2023-04-20
Not user friendly
I shouldn’t need an IT department just to turn on some music. This was a waste of money.
Updating
iPhone Screenshots
iPad Screenshots
Description
This app controls systems that include the earliest Sonos products: Zone Players, Play:5 (Gen 1), Bridge, Connect (Gen 1) and Connect:Amp (Gen 1)
Easily control your system.
Adjust volume levels, group rooms, save favorites, set alarms, and more.
Stream from popular services.
Connect your streaming services and browse all your music, podcasts, radio, and audiobooks in a single app.
Listen to Sonos Radio.
Enjoy thousands of stations free on your system, including live radio from around the world, genre stations, artist-curated stations, and original programming from Sonos.
What's New in Version 11.8
Renamed the Sonos S1 Controller, this app supports systems that include the oldest Sonos products. Systems supported by this app will continue to receive bug fixes and security patches but will not receive new software features found in the new Sonos S2 app and will not be compatible with Sonos products released after May 2020. For more information, please visit support.sonos.com/s/article/4786
Seller
Name
Sonos, Inc.
Information
Developer
Categories
Version
11.8
Size
107.9 MB
Game Center
No
VPP Device Licensing
Yes
Rating
Rated: 4+
Compatibility
iOS 12.0 or later
Devices
iPhone 5s, iPhone 6, iPhone 6 Plus, iPhone 6s, iPhone 6s Plus, iPhone SE, iPhone 7, iPhone 7 Plus, iPhone 8, iPhone 8 Plus, iPhone X, iPhone XR, iPhone XS, iPhone XS Max, iPhone 11, iPhone 11 Pro, iPhone 11 Pro Max, iPhone SE (2nd generation), iPhone 12, iPhone 12 Pro, iPhone 12 Pro Max, iPhone 12 mini, iPhone 13, iPhone 13 Pro, iPhone 13 Pro Max, iPhone 13 mini, iPhone SE (3rd generation), iPhone 14, iPhone 14 Plus, iPhone 14 Pro, iPhone 14 Pro Max, iPad (5th Generation) Wi-Fi, iPad (5th Generation) Wi-Fi + Cellular, iPad (6th generation) Wi-Fi, iPad (6th generation) Wi-Fi + Cellular, iPad Pro, iPad Pro (Cellular), iPad Pro (9.7-inch), iPad Pro (9.7-inch) (Cellular), iPad Pro 12.9-inch (2nd generation), iPad Pro 12.9-inch (2nd generation) Wi-Fi + Cellular, iPad Pro (10.5-inch), iPad Pro (10.5-inch) Wi-Fi + Cellular, iPad Pro (11-inch), iPad Pro (11-inch) Wi-Fi + Cellular, iPad Pro 12.9-inch (3rd generation), iPad Pro 12.9-inch (3rd generation) Wi-Fi + Cellular, iPad Air, iPad Air (Cellular), iPad Air 2, iPad Air 2 (Cellular), iPad Air (3rd generation), iPad Air (3rd generation) Wi-Fi + Cellular, iPad mini Retina, iPad mini Retina (Cellular), iPad mini 3, iPad mini 3 (Cellular), iPad mini 4, iPad mini 4 (Cellular), iPad mini (5th Generation), iPad mini (5th Generation) Wi-Fi + Cellular, iPad (7th generation) Wi-Fi + Cellular, iPad Pro 11-inch (2nd generation), iPad Pro 11-inch (2nd generation) Wi-Fi + Cellular, iPad Pro 12.9-inch (4th generation), iPad Pro 12.9-inch (4th generation) Wi-Fi + Cellular, iPad Air (4th Generation) (Wi-Fi), iPad Air (4th Generation) (Wi-Fi + Cellular), iPad (8th generation) Wi-Fi, iPad (8th generation) Wi-Fi + Cellular, iPad Pro 11-inch (3rd generation), iPad Pro 11-inch (3rd generation) Wi-Fi + Cellular, iPad Pro 12.9-inch (5th Generation), iPad Pro 12.9-inch (5th Generation) Wi-Fi + Cellular, iPad (9th Generation), iPad (9th Generation) Wi-Fi + Cellular, iPad mini (6th Generation), iPad mini (6th Generation) Wi-Fi + Cellular, iPad Air (5th generation), iPad Air (5th generation) Wi-Fi + Cellular, iPad Pro 11-inch (4th generation), iPad Pro 11-inch (4th generation) Wi-Fi + Cellular, iPad Pro 12.9-inch (6th generation), iPad Pro 12.9-inch (6th generation) Wi-Fi + Cellular, iPad (10th generation), iPad (10th generation) Wi-Fi + Cellular, iPod touch (6th Generation), iPod touch (7th generation)
Languages
English, Chinese, Czech, Danish, Dutch, Finnish, French, German, Hungarian, Italian, Japanese, Norwegian Bokmål, Polish, Portuguese, Spanish, Swedish
App Store: Customer Ratings
Ratings & Reviews
4.7 of 5 (811,826 Ratings)
App Store: Customer Reviews
2023-04-13
Like Sonos S1
I like Sonos s1 have older speakers and thy kee pushing to “upgrade” to S2. Issue is it isn’t an up grade it’s a full scale cluster funk.
2023-04-09
Garbage app
Products no longer connect with music services on S1.
Alex play music does not work.
Tried to upgrade to S2 and now it looks like I will have to reconnect each receiver manually.
SONOS very upset with the product quality and software direction S1 and S2 have gone towards.
2023-04-07
Version 11.8 drops connection frequently
I have 4 Sonos components for at least 7 years. Since updating to 11.8, the speakers are dropping; I have to reconnect the speakers and/or I have to reboot my iPhone XR almost every time I want to listen to music.
I never installed the S2 version because of the app not recognizing the speaks. Hence I also haven’t purchased the Arc, or upgraded to the newest speakers.
Sonos needs to fix this. How can they release a version that introduces more issues than it solves?
And yes, Sonos needs to improve their support. the best support is with a person who is a SME.
PLEASE FIX THIS and put it in the release notes!!!!
2023-04-03
Sluggish. Needs to restart often
Makes me rethink sonos. My expensive speakers are not that old but for some reason they’re only controllable using the S1 app. This app needs to be restarted often. I have the newest iPhone (14).
Probably not going to stick with this brand moving forward.
2023-04-03
App is absolute trash
See the title
2023-04-02
Question
Will Sonos ever be able to be controled from anywhere , not just through Wi-Fi?
Example: if I’m out of town and would like to turn on some music for my dogs (just like I turn on and off my lights) while away! That would be nice if ever available.
2023-04-01
Support should be open on Saturday
When people are not at work
2023-03-29
Play base fail
The only way playbase is seen by system is via direct cable connect. After 2 hours, multiple tech calls, Sonia says it is EERO fault. I completely factory reset all Wi-Fi (another hour). I took EERO OFFLINE and direct connected to modem. Still refuses to connect to Wi-Fi. Never recognized temp Sonos Wi-Fi network. Ever. Playbase is totally unusable.
2023-03-29
The best
Love this sound system .. We have 4 speakers and a booster and it’s the best sound system I have enjoyed in 50 years.
2023-03-28
S1 vs S2
Ahould not be a reason why s2 wont work with older equipment
Soon s3 will be out and my other stuff will be outdated too.
2023-03-26
Sonos
Rip off! One of your original customers that you did wrong. You know it!
2023-03-24
App update takes forever to download. Frustrating
App update takes forever to download. Frustrating
2023-03-24
Nas?
I used to access my music with mu NAS. As the system "updated" the NAS access stopped working. I tried hard, reading blogs, setting the NAS to work with Samba 1 and its proper settings, but didn't work.
2023-03-18
Dependable
My s1 speakers have done very well. Makes me. That Sonos did not it s skills and knowledge to encoporate the old with the new.. I have purchased two new (s2).trying to tie the as one unit. Bet it going to be great.
