As a loyal Sonos customer for seven years, I can't help but feel frustrated with the quality control and user experience of the app. It's hard to believe how the development team has managed to take what should be a seamless experience and turn it into a series of headaches. Your speakers should connect flawlessly to any service or TV system without a hitch, but instead, we're met with constant issues. It's disheartening to see one disappointing update after another, with no end in sight. My heartfelt suggestion? It's time for a complete overhaul of this clunky app. Let’s simplify it and transform it into a sleek, user-friendly experience that truly reflects the quality we expect from Sonos.
General Disappointment
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I don’t really see how the new Sonos App could be any simpler than it is already. It’s mainly a case of sliding up the room/group-selector screen to choose where to play the audio …and then playing a source from the Home Screen to the chosen room(s). It’s not exactly difficult IMHO.
See demo, recorded a few moments ago, playing a saved playlist from Amazon Music to stereo ‘Fives’ (called Fireplace) using an old iPhoneXR controller connected to our own Home Sonos system.
The Sonos App user-guide simplified how to use the new interface for me. See the link here:
https://www.sonos.com/en-us/guides/sonosapp
Hello Ken,
I am reaching out regarding my audio system, which includes:
- 1 Beam
- 1 Play 5
- 1 Play 1
All my devices are connected to a single Wi-Fi network at home, yet I am experiencing several significant issues that need to be addressed.
Firstly, I regularly use SoundCloud and Spotify, but the app is incredibly frustrating to navigate. This inefficiency forces me to switch between the apps, and my system does not appear as an output option. The only way to make it work is to reboot the speakers, which is completely unacceptable.
It’s baffling that the app does not offer a more functional solution. Rebooting requires me to reach behind furniture and my refrigerator to unplug and replug the cords—this outdated process does not align with the quality expected at this price point for "wireless" speakers.
Additionally, I have an Apple TV in my home theater setup, and none of my speakers show up as output devices. Even after restarting the Apple TV, only the Beam is listed. I then have to pair the other speakers to the Beam via the app, only to find that the volume controls for the Play 1 and Play 5 are greyed out. As a result, I can only adjust the volume using the physical buttons on the speakers, and this entire process must be repeated every time I use my system.
Furthermore, while the app has always been somewhat clunky, these issues were not present in the past. The speakers would pair as expected and would show up as outputs in my services. Unfortunately, with recent updates, this basic functionality seems to have been lost.
Thank you for your attention to these matters.
Hello Ken,
I am reaching out regarding my audio system, which includes:
- 1 Beam
- 1 Play 5
- 1 Play 1
All my devices are connected to a single Wi-Fi network at home, yet I am experiencing several significant issues that need to be addressed.
Firstly, I regularly use SoundCloud and Spotify, but the app is incredibly frustrating to navigate. This inefficiency forces me to switch between the apps, and my system does not appear as an output option. The only way to make it work is to reboot the speakers, which is completely unacceptable.
It’s baffling that the app does not offer a more functional solution. Rebooting requires me to reach behind furniture and my refrigerator to unplug and replug the cords—this outdated process does not align with the quality expected at this price point for "wireless" speakers.
Additionally, I have an Apple TV in my home theater setup, and none of my speakers show up as output devices. Even after restarting the Apple TV, only the Beam is listed. I then have to pair the other speakers to the Beam via the app, only to find that the volume controls for the Play 1 and Play 5 are greyed out. As a result, I can only adjust the volume using the physical buttons on the speakers, and this entire process must be repeated every time I use my system.
Furthermore, while the app has always been somewhat clunky, these issues were not present in the past. The speakers would pair as expected and would show up as outputs in my services. Unfortunately, with recent updates, this basic functionality seems to have been lost.
Thank you for your attention to these matters.
I don’t see any of the issues that you mention with my own setup, but note that a Play:1 will not show up with your Apple TV as it’s not an AirPlay 2 compliant speaker needed for Apple TV - that said the other two devices should be available and AirPlay uses a version of mDNS over the LAN to discover devices and Sonos use a similar thing too, aswell as SSDP - there can be many reasons that ‘device discovery’ is not working in your case. See below:
Such communication failure can occur across networks that use WiFi extenders, EoP adapters, or if managed switches are misconfigured. It can also happen if some settings on a local router are incorrect, or there’s software running on the mobile device that is getting in the way of the multicast communication, such as security software, VPN client, firewall, site blockers etc.
I’d perhaps investigate further in the areas mentioned and if still no luck, then it maybe best to reproduce the issue(s) seen and then immediately submit a Sonos system diagnostic report from within the Sonos App, note it’s reference and contact/chat with Sonos Support Staff via this LINK and see what the Staff can perhaps suggest to help you to resolve the matter.
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