may be won over enough to dampen playing (and buying) alternatives. 

Do I need High res? Who the hell knows 🙂 but it may buy my loyalty. 

K

@attacama40 : Sonos probably want to commit to a date that is as early as possible, but only once they are sure of delivering on it. At the same time, they must have felt the need to keep folks like you as well as the regulars interested, hence advancing this announcement from the May date they have been talking up for a long time.

It is also likely that the virus thing has played a role in this earlier release because who the hell knows what will be the external situation in May?

I also doubt you will get more clarity from Sonos on this at this time.

A
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@attacama40 : Sonos probably want to commit to a date that is as early as possible, but only once they are sure of delivering on it. At the same time, they must have felt the need to keep folks like you as well as the regulars interested, hence advancing this announcement from the May date they have been talking up for a long time.

It is also likely that the virus thing has played a role in this earlier release because who the hell knows what will be the external situation in May?

I also doubt you will get more clarity from Sonos on this at this time.

Yeah and in a sense that’s ok. As mentioned before, I was one the Audible users who lost Audible for what was it, two years or so … then it came back. Unlike many I don’t mind that so much. 

Sonos may be flimsy at promise dates but (in my experience) when they do deliver, they do so well. The Audible example was a good one for me.

Hopefully the same (in a better time frame) for the High Res thing.

And although I make out I know zero on the HR thing, I did buy Tidal and Roon and did tests with a few pieces and it was sublime. Shostakovich: Chamber Symphony in c minor, Op. 110a. Arranged by Fiachra Trench. Chemical Brothers EML Ritual & Battle Weapon 6. Muse Exogenesis suite. Even an accoustic Foo Fighters track called Come Alive. The difference was night and day when you stop to genuinely listen and with decent speakers. Surprised to say the least.

Knowing about High Res now genuinely keeps my interest. And equally genuinely I was on the brink of buying 4 or 5 new boxes. Purely as I’d waited, had a little money come in and was wanting to. The early year mess sort of spoiled that for me and I wish I’d never read any of it. 

So it is intelligent stuff by Sonos to let this out the bag. it does influence those at the see-saw point (me) …. if it’s in a nice time frame (this year) and really sounds the business then maybe I still get to spend £2-3k+ on new Sonos gear. 

Now if they can just make sure that S2 supports ChromeOS then I will have Sonos tattooed on my arm and raise a flag outside the towers :-) 

D
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Will the 4 modern speakers that I have not updated in order to keep them compatible with the 2 legacies for use on S1 be “updatable” to use with new moderns on S2 when the time comes that I have to replace the 2 legacies?

In this race you are likely to never catch up if you wait until your devices fail, before upgrading.

When the S1 products finally die, and you upgrade, you will probably upgrade to S3 products and some of your current S2 products will still keep you from updating.

There are plenty of sonos products out there that only has double the ram/rom as the products legacied this May.

Right now i only have 1 legacy product, a Play 5 in my kitchen, but before that one dies, i am probably looking at having to replace my currently 4 Play 1 gen.1 speakers as they will be legacied before the 5 dies.

Better to stay on legacy and then replace the sonos speakers with something else, when they burn out.


I have been looking a bit into converting my play 5 from a sonos speaker, to a “Raspberry PI” speaker.

I recon i can reuse the power supply, the speakers and the amplifier. I could just use the line in, but i think i will see about getting the Raspberry stictched into the Play 5 to be able to bypass anything “sonos” in the speaker.

K

I


I have been looking a bit into converting my play 5 from a sonos speaker, to a “Raspberry PI” speaker.

 

There is a equally cheap but simpler route to this - wire a Echo Dot to the Line in jacks; job done. Add a Show 5, you get what no Sonos product can do even today, album art. And if you want Echo to voice command music play from your NAS with album art, only then do you need to inject a Raspberry between the Echo and Sonos.

D
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There is a equally cheap but simpler route to this - wire a Echo Dot to the Line in jacks; job done. Add a Show 5, you get what no Sonos product can do even today, album art. And if you want Echo to voice command music play from your NAS with album art, only then do you need to inject a Raspberry between the Echo and Sonos.

Yeah, but i dont want any smart speakers with built in spy-microphone, my mobile is placed in a shelf in the house where it will not be able to pick up much conversation, i dont like the idea of plastering my house with microphones.