2023-03-17
Sonos
Seems its another Friday and go figure my Sonos is not working again.
Everything else that has to connect to networks is working perfect but not my Sonos, as per usual.
2023-03-14
Love my sonos
My sonos helps facilitates me finding great music and hood listens. 👍🏾🎶
2023-03-12
First time ever posting a 1 ⭐️
I have a blend of new and old products and they no longer support the old. They basically want me to trash the old and buy the new. Here’s what I’ll be doing, selling all my Sonos stuff and buying something else AND I HAVE A LOT OF YOUR STUFF.
2023-03-12
Flawless
We call Sonos, so nice! It works perfect and we have an amplifier tied to wired speakers per room so we can enjoy music separately or in all! We love it! I would sell could be the best salesman for Sonos!
2023-03-11
Awful
Stop updating and making it worse. Had system for several years now constantly losing connection to my speakers. Have to reboot everything every time I try to use it. thousands invested and all of my old legacy speakers not working. It was the best system before. Something is not right.
2023-03-07
Sonos sistem not working
Can some one advice what’s going on as I cannot use my old system any more and I have lots of money spent over the year and now I cannot use anymore as the s1 app isn’t working
2023-03-04
Works Great
I have the Old Connects and I can’t use the S2. But the S1 works great.
2023-03-03
Waste of money
Difficult to connect. Scam of a product
2023-03-03
Wicked Glitchy
This app rarely works right the first time, after closing/reopening several times, or resetting your router, it eventually works. Great customer service, but they can’t seem to get this app working well.
2023-02-28
Good as a door stop
Works for a few days then tells me there are no Sonos devices on my network. Have manual linked then and as soon as possible m done it cannot find the speaker again.
2023-02-22
Junk
It’s telling me to use S2 even though S2 doesn’t work and won’t let me bypass S2 to use S1. Sonos has completely wrecked what used to be a great product. Nice going.
2023-02-22
Love Sonos but wish S1 & S2 could mix
Sonos is the best streaming system for whole house audio but I wish S1 and S2 equipment could work as a mixed system playing same content. I understand upgrades and improvements of technology but I have around 20 S1 “legacy” devices which I can’t afford to replace all at once.
The whole point of my original Sonos effort was to integrate mix of various other legacy audio systems and bring music to rooms without existing speakers.
Now to “upgrade” I would need to sacrifice all that and and live with fragmented audio until the entire system could be upgraded.
I’m thankful they still support the S1 but really wish they could integrate both versions. If they did that I would start buying the newer technology but until then my system is “frozen”
2023-02-21
Privacy violating irritations
You cannot use this without enabling fine grained location access. Why?
You cannot update your firmware without logging into an account. Why?
I can understand why some of my friends rejected Sonos from their home. Stop the data grab Sonos!
2023-02-20
Never leave a man behind!
Can’t believe that they don’t support their first generation equipment. I get reminders to “update the app” constantly. Yet Sonos made their updated app incompatible with their original equipment. Seriously! I was a 5 star fan until they dropped me. I have over a thousand dollars worth of their equipment in 4 rooms of my house and have been devoted to them for years. I bought equipment for my kids to get started with Sonos in their homes. Mistake. My advice is think twice about investing in the new stuff, as attractive as it sounds. Who knows when they will do it again. Are they saying, “We made the old stuff too good. It should have broken by now. But since it hasn’t we are just not gonna spend any effort on you geezers. We are moving on without you.” It’s just code, right?
2023-02-16
The World of Music
This is like a dream come true music, any music at my fingertips. No matter my mood or interest there is a world of music to choose.
I love my Sonos!
2023-02-12
Why not Simple Watch App??? Jeeez.
Dear Sonos - the least you could do after charging so much for your hardware and then forcing me to *throw away* my perfectly good PLAY 5 (for your new software!) is to build a tiny functional watch app — to skip to next song or back and to control volume.
2023-02-11
Needs some work!
This app is relatively okay, but the set-up is complicated and NOT, “User Friendly”.
Also, it seems impossible to be able to play from multiple, other sources.
NOT cool.
2023-02-06
Painful but worked.
Not thrilled with the updates, changes and issues but eventually it did finally work.
2023-02-06
Now even more useless
2/6/2023: now the Sonos 1 app tells me to open the Sonos 2 app for my older generation Play5. I do so. The Sonos 2 app then says the Play5 is incompatible with Sonos 2, and to use the Sonos 1 app, which will not let me get past the screen telling me to use the Sonos 2 app.
Even less impressed than i was before.
2023-02-04
Sonos
So o is the best gift I ever gave myself.
2023-02-03
Bait and switch buyer beware
Nothing to see here they sell you one thing and 4-5 years later they disable hardware
Buyer beware. I have a Sonos system investment of 7k and have regrets every time I look around and see the sonos 5 speakers 1st gen that will not work with my newer products their customer service is horrible be ready to get the run around
2023-01-30
Frequent drop outs
The music will just pause for 3-5 seconds before starting back up. Happens several times per song. I don’t have the issue with the other (newer) Sonos products so I feel safe saying it isn’t my wifi or anything like that
2023-01-28
The WORST
Sonos is skilled at rendering older products unusable. A true ripoff. Went over to Apple and could not be happier. Wouldn’t buy another Sonos product again. Ever.
2023-01-25
Constant loss of accounts
Sonos constantly requires me to reauthorize my accounts during play back.
2023-01-19
Horrible
I have one connection problem after another with Sonos. I would never buy it again.
2023-01-18
Junk. Don’t buy a Sonos system.
The app works half the time, and even when it does it’s painfully glitchy. Don’t worry though, because now Sonos forces you to upgrade all your equipment’s software and phone’s software to Sonos S2 or whatever. It’s a poor experience all around.
2023-01-15
Sonos 1and 5
Definitely not at all happy that we are unable to plays Sonos 1and Sonos 2 at the same time on the same app. We spend a lot on Sonos products-now they’re not compatible. Not a happy customer at all after spending thousands of dollars on your equipment. The speakers are great-but this is a huge problem for us
2023-01-06
Sonos
The best and easiest way to listen to music My sentiments exactly
2023-01-05
Don’t get Sonos
This app doesn’t work not and never worked well. I relentlessly bash Sonos to everyone interested because of the unbelievably consistent problems it has. Playback stopping, awful interface, connection issues are just some of the issues since 2013.
2023-01-01
Unstable
Devices got disappear from the app time to time and some times is hard to select rooms taking forever to get conected
2022-12-30
Bad with Spotify
Spotify functions are really bad with Sonos. Why is that?
2022-12-27
A messy way to link phone to speaker
I got new iPhone and wanted to reconnect Play 3. Forgot what an involved mess this is. Why the speaker just doesn’t connect like any other Bluetooth device escapes me.
Needless to say after pressing buttons, joining temp networks, blah blah, was still unable to add the speaker. Next solution was to make adjustments to my router to split and rename the 5gig network fm the 2.4. Too much trouble. Just got my Bose out and I am listening happily. Why is Wi-Fi even involved in this?
2022-12-26
Update Downer
App worked great until this morning when I updated it (had no choice). Now it does not recognize my sound bar, takes forever to load the system, deems my whole Sonos system useless! Someone fix this please!
2022-12-25
Stopped connecting after latest update
Was working fine until I updated to latest S1 app. Android version and older iOS versions still work fine.
2022-12-24
I’m not upgrading, stop asking.
I know the S2 app is available. I know you want me to buy new hardware. I’m not going to. Stop asking. Stop pretending it’s a bug.
2022-05-23
Hardware good; company poor
The Sonos speakers have a very good sound for the money. But this S1 app represents everything wrong with a company turned sour.
As a company Sonos has gone downhill from its promising start, once it realized that vast money can be made from data mining — surveillance capitalism. Within a year of buying a Sonos Five, Sonos made that speaker legacy. Why? The answer is surveillance capitalism. With the new speaker and new app, customers can use Alexa or Google Assistant, which data mine who you are and Sonos makes money. Again, the new speakers and software offer Sonos radio, which again is a monetary rip off because it sells ads and you cannot advance past unwanted songs. None of these features were demanded by customers, but they allow Sonos to make more money. Finally, not to be overlooked, is the now horrible customer service, which consists of getting somebody who knows nothing about the product and reads off a prompt from a screen. (One day I wasted an hour with a service rep insisting that I needed second-tier help, while she angrily insisted that I would be told nothing that she had not said. Just as I thought, she was the wrong and advanced technical help solved the problem in under 10 minutes.) What once was a terrific customer oriented company had become bloated and utterly money oriented.
2022-02-23
Would never buy again
We invested $8000 in Sonos and now we have a system which doesn’t work like it did when installed and every month we get less and less from our investment.
We made the mistake of purchasing 6 portable speakers in addition to the speakers in the ceiling of several rooms. When Sonos started changing over to Sonos 2, without telling us, they made any speaker that was unplugged from the wall socket useless when plugged back in. So the speaker we had used on our back porch in the summer would not work again the following summer when plugged back into the exact same outlet. I now own a $420 door stop and no longer have music on my outdoor patio. We are scared to death of dislodging a cord on any of the other 5 speakers or the woofer or the unit hooked up to our turntable because Sonos will unilaterally decommission those too. This goes against the entire idea of “portable”.
My husband can’t access his music library stored on his computer (laughably the original reason we bought Sonos in the first place) and from what I read in chat rooms about other customer experiences with this Sonos 1 versus 2 issue, I guess we should be glad we are only out 8 grand - others have lost much more.
2022-02-03
SO upset & disappointed
Bought Sonos speakers in 2014: Playbar, Bridge, 3 Play:1s, and 1 Play:5. Absolutely fell in love immediately and was truly grateful for such reliable and incredible audio throughout the house. We use them every day. Picked up a One SL a few years ago and it has had a few issues with connectivity with our existing speakers but still great sound. My complaint is with all the newer Sonos products and the Sonos app updates—I’ve had problems with speakers randomly turning on and off for at least 2 years now and it’s pretty aggravating. I would’ve expected the Sonos team to have ironed out these bugs by now, but perhaps it’s intentional. There’s nothing wrong with my 8 year old speakers, so why is Sonos pushing me to upgrade to their newer models? I say pushing because of their campaign to get customers to return their older models and use them for a discount towards newer ones, even warning that the older system would not be supported going forward. ?? That’s such trash. I’m so disappointed. I agree with other reviewers that this is about corporate greed. Why else would a company stop supporting their fine, slightly older products and strongly recommend upgrading system components when it’s unnecessary??
2020-04-21
Latest app update, 11.1
I just have to say Sonos is the ultimate in audio equipment and as a audio source provider. I have a very expensive and well equipped home AV system and I incorporated Sonos into my system over 6 years ago and I couldn’t be happier with their equipment and what they provide as a source for any type audio you’re interested in listening to. Now, they just stepped up their game with the latest update, 11.1. Great job Sonos. They have an excellent record of providing anyone owning their system with the best service and system updates. And, they just put out the best update yet! The new “Sonos Radio,” they added to the system control app is superb! The way it’s organized is very user friendly and not only give you all your local radio station of any genre, but also provides a large listing of suggested audio providers. The best part is they provide this service for free. All you need is their equipment, an account, and the Sonos app.
2020-04-14
Would be 5 stars if I appreciated a bait and switch.
Over the years, I have built a Sonos system with speakers throughout my home, a significant investment. I have also accumulated a library of thousands of titles, expecting to listen to my purchased music via Sonos, a functionality that made the hardware investment worthwhile. On the positive side, Sonos has gradually solved most of the bugs that would inexplicably fail to connect or randomly break connection with my WiFi or with my iphone. But the unwelcome news that Sonos would cease to play titles “on this phone” felt like a real ripoff - a classic bait and switch. It is redundant and wasteful to pay dues to a music streaming service when I already “own” the music I want to hear. Had I known that Sonos would block me from listening to my own music, I would never have invested in the system. This is why, when friends ask me whether they should buy Sonos, I now recommend rather that they purchase a set of high end Bluetooth speakers. I will be surprised if the good folks at Sonos publish this review, as it is anything but the hands-down accolade I’m sure they would prefer. But if they are serious about building consumer loyalty and serving and growing their customer base, they will thank their subscribers for their invaluable feedback and reinstate the “on this phone” functionality.
2020-03-23
Great service. Horrible app
The concept of Sonos is great. Adding any/all music services to 1 platform that can play through the wifi and in sync sounds amazing … If the app ever connects. I’ve had Sonos for several years and the entire time I’ve had the same problem and they haven’t seemed to fix it. The app is extremely unreliable. “Can not connect to your Sonos network” is the message of my nightmares that I see 5 times a day. I will literally turn on a station on Sonos, walk away for 5 minutes and when I come back I can’t use the app because it won’t connect. (I’ve had this problem in multiple house with different WiFi’s) The system is working because music is playing it’s just the app says it cannot connect. It’ll take me 10-15 minutes of hopping off and on the wifi and closing out the app to try an troubleshoot the problem before anything’s works. But to be honest I think that’s actually doing that thing cuz it doesn’t always work. The app is just extremely unreliable when it comes to connecting with the system. At list point I just walk away and come back in 20min to see if it’s working again. Please fix this Sonos. I will buy an entire replacement product if I find one before this is been fixed. It’s literally been happening for years...
2020-02-15
Speakers = Amazing, App... okay
I’ve used Sonos speakers for well over 5 years now and simply love the sound and audio. High quality speakers thought your home is a game changer. The app on the other hand, could use some renovation. If you search for a popular artists name to find a specific album, you’ll be greeted with a cluster of disorganized censored albums, uncensored albums, song singles, and song features. Nothing is organized by year or date. It would be nice to be able to click an album, then have a toggle button that changes it from censored to uncensored. It would make things more user friendly. My second recommendation would be about the layout. For such a smooth speaker product line, the app seems really square and blocky. Lastly, a touch of Dark mode to make the inter interface black might just be a personal preference, however we’ve all seen the success Apple has had implementing a dark mode for their devices. It’s more pleasing on the eyes and would also make the entire app look like the logo. Again, I love the speakers, however when it takes me more than 3 minutes to find a single song (in this world of instant gratification) it doesn’t make me too happy.
2020-02-01
It’s just... Okay (in app music searches kills the score)
Listen, you’re shoehorned into using this app; regardless of whether you like it or not. That’s the price we pay I guess, for the luxury of having some of the best sounding speakers on the market.
This app has multiple functions beyond just controlling your music. It’s also the tool used for calibrating your speakers and adding new ones to the ecosystem. It handles these tasks fairly well. When it comes to navigating your music, it’s just... okay. I can fairly simply choose to play different music in different rooms, which is cool. However I noticed I regularly just end up using AirPlay instead of the app; all because the search functionality is just awful.
I could go into iOS music app, search for an artist, and be delivered literally everything I want from that artist. If I do the same in this Sonos app, I often scroll until I get so frustrated not being a old to find a song or album I want that I just end up going back to AirPlay again through the iOS music app. Same frustrations go for every style of search, be it album, song, playlist... the Sonos app very rarely offers me the music I want to hear from a simple search.