Also, this is just the beginning, when they legacy the play ones i have, i will try to convert them as well, and they have no line in.

K

Fair enough, but there is a way to address privacy concerns by simply keeping the mic off, or, in the Show, just the camera covered. And either Echo device is still able to work from the phone via casting where Amazon Music is concerned.

If you are going to stay in legacy mode till units burn out, as I am, there will be no need to convert the 1 units when they turn legacy. 

I added Pi because I found out via @castalla that it offered a way that even I could make work, to start getting album art for my NAS - again, something that Sonos does not offer today.

Can one use Pi, with Sonos speakers that lack line in, using them as dumb speakers? I doubt it, but am open to be corrected.

C
Userlevel 7
Badge +17

I


I have been looking a bit into converting my play 5 from a sonos speaker, to a “Raspberry PI” speaker.

 

There is a equally cheap but simpler route to this - wire a Echo Dot to the Line in jacks; job done. Add a Show 5, you get what no Sonos product can do even today, album art. And if you want Echo to voice command music play from your NAS with album art, only then do you need to inject a Raspberry between the Echo and Sonos.

You could simply use a Pi zero  and  feed audio output to the Sonos line in.

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K

You could simply use a Pi zero  and  feed audio output to the Sonos line in.

But how to get it to start play from the NAS - at this time I have to have an Echo voice command to do that. And that also would work only for Sonos with line in.

D
Userlevel 7
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Fair enough, but there is a way to address privacy concerns by simply keeping the mic off, or, in the Show, just the camera covered. And either Echo device is still able to work from the phone via casting where Amazon Music is concerned.

If you are going to stay in legacy mode till units burn out, as I am, there will be no need to convert the 1 units when they turn legacy. 

I added Pi because I found out via @castalla that it offered a way that even I could make work, to start getting album art for my NAS - again, something that Sonos does not offer today.

Can one use Pi, with Sonos speakers that lack line in, using them as dumb speakers? I doubt it, but am open to be corrected.

How do you suggest that i make sure the microphone is off ?

 

There is no physical button that cuts the connection to the microphone, just a soft button that tell’s the software to turn off the microphone and turn on a LED to indicate this.

If you think that the microphone can no be turned on even though you have pressed the button and even though the LED is on, i suggest you watch this video.

 

You may talk about tin foil hats, and you might call me crazy, but i am NOT willing to install microphones in my house, and certainly not microphones from a USA based company, that has been known to collaborate with NSA.

 

C
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You could simply use a Pi zero  and  feed audio output to the Sonos line in.

But how to get it to start play from the NAS - at this time I have to have an Echo voice command to do that. And that also would work only for Sonos with line in.

There isn’t an easy way to get to get Pi to display NAS artwork to display on a Show (only way is via Mediaserver skill and even then it’s a bit clunky and a bit hit and miss - it also costs because you need a monthly sub. for the skill to get a premium feature)..  It is a lot easier to set up a pi with LMS and display on a Google Nest Hub - you could sync the Hub and Sonos, so theoretically it could work.  

[Can I suggest we redirect Pi debates to my other thread on LMS ?]

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C
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Fair enough, but there is a way to address privacy concerns by simply keeping the mic off, or, in the Show, just the camera covered. And either Echo device is still able to work from the phone via casting where Amazon Music is concerned.

If you are going to stay in legacy mode till units burn out, as I am, there will be no need to convert the 1 units when they turn legacy. 

I added Pi because I found out via @castalla that it offered a way that even I could make work, to start getting album art for my NAS - again, something that Sonos does not offer today.

Can one use Pi, with Sonos speakers that lack line in, using them as dumb speakers? I doubt it, but am open to be corrected.

How do you suggest that i make sure the microphone is off ?

 

There is no physical button that cuts the connection to the microphone, just a soft button that tell’s the software to turn off the microphone and turn on a LED to indicate this.

 

You may talk about tin foil hats, and you might call me crazy, but i am NOT willing to install microphones in my house, and certainly not microphones from a USA based company, that has been known to collaborate with NSA.

 

They all collaborate with whatever national state security … that’s what’s so hypocritical about the US (Trump’s) ban on Huawei.  It’s just that the Chinese are are world-leaders in surveillance.   

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D
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They all collaborate with whatever national state security … that’s what’s so hypocritical about the US (Trump’s) ban on Huawei.  It’s just that the Chinese are are world-leaders in surveillance.   