2019-12-15
Ease of Use = Intuitive Navigation
I hate this app so much. But I give 3 stars instead of 2 because they finally added alphabetical search to artists, albums and songs. I’m still baffled at how the overall rating is so high. The primary function of this app should be to both easily access your library of music and play it! That is not happening. Examples:
1. I add the songs from my Apple Recently Added playlist to “My Sonos” for alleged easy access. But I don’t have the option to play the music as a playlist. Navigation is My Sonos> (Recently Added) Record Cover>Play. It should be My Sonos> Recently Added> (Option to) Play or Shuffle. Compilations should also be treated like a playlist. Where’s the convenience in navigating back to a list to play each song? Why do I have to add each song to a Sonos Playlist when it already exists as a list?!?
2. I get a 1002 error message anytime I select “play” from my Apple/My Music/Songs list or directly click on a song from that list. To avoid that last error scenario I have to click on the dotted menu option beside the song title and select play now/play next/replace queue/etc...
2019-12-12
Hate that you have to connect to Sonos server to do anything
There’s nothing more annoying than getting excited when your new pair of ones arrive, and the. When you try to add it to your existing beam and sub, you somehow need to sign in your account for some reason. For what!?? And if you’re going to do online integration for everything, the least you can do is have a reliable server and connections. My internet is fine, I’ve test it over and over with login to other sites via browsers, trying other apps. However despite my best efforts, when I tried the add speakers function, it gets stuck in a loading cycle for 5 mins. After rebooting my phone and trying again, I can finally get to a login page, which when I try to login, repeatedly prompt me to check my connections. My connections are fine Sonos, maybe check yours instead???? Seriously, a $1500 system all in and I can’t even set up a stupid 5.1 system without jumping through loops. GET IT FIXED!
December 12, 2019. Seriously regret buying Sonos. I need a reliable speaker system, not whatever experiments you’re doing with your wireless network crap. Anyone reading this, just buy Bose and get it over with. I will not buy another sonos system again, and will probably sell mine. This is bs
2019-09-11
Latest update not great
Love the speakers, love controlling them with the app. Now the bad. The latest update made it more cumbersome. Why oh why did you move the alarm control in the latest update?!?! The former tab “more” on the far right made so much more sense than “settings” because there’s a lot more than settings under it (pun intended). Now to find the alarm function you have to go to settings->system-> and scroll way down to alarms. For someone that uses 2 of these speakers as morning alarms for my kids and frequently turns the alarms on or off and makes adjustments this is SUCH A HASSLE. After the update I struggled to find the alarm in the first place because it’s so NOT intuitive. Initially I thought the alarm control was deleted.
The Alarm control is a major feature for many people using these speakers and it should be in an intuitive and convenient location. Please move the Alarm control back to an easily accessed place that doesn’t require several taps and scrolling down to find it! And IMO “More” as a menu title was more accurate of a descriptor and way better sounding than “Settings”.
2019-07-24
DO NOT BUY Into Sonos
Update July 2019: These Sonos idiots have decided that their hi-tech folks just can't keep up with iOS so playing music from your iToy will soon not be an option. Your options are streaming or your iTunes library on your PC: oh wait! ITunes is going away too. Grrrrr, a conspiracy? If you don't want to pay $10 a month for music you've already bought, or you want to listen music from your iToy, Sonos is NOT the way to go. I'll be looking at Bluetooth speakers. Too bad, Sonos One's have great sound, but if I can't play my iMusic library on them, I guess they'll make ok bookends. Sonos will soon be another burial in the tech cemetery: do not invest in their yesterday tech.
Paired with Sonos speakers, you can sit with your iPad or iPhone is your easy chair, and select and play any music you own (if it's properly organized) and ... drum roll ... control the volume from your device. Selecting tracks and managing the queue is a breeze! The interface to iTunes for naming a music library is a bit clunky and can get out of sync if you specify more than one library on more than one PC, but if all your music is on the iPad, this is not an issue. Also, many popular streaming sources such as Pandora are supported. I just love this app!
2019-07-14
FORGET ABOUT USING YOUR IPHONE
I jumped on the Sonos bandwagon back in 2013 because, at the time, the sound quality of their sound bar was better than anything I auditioned. Adding on their subwoofer and Play 3 speakers got as close to my $$$ B&W THX system as I could find. And the fact I could stream my ever growing music library from my iPhone put me over the moon. But in the last year, the honeymoon came to an end. Somewhere in the all too frequent annoying deluge of upgrades they shove at you, playback from my iPhone became problematic with frequent skips (reminiscent of my vinyl days) and queues that stop playing. After contacting Sonos they provided a work around (turn off the auto off feature on your iPhone) that worked for awhile. Now they’re removing the playback feature from your iPhone and have proposed some other (more complicated) work arounds which have so far proved unsatisfactory (their desktop controller failed to incorporate my entire music library).
My question is with all the apps being developed for an iPhone and iOS, why can’t Sonos get their $&@ act together and get something that’s simple and works flawlessly. You’ll find my Sonos soundbar, subwoofer, Play 3’s (x2), bridge, Sonos connect and connect:amp in the trash. I’m done! HEOS here I come.
2019-06-29
Great for Audiophiles and Newbies Alike!
I am a father of four boys and waited a long time (goodbye diapers!) to buy my home audio solution. I own five (gen 1) Ones, a Playbar and a Connect Amp and have been very happy with all of them. The Amp drives two Bose 301 outdoor speakers out by the pool and it effortlessly fills the entire yard with sound. The Playbar and two of the Ones are my “home theatre” and surprisingly provide a lot bass for the bass-starved flatscreen in our living room. The other Ones hang in our home gym, if that’s what you call a room with a treadmill and a weight bench, and provide awesome audio for those few and far between workouts.
Long story short, these components provide excellent audio quality at a nice price and are modular so a guy on a budget can add pieces little by little. Pure audiophiles may snub their noses at these, but the increasing quality of audio sources make these an excellent choice for any room, situation and budget. I have a recommend Sonos products to anybody looking to get into this space at a reasonable price. The cost may be entry-level, but the quality is much greater. I can’t wait to get my Sub!
2019-04-04
App Needs More Features
I love the sound I get from my speakers, but the review isn’t really about the speakers. It’s about the app, which needs some work. The ability to access multiple audio sources is great. What it is missing though are the small details that make the apps from those services it is drawing from a better option almost every time. For instance, the Pandora app lets you view songs that have already played - so, if you were away from the device and heard a new song and want to know more about it, you could check later to see what it was. With the Sonos app, if you don’t check while the song is playing you will never know. With the Books from Audible, it’s great that you can play it in multiple rooms but losing the ability to speed up the playback means I won’t use that service here. The same (or worse) with Apple podcasts. The only way to access them is via the On This Phone option. Unfortunately, it doesn’t tap into the organization that the iPhone uses and just puts everything out there in a mess so if you have multiple episodes to listen to, it’s just a huge mess. This also needs the speed up option that the regular podcast apps offer. Again, I love my speakers and the music I play on them sounds amazing. However, I really hope the app gets some good upgrades soon.
2019-02-12
New beginnings with the Beam
Okay... we had a 10 year old Sony 46” Bravia TV and Bose Acoustimass 15 home theater speakers run through a Sony amp. So we decided to move up to a LG 65” c8 television. Love it, but that’s another review. The Bose was great for music but was always problematic trying to get it working properly for surround sound. The Sony and Bose never really jived with each other. So as a result we seldom used it. Anyway, friends told me about Sonos speakers and since we had the new TV I decided to purchase the Beam sound bar, the sub woofer and two play 1 speakers to make a surround system for the new LG. Man it sounds great. We are very please with the system and the ease of setup and use. It is pricey when it comes to the sub woofer. However the sub really completes the system so I would say if you can swing it $$$, go for it. We chose the Beam over the larger Sonos sound bar because the Beam has a HDMI hook up with “ARC” and Alexa built in if that’s important to you. I just didn’t want a optical connection that the bigger Sonos bar only comes with. However I would guess the larger sound bar probably sounds better.??? However don’t let the size of the Sonos Beam fool you, it's impressive. Anyway I can’t wait to add more speakers to our house later on. Very satisfied customer.
2019-02-10
So far very impressed
So far I’m very impressed with the capability of the app itself. The Sonos Playbar I bought is a dream when listening to music and watching movies. The app itself is limited but I can totally get by with what it offers for the time being. I mostly use Apple Music, Pandora and Soundcloud. So it’s kinda weird but they are apps within an app. It’s confusing to describe but it feels like second nature when navigating thru the app. Best part is while I’m playing music on the Playbar I can still watch videos on my phone so not to disrupt anyone else listening to music. I usually pop in my AirPods and watch a quick video on FB or FaceTime and the music still plays. This is probably my favorite feature. I have no regrets and I’m sure it only gets better from here. By the way the sound quality is absurdly wonderful. I hear things I usually don’t ever hear on just about anything else. I have an open concept living room and it fills the entire room effortlessly! I must purchase the subwoofer to complete the ensemble but I have to recover from the grip I just let go of on the Playbar but it is definitely in the near future!
2019-02-03
Sonos makes their App more difficult to use with each update
I used to be a fan, however the latest revisions resulted in a non-intuitive, difficult-to-use app that frustrates me every time I open it. Many of the features present in the PC and Mac Interface are simply not available in the IPAD App. In both the PC and Mac Interface, one can no longer add Pandora Stations to the list of stations - they must go into “SONOS Favorites” instead. Context-sensitive features that used to be available via the “...” link on each page have now been moved to other non-intuitive parts of the tool, or have disappeared completely. Major podcasts with hundreds of thousands or even millions of users are not available through the Sonos search feature, and they’ve been added to the “My Radio Shows” section, which is somehow confusingly distinct from the “Podcasts” section. Sonos, you had something that worked pretty well before. May I request in all seriousness that you go back to the drawing board and earnestly begin work on a rebuild, based on actual users and user groups, and flush this current version down the toilet as soon as possible?
2018-12-26
First time Sonos buyer
Let me start with the positive. The look, ease of use and the sound are all amazing. The bad. The Sonos speakers are big WiFi hogs. Had I read the reviews and Sonos users portal, I would not have purchased them. The speakers consistently drop out. All due to the WiFi network. I’ve been through three providers and the outcome is always the same. I’ve called Sonos and they work some magic, all works for about 15 minutes. Of course this is after I’ve hung up with support. The connectivity issue is all you find on the user portal. It is a major issue with Sonos, If you have more than on speaker. I have the surround setup and when it works, it is amazing. However the sub, play ones and occasionally the sound bar all drop off. If I had to guess, I’d say yesterday with all day Christmas music playing, the play ones and sub dropped off 10-15 times for 10-30 seconds. Sonos tells me the fix is a new router. Not the crappy ones you get with your internet provider. Thanks Sonos for the help. Once again had I known what I know now, I would have bought the Bose. It uses RF to link speakers and one speaker hooked to WiFi.
2018-12-25
Love Sonos...not Crazy about the app
I have had Sonos since it was first introduced. Initial the App was easy to use and straight forward. With each update and added functionality it has gotten more confusing and less intuitive. My poor wife doesn’t even like using it anymore..... the app is packed with options, but for everyday use it is a pain. Unless you have something saved in your shortcuts, you have to rethink how to select and find music channels that I want. I consider myself somewhat technology literate and find myself pausing trying to figure out how to do things. For people who are confused easily by technology this app will drive you crazy. I know .... I hear from my wife all the time. I think Sonos needs to use the KISS methodology (keep it simple stupid ) and redesign this app and let the average person test it and not a bunch of engineers. I wish I could rate the Sonos speakers and system separately because I would give it five stars. The app needs to be easier to use for basic functionality for the technically challenge. If you make it easier to use....my wife might let me buy another speaker…
2018-12-16
Unexpected Dissatisfaction
My family has been a frequent costumer of Sonos, with over 5 speakers all over our house in a variety of sizes. For the past 6 years since we’ve gotten our first speaker, the sound bar, we have been very pleased with our (expensive, yet) great quality speakers. They will cut out every now and then, most noticeable during movies, but that was only a slight annoyance compared to what we are dealing with now. Perhaps it is part of a new update (we have the latest version, so the app being outdated should not be an issue), or simply the app crashing, meaning it will be back up and running within a week hopefully. But, since this morning, Sonos has let us down. An overall irritation, disappointment, and not what we paid for! The speakers (rooms) have been unable to group, and some speakers are silent, despite the loud volume it is set on (they are also all plugged in). We could select a song or artist or radio to play, but the speaker will simply not react whatsoever. Being a loyal patron of Sonos, my family and I are frustrated and hope this issue is resolved quickly, especially with the holidays.
But to those interested in purchasing one or more Sonos speakers, they have overall been a great investment for our family. We have been spoiled with these great speakers scattered around the house, making it so that when they suddenly fail to do what they are supposed to, it is especially aggravating.
2018-12-16
Auto updates are a MISTAKE
Sonos discontinued the ability to use the first remote controller they made and sold without telling anyone. All customers lost the ability to use the very expensive controllers they purchased . There is a second generation controller they made which is fabulous and still works. People can visit my home and controller the music without having to let them into my wi-fi network. I have had more than enough viruses and such from letting people use my network in the past that I simply do not allow it anymore. So the ability to have a remote hardware control device is a godsend. I am super happy with it. In fact, I bought three of them. I am seriously careful about updates and the day Sonos decides to have the 2nd generation controller not be supported, will be the day I do not do anymore updates. SO.... auto update... is not for me.
And the face that they are not listing exactly what is in the updates... well...that is just lazy. Since this system works over our home network with all our other devices and computers which we bank with and do other private things with... SONOS needs to tell us what is in these updates.
2018-12-15
Use to be Amazing now it is Garbage.
I have thousands of dollars worth of Sonos equipment that has turned into pile of junk because now all of a sudden things don’t work the way they use to. App is constantly loosing connection. When you change songs there is a unbelievable amount of latency now. Many times songs don’t play. They will literally go bankrupt if they don’t fix this pronto. This is their bread and butter. I even bought the latest Sonos amp, I have two play:5s with Subwoofer. I have playbar and 2 Sonos 1 in 5.1 setup with sub. I have two Sonos play:1 in bedroom. I am panicking because I have several holiday parties scheduled at my house and I am completely dependent on Sonos system. I could easily play any music I wanted from any service and I bragged about Sonos a lot. Now I am going to have to eat my words and afraid my parties are going to be ruined. My home is laterally Sonos showroom and it is definitely going to do unrepairable damage to their reputation and ruin my holiday parties.
Worst part is their customer support is non existent. I called in there was an over an hour wait. Now they are closed on weekend. They make y’all claims about 24/7 support don’t believe any of that. They ask you to post in their forums and hope someone like a power user replies.
2018-09-12
Updates frequently break the iPad app
The latest one simply removed the ability to play anything anywhere. Awesome!
Update: one of my favorite features is that Sonos can almost never process any command without restarting the app. And even more fun, the play/pause button is unreliable after it restarts. It may be playing but only offer “play,” or it may be paused and only offer “pause.” Leaving the house and want to turn off the music on the way out the door? Better sit down, maybe pour a drink. I left the music on all night recently because of this. I left convinced that it was off after at least a minute of toggling and waiting. Silly me. One must, I guess, use multiple devices to verify that a simple “pause” command was evaluated correctly.
Another great feature is the frequency of updates. I wish the updates would fix the problems, but they only seem to compound them. The annoying update notification inevitably lists something I don’t care about and then breaks some basic functionality. Whom exactly are you catering to, Sonos? Your customers? Someone else? What gives? Great, now Sonos works with all this stuff I don’t have or even want, but can’t manage any single task without a complete restart. You are optimizing for the wrong priorities. Take care of your customers or we will leave and never come back.