I agree.

I dont really care if it is the NSA or the Chinese government listening in, i dont want it and i am certainly not going to install any device that has a microphone and/or a camera willingly in my house.

When i bought the playbar and needed rear speakers, i bought som Play 1’s even though the Play One was released, for the very reason that i did not want microphones in my speakers.

Seems like Sonos is putting microphones in almost anything they sell these days, so maybe i was not gonna buy any new sonos devices anyway.

melvimbe

 

Seems like Sonos is putting microphones in almost anything they sell these days, so maybe i was not gonna buy any new sonos devices anyway.

 

Since Sonos introduced the Sonos One, the devices with mics include the Sonos One, Beam, and Sonos Move.   During the same time, they’ve introduced  the Amp, Port, and Sonos One SL.  So 50%.  That doesn’t include the two ikea speakers or the sonance speakers, or the speakers they still sell that were introduced before the Sonos One.

That said, I imagine that new products they come out with this year will likely have mics in them.

 

 

Danny
A
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Seems like Sonos is putting microphones in almost anything they sell these days, so maybe i was not gonna buy any new sonos devices anyway.

 

Since Sonos introduced the Sonos One, the devices with mics include the Sonos One, Beam, and Sonos Move.   During the same time, they’ve introduced  the Amp, Port, and Sonos One SL.  So 50%.  That doesn’t include the two ikea speakers or the sonance speakers, or the speakers they still sell that were introduced before the Sonos One.

That said, I imagine that new products they come out with this year will likely have mics in them.

 

 

You’d imagine there could be an option within the app to switch the mic option on and off?

Is that a little simplistic? Non tech comment :-) 

Airgetlam

Not within software. No, I’d expect a hardware switch. So that people who believe the mic can be turned on remotely via software wouldn’t need to worry. 

Bruce
A
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Not within software. No, I’d expect a hardware switch. So that people who believe the mic can be turned on remotely via software wouldn’t need to worry. 

Solid point. Yes.

Not something I loose a huge amount of sleep over but can understand why folks might. And a hard switch would certainly be a reassuring option. 

And indeed a socially responsible differentiator for Sonos to offer and Sonos users to have the option to deploy.

Smilja

And indeed a socially responsible differentiator for Sonos to offer and Sonos users to have the option to deploy.

 

For further information…

 

Glad you got your answers Clive. I would like to make it very clear that you can 100% use the Sonos One and simply turn off the microphones by pressing the button on top of the microphone, and that's if you go through and set up Alexa.

We designed the Sonos One with a light linked to the microphones to be extremely clear when you microphones are on or off. There isn't a software way to turn the microphones on without the light engaged. If one has power, both do. This way you will always know if the microphones on the Sonos One are on, and will know when it might be listening.

 

https://en.community.sonos.com/what-to-get-228989/i-dont-want-alexa-6796584#post16180966

»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)
K

My view is that if the NSA or China or Aliens have nothing better to do than listen to all the banal things that go on all day in billions of households such as mine, this means they are sleeping on threats to security or on opportunities to invade.  I doubt they are that stupid.

The Huawei kind of things are far too complex and layered for me to comment on in any way, and there may well be merit in those concerns. 

K

I read just now about Netflix being asked to review HD streaming because of the risk of overloading/breaking the net at these times - Netflix responded, so this isn't fake news - and I recalled being laughed at here for suggesting that streaming services may face issues in the coming days. That concern of mine sounds a tad less far fetched now.

Two down, one to go.

Even if anything like that comes to pass, hopefully it will only affect Hi Res audio streaming:grinning:

A
Userlevel 6
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And indeed a socially responsible differentiator for Sonos to offer and Sonos users to have the option to deploy.

 

For further information…

 

Glad you got your answers Clive. I would like to make it very clear that you can 100% use the Sonos One and simply turn off the microphones by pressing the button on top of the microphone, and that's if you go through and set up Alexa.

We designed the Sonos One with a light linked to the microphones to be extremely clear when you microphones are on or off. There isn't a software way to turn the microphones on without the light engaged. If one has power, both do. This way you will always know if the microphones on the Sonos One are on, and will know when it might be listening.

 

https://en.community.sonos.com/what-to-get-228989/i-dont-want-alexa-6796584#post16180966

Many thanks, useful stuff. Not an area I’d considered before but interesting points raised and to be aware of for sure.

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