2018-09-01
Work around for 9.0?
I’ve been a Sonos user since very early on. I have two Play:1 speakers that I use as a stereo pair. I was very disappointed when the v9.0 update, which apparently enabled Air Play on the One (plus other current models), disabled the home screen controls for those of us using the legacy speakers. I’ve also experienced the same as others where the last ~20 seconds of each track would be cut off when I was playing from a locked iOS device. I keep nearly all my audio on my iPhone & iPad and generally play straight from those devices’ libraries instead of from my Mac, as the latter spends most of its time in sleep mode.
Surprisingly I just accidentally got the lock screen controls re-enabled and the end-of-track cutoff seems to have gone away. For some reason one of my speakers dropped off the system and I couldn’t get it to reconnect, so I did a full-on controller reset on my iPhone. I also unplugged both speakers and then basically set my system back up, as if it was new. No idea why, but like I said this has caused the end-of-track dropout to go away and my lock screen controls to come back (even though Sonos says explicitly in their release notes that this function has gone away for those without Air Play compatible speakers).
Very weird, but now my system’s back to how I’ve used and loved it for the past 6-7 years and it’s great! Hopefully some others might try this and have some luck getting full functionality back.
2018-08-28
AirPlay 2 failure is a dealbreaker.
I want to love my Sonos system, I really do. Unfortunately, the inability to use AirPlay 2 as intended (initiate listening session and control all aspects of playback, discovery, library manipulation etc from the individual native apps or, more importantly, assign playback location directly from iOS Control Center instead of through the slightly lacking Sonos app) is frustrating.
Tried everything including a two hour “support” session with Sonos. Nothing but an admission that AirPlay is “hard to implement AND yet maintain control over the data”. I know it’s getting old to complain about but the insatiable business model focused more on how to monetize users and user’s data than simply developing a good product is getting ridiculous and it’s preventing consumers from getting what they expect and pay for.
AirPlay 2 support for Airport Express is going to really hurt Sonos if they don't get this figured out quick! I just dusted off a few I had laying about. Saved me $600 (and lost Sonos the sales) since I already have good “dumb” speakers. My advice to Sonos: worry less about trying to make speakers “smart” and worry more about putting audio playback in its modern form (read:digital/streaming) first!
2018-08-17
Clean and simple but a little unstable
While the Sonos speakers themselves sound good for what they are, that quality was the second priority behind my purchase. The value in Sonos lies in the app and the SonosNet that the speakers create and cast. The system is remarkably convenient and has allowed to me enhance and rejuvenate a very good but aging setup. On this aspect alone I would contribute five stars.
The rub, however, is in the application. While, for the most part, the app/SonosNet interface and communication work well, there are irritating moments of dysfunction. The problem that I most often encounter is that the app will fail to communicate with the speakers for intermittent periods of time during which I cannot remotely control the components of my system. Less often, but proportionally more irritating, is when the sound from my Sonos Connect (which I use to port my home theatre into the SonosNet) will drop out repeatedly during a Netflix binge. This usually coincides with the previous problem and the two together constitute a significant disruption to the system’s functionality.
While the app works well and (for the most part) easily, small but significant interludes of instability lead me to lower my rating alongside my satisfaction.
2018-08-12
Disappointed
It’s a shame when you haven’t even had the chance to use the speaker and your already having problems. It just so happens that Sonos doesn’t have tech support available on the weekends to assist when the average human is needing it. I’m disappointed at the fact that I thought it would be a nice touch to bring the speaker to a bridal shower at a friends house for entertainment purposes. Connected it to the WiFi at her house, finally got everything setup and then couldn’t even use it because the speaker couldn’t just link to pandora without having my password. I couldn’t remember it to save my life. So I get it home the next day, and try to re-setup the speaker on the network in my house, thinking that this wouldn’t be so difficult according to the instruction video in the app/controller. I’ve unplugged the speaker, the router, plugged the Ethernet cable into a wireless router and the Internet box directly from the ISP, and nothing will work to have the speaker setup on my own network. The app/Controller instructs you to plug the Ethernet cable up and then wait for the mysterious green light that never comes on or to go to advanced settings which doesn’t appear anywhere in the app, or my personal favorite when the app tells you to select the SONOS wireless network that doesn’t appear. So lesson learned don’t take your Sonos anywhere and set it up unless you plan to leave it there!!! Because you won’t be able to set it up anywhere else!!!
2018-08-03
They have totally screwed this app
The last update added the functionality to connect third party devices. The problem is that adding that functionality removed the ability to control the volume using the external volume controls on the iPhone. Of course, no one told me I was making that trade off before the update or I wouldn’t have updated. HERE’S WHAT’S WORSE: while playing songs from the music app, it skips to the next song before finishing the one that’s playing. Tech support via Twitter was no help and referred me to the 800 number. I waited on hold for over 30 minutes on three different occasions. Finally, I spoke with a tech who tested the response times of all the devices on my network. Conclusion: my iPhone isn’t responding quickly enough. Solution: use the iPad. He told me that I could start music playing on my iPad and then use my iPhone as a controller. However, when I do that, the skipping returns. So, the net is that the update made things worse, tech support was difficult to reach, and nothing has been fixed. If this was just a matter of switching to a new service, I’d do it in a heartbeat. But, I have a healthy sum of money invested in Sonos hardware. Not so easy to make the switch.
2018-07-26
Used to be great but not anymore
The Sonos system used to be great but the latest updates have totally screwed my system. Although my ZP100 is wired, streaming radio drops out all the time when it never did before. The volume sometimes goes to zero, no input required. I haven’t been able to access the music library on my home server for years even though every other system in my house can access it. And now they’re going to disable the Sonos remote that I own because apparently they own it. I was a Sonos fan from the beginning but no more.
Update: Sonos has lost their way. With each successive release of the software more features are removed. I used to be able to see Sonos on my lock screen and adjust the volume. No more. (Yes I’ve seen the remarks about having other audio programs open which I closed although I didn’t have to do this before.) I used to be able to open the app and adjust the volume with the hardware buttons but now they’re stupid buttons and need to be pressed multiple times before they recognize they’ve been pressed. Changing rooms, overly complicated now. If you’re on the fence about buying a Sonos system I recommend that you don’t do it. What was once the best sound system available, bar none, is now an also ran due to the way they’ve crippled their app and forced you off the physical remote which still worked perfectly.
2018-07-24
Wish I'd started years sooner
UPDATE after July software update
Very buggy, lose a star. I wouldn’t have made these changes prepping for an IPO. Taking the controls off the lock screen has ruined the user experience. Enabling in Settings doesn’t work. Half the time volume controls don’t even work when the app is active. So many more taps to make basic functions work. These reviews tend to be hyperbolic but I’m not exaggerating. Really. I’m not. I’m calm. Again.
I've become a huge Sonos fan and wish I'd tried out the system years instead of mere months ago. I've dispersed four Play:1s around the house and have a Soundbar for home theater surround minus a Sub (so far). I've had zero of the problems I see in other reviews. The software is Apple quality and while not audiophile caliber the hardware is the best digital reproduction I've heard. I wish I could control the volume on my locked phone from the phone volume buttons as I can with the Apple music app, and I wish the rest of the album/playlist would play when I start with a song in the middle. Other than that, I'm totally satisfied.
2018-07-23
Great When It Works
We put Sonos in our new construction home three years ago, and while the concept is fantastic, we’ve had several issues in the three years since it’s installation. The two most frustrating issues have been:
1) It does not sync perfectly with the music library on the device from which you’re operating it from; for example, I tend to use my iPad Pro with my ENTIRE music library on the device in iTunes, yet there are several songs that cannot be found through the Sonos app, and after spending several hours and multiple calls to Sonos tech support they blame iTunes and threw their hands up. The music is clearly on my device yet the Sonos app can’t “see” all of the music “on this device”, very frustrating!
2) Often when we go to use the Sonos app on any of our devices (2 iPhones and 1 iPad) it cannot connect to the network and will not come up on the device, suggesting that you reboot the router. This is a hassle and inconvenience, and it happens about 50% of the time.
Overall, love the concept and it’s great WHEN it works, but it’s quirks and functionality have made me question whether it was truly worth the investment we made when there are so many Bluetooth devices and streaming services available on the market.
2018-05-11
Updated: I love Sonos. The app isn't perfect, but it's acceptable.
Updated: I don't know that I'll ever love the new app design but they've definitely improved it since my last 2-star review. The Sonos experience as a whole is 5 stars. I love these devices, plain and simple.
Original Review: I'm split on this review, obviously. It's tempting to defiantly throw up a 1-star review and walk away without explanation but that would be unfair to a product that really is a standout. I've been a Sonos evangelist for years and years. The system has always been rock solid and the app intuitive -- flawless hardware and software. That all changed with the latest major version of the app. It's so confounding to those of us that have loved this product for years. I don't care that it's white -- stupid quibble. People can get over that. But the actual interactions I have with it while trying to play music in different rooms never seem to get easier. I eventually get what I want but it's not before cursing the new app several times for tricking me into the wrong area.
I want so badly for Sonos to acknowledge their error and revert to the older-style navigation. It would be an easy 5-star review from me again.
2018-05-05
Songs on iPhone and iPad cut short
When I attempt to play any iTune playlists that I’ve loaded onto either my iPhone or my iPad the first few songs will play all the way through, but eventually Sonos will begin to only play part of a song and then it will skip to the next song, playing only part of that song and then skipping to the next song, and so on from that point on. I searched online and found that hundreds of other people are having the same problem and it appears there is no resolution for it yet. Sonos support wants to blame people’s routers but I have a hard time believing that hundreds of routers are dropping their connection at about the same exact point in every song. Also, if it was my router dropping the connection then why do the first few songs of a playlist always play all the way through, but then at some point they begin skipping part way through. I think Sonos needs to swallow their pride and hire some hotshot technicians/programmers to resolve this.
2018-03-14
Sound is great but customer service is a disaster
Love the sound and the app overall works well. Sonos customer service, however, is really bad. They obviously make it difficult to speak to someone or quickly resolve a problem. And they are closed on weekends. Joy. Our Sonos players are frozen as part of an update (8.4). The trouble shooting didn’t solve the problem and there is no way to play music. I guess we won’t be playing music at our dinner party tonight. I suppose this one downside of technology upgrades.
Update: After 20 minutes on hold, I spoke with customer service. Went through all of the troubleshooting issues that were on the website. Didn’t solve problem. Apparently it is a hardware issue and I need to get a new modem for my Sonos system to update and function properly. It is what it is - the price of technology. My customer rep was really smart and patient, so I changed my review from 2 stars to 3 stars.
2018-02-09
Update - working again
Update - Developer responded quickly and recommended I call customer service. It’s difficult for me to call customer service during their posted hours so I performed a factory reset of all speakers and decided to “start over”. Took awhile to get the first couple connected, but eventually all are connected and have been working for a few days now.
Original review- New to Sonos as of December 2017. Everything worked fine for a couple weeks and then the app was nearly useless with January update. The next upgrade helped some but still really inconsistent connection between my devices and Sonos network. Right now I have 3 controllers working but my iPhone will not connect, even after multiple restarts, app re-loads, etc. When this happened previously, Sonos support told me to resubmit a diagnostic even after having submitted, twice. No luck in resolving it.
I really want this to work so I hope it’s user error, but I’m going on a month now with extremely inconsistent performance by the system.
2018-01-30
Fantastic product, lousy UX
I hate to agree with another reviewer that criticized the latest update, but as a professional app developer, even I struggle with he new updated app. I have eleven Sonos products throughout my house and have been using it so long that several of my products are now obsolete. And until the controller was redesigned, I too have been a Sonos evangelist, telling anyone that would listen that they need to get rid of their stereo and get Sonos.
The steps involved in performing the simplest operations now require travelling all over the app in ways that are highly non-intuitive. We have replaced our alarm clocks with Sonos units and it's a maze to turn off my daughter's alarm when school is delayed. After many, many years using the system, I now fumble and frequently put my music in the wrong room, lose queues, and struggle to get the tunes that I want.
The product is great. I love having all of my music from a wide variety of sources in one place. I love being able to control music throughout my house, and yard, and workshop with one system. The sound quality is fantastic. But the new UI has to be rethought and re-redesigned.
2018-01-30
Slick kludge (not anymore)
Update: Changed my rating from 2 stars for v. 8 to 4 stars for v. 8.3.1. Especially impressed by your response to user feedback. There is zero chance of my buying a HomePod or whatever it’s called now.
Archive this: Disappointing update people. I cannot understand how you’re getting 5 star reviews from anyone who’s used the controller for any length of time. First, and forgetting the UI’s appearance for a second, the move to privilege songs over albums is misguided. Choosing an album now gives me a mountain of icons for individual songs to choose from that album. It’s unclear how to just play an album or add an album to the queue with one click or a hard press as in prior versions. Also, the Rooms navigation is awful. There used to be immediate access at the top of the screen to individual rooms. Navigating to the list now, even with the button on the bottom is aggravating. It should always be available on screen. You have complicated the controller in many ways under the guise of simplifying the look of the interface. The interface is cleaner, yes, and I don’t mind the white as others do. What bugs me is that the cleanliness of the look destroyed the ease of use that was there up to now. I don’t want to fumble around relearning how to use the controller effectively. I just want to listen to music quickly and easily. I especially want to be able to play albums quickly and easily. Looking forward to version 9.
2018-01-01
Amazing system, difficult app that keeps getting worse
The Sonos system itself has literally no real competition, so there's nothing much to say there. If you want an integrated wireless hifi system for your house that actually works, and supports all the major streaming/storage providers it’s the only game in town.
The controller app, however, is a rolling disaster that manages to keep getting worse with each subsequent redesign. The latest major update apes the design of the iOS music app but it’s just an impossibly poor fit: there are two separate “room” interfaces and you will always, inevitably, pick the wrong one for the action you want to do. Volume controls are hidden in a slide-up “now playing” card which, when expanded, hides the shortcut links to everything. Getting simple things done is like swimming through molasses: someone at Sonos needs to sit down and do some actual user testing for this stuff.
The good news is that they’ve mostly ignored the OS X/windows controller applications, so the interface there is still actually usable. And like I said, it’s the only game in town so what are you gonna do?
2017-12-13
How did we live without it
So with all of the technology i have brought through the house this is the only thing my wife has said "how did we live without it?" And she can control it with no issue. That means it is simple (very simple). This was recommended to me by family and when I actually heard it I was hooked. It is on constantly and I am ready to expand to other rooms. Expansion is extremely easy. Love it. I have others come to the house and wonder how I always have such a wide variety of music. Hey, I have all the music on earth. I have even installed it in a local business that I deal with. They love it for the ease of changing music without having to go to one location where the old system was, just pull out the phone and make a change. Need an expansion to a new area, drop in a SONOS. Want different music in different areas, light music on the floor, rock in the repair area, just a phone or pc app away. Need the music off in the classroom, out comes the phone. So easy, so versatile.
2017-12-12
Update - I’m starting to get mad! New update still needs a bug fix
Update: my Sonos streams now randomly cut out when I open my iPad - not when I open the app itself (which may have been running in the background - I don’t know). I know my brother has been complaining about the same thing for the past couple of weeks, and he’s in a different state with a different ISP. It may not be the Sonos app causing the problem, but I think it is.
Original review: I am not able to switch rooms in the app. The room selector will not change rooms even after I deselect a room and select another room. I am only able to change rooms if I group the room I want with another room, and then deselect the room I grouped. It happens on my iPhone 7 and iPad Pro. I am running the latest iOS, and updated Sonos controller. The room selector menu is also hard to find. Really bad.
BTW, I have a 6-zone Sonos system, and have been an ardent supporter since the early days of the company.
2017-11-27
If you're not happy with Sonos - Call Support - Free & US based
Pros:
We have had Sonos for over two years. We have 13 speakers throughout our house. It is the best thing ever! Recommend it to all my friends and usually have them come over to hear the system. For those of you having connection & disconnect problems please call their US-based technical support team FOR FREE! They are incredible! They will spend as much time as necessary to get your system up and running properly including running remote diagnostics. I wish other companies had such wonderful support for their products. I understand they have FREE lifetime telephone support as long as you own their product. How great is that?
Cons:
Sonos keeps changing their apps. It used to be so simple and wonderful to use. Then they came out with their new version of the app which is so much more complicated and harder to find where certain menus are located. I don't understand why they have to keep relocating menus....leave well enough alone! You had a great app and menus were very easy to find. (I still highly recommend the product!)
2017-11-23
Upgrade is Horrible
I have owned Sonos from it’s inception. My two dozen speakers are used at my home, office and vacation home. Until now I have had ZERO complaints- only praise! In fact, I have encouraged my friends and family to buy Sonos and given the speakers as gifts - until now.
The new interface is non intuitive and confusing. Actually, it is COUNTER INTUITIVE. My friends, family and office staff have turned against me for providing them a monster of a music system. I am now the one asked to tune in the music that they desire because no one can figure it out (or don’t have the time to try to figure it out). Then I embarrassingly struggle to fulfill their request, and screw it up anyway.
However, not all hope is lost! Sonos, if you want me to give you the five stars that you really deserve, fire the individual in charge of this most recent downgrade. Please post a photo of them exiting the building carrying their personal items in a cardboard box.
Then get the app back to the way it was, with a few interface tweaks that are intuitive.
Sonos, this is the “New Coke” of the 21st Century (look it up Millennials). You can fix it!
2017-11-19
Sonos Lover but...
Have used sonos for seven years and really really love it. But, I hate the new app update Oct 2017. Used to be smooth and seamless but the app on my iPhone is now awkward, hard to read, difficulty finding and searching the music and get it going, difficult to get the rooms playing together, and requiring extra steps making playing music from my phone something I don't want to do anymore. If I want to change music I get up and go to my desktop. Please please change this back to what it was.
Update: just got another update hoping this would fix everything and now it's worse. All my pandora stations are sorted by the date I created them and not in alphabetical order. I went to the settings to change this back to alphabetical and changing the settings does not fix the problem. I have to scroll through all of my stations and read everyone in order to find the one I want to because I do not know and do not care what date I created a station. Ugh! My sonos love is all gone.
2017-11-07
Speakers are great this update is infuriating
This update of the app is disappointing for three reasons. First the UI has changed making it more difficult to navigate through two rooms and the primary view for your playlists and favorites only shows a handful you need to click show all to see your entire lists. Second it seems to be performing less reliably than before. Rooms are dropped the last played audio is forgotten and groupings are frequently forgotten. Finally this app insists that you register a Sonos account in order to use all the features. This is absolutely ridiculous. It was working fine without a proprietary Sonos account before there is no new feature I need that should require a Sonos account. I do not want to sign up for another account on some other companies website that can be hacked or preached or used to harvest my personal information ways that I can’t control. I would much prefer that all the information at Sonos needs to be stored locally on either one of my controllers or on some of the hardware.
2017-10-31
Horrible app update for a great system
The usability of the latest app update is just terrible. It's hard to believe this was actually green-lighted by the Sonos product team. The new UX makes it very frustrating for long time customers to figure out how to use the system in a multi (5) speaker household. It's a pain to find/select favorites, switch between speakers, etc. Other reviews have already covered the main usability challenges so I won't rehash. I trust that the Sonos product/UX team is working hard to address these issues (hopefully putting ego aside). 2 stars only for now till these serious usability problems are fixed in a subsequent update. Good luck.
Previous review from ~2 years ago:
-----------------------------------
The Sonos app has been much improved over the past 6 months with the latest few updates, both in terms of usability and interaction design as well as in support of additional music sources. The Sonos system itself is top notch -- smooth, uninterrupted audio play with great sound.
2017-10-20
Latest update is awful!
Omg this is terrible! I wish there was a way to uninstall this latest update! We have (had!) three rooms on this system. Since the update the only way to switch off one of the rooms was to pull the power cord! What kind of control is that? And I suppose that means this room is now unusable! This really needs to be addressed - I paid a lot of money for this system!
UPDATE: it has taken a little while to get used to the new UI. I will also say the the new version was a lot more temperamental with Google Wifi - because the four speakers were reaching different access points it was hit and miss. However Google recently updated Google Wifi and that made things a lot better. I also plugged one of the speakers into an access point ethernet, which creates a dedicated Sonos network, and everything is now perfect again! I've changed the review to 4 stars. I still don't like the new UI, but in all fairness the whole system really does work extremely well.
2017-10-16
Mystifying changes to a good app
Great product, but The latest app made bad changes to the interface for rooms management. It seems to be oriented to playing the same thing in multiple rooms but the implementation makes individual room control a gigantic pain. To switch rooms you have to uncheck one room and check the other. Oh, and If you flick The tab down rather than hitting “Done” start over. You will think unchecking a room turns off the music. It doesn’t. That may be ok, but I was so confused I wasn’t sure. Then there is this bug: In my case when unchecking dining room and checking family room (which I wanted to turn off), after hitting “Done” it kept going back to Dining room which happens to be he first name in the list. The only way I could turn off the music in the Family room was grouping both rooms and hitting off. I would trash this whole concept. Roll it back one version guys and forget this.
2017-10-14
New version UI is poor. Used to be 5*
Revised 10/14 on new version. I hate the new layout. I do not find it intuitive and still struggle to figure out how to pick music to play in a particular room. Also, My favorites used to scroll vertically, making them easy to sort through as I could see many of them on the screen at the same time. Now they scroll horizontally and have huge icons, meaning I can only see one station at a time. This app used to be 5star worth and set it apart from the crowd.
Original review:
I seem to keep finding reasons to expand my system, it gets pretty addictive. I mostly use Pandora or other internet radio type stations. Streaming music to a speaker via Bluetooth is not the same! The speakers are more like today's smart TV's, with apps built in that run autonomously, the phone is just a remote control. Software navigation is incredibly easy and the speakers all sound amazing! I have a Play 1 in both my bedroom and home office, a Play 5 in my living room, a Playbar/Sub/Play1 surround system hooked to my Sony Bravia TV in the family room, and am waiting on a connect amp to arrive for my outdoor speakers. They can all play different stations, or group them together as needed during house parties.
2017-09-09
Works as advertised...Great!
Over the past 3 years I have acquired the SONOS products to include the Play 1 and Play 5, several Connects and several SONOS Amps to control music throughout the house. It has allowed me to use some of my legacy speakers very effectively.
The controller app works well but I am a tech person so easily understand some of the nuances to the features. My wife can use it well enough to play her favorites as well. I will note that as more features are added to the controller app, it gets more complicated and those technically challenged don't find it as easy to navigate the controls. Great products though and the sound can be perfectly matched to any room.
One issue I discovered is that SiriusXM limits the number of simultaneous streams so if you are trying to play a channel in multiple rooms you will get a message cutting off the stream. I think their max is 2 or 3 simultaneous. Pandora works well for whole house events.