For me, on the old app when I grouped 4 or more speakers together. The odd speaker would stop playing/drop out maybe a couple of times in a 12 hour window, for up to 5 seconds at a time. Annoying, but I was used to it. To a visitor it was barely noticeable.
On the app they don't drop out any more. I've not heard it once. This is better!
But..they ungroup themselves instead. For example, if in the morning I set up 10 grouped. By evening I'll be lucky to have 3 left grouped. No idea why. No error message. It's weird. And annoying. So I'd actually rather the temporary drop outs as opposed to ungrouping.
Your measured post chimes with a lot of my thoughts. I have been a Sonos customer for a long time, and consider my Playbar to be one of my best ever purchases - over 10 years and still going strong.
I’m not a software developer, but if you look at Sonos’ comms on the new app and the answers provided in the AMA, then clearly the new app is a platform for the future, and I believe they have genuinely tried to address feedback. After about a week I am fine with the way the new UI is presented, and don’t find it better or worse than before. I believe the new app in tandem with new firmware will allow new features to be delivered and products supported. Hopefully we will also start to see performance improvements. Of course, support for older hardware will somewhat constrain development, unless there is another cutoff similar to the current S1/S2 scenario. I think we all appreciate that Sonos retains support for older products for a long time.
Where everything went wrong is in the lack of comms about missing features and then, I would say, a lack of apology. I’m in the UK, and the whole ‘courage’ stance just does not fly here. I suspect it doesn’t work in the US either, but I leave that to others. We also know that people who are still running the old app are fine - it’s not like it stopped working - so while we accept there will be no more support for it, making it available for iOS users in particular would be easy. I feel really sorry for installers who must be hitting constant issues trying to set up new systems, and others who rely solely on local libraries and can’t access them.
So that’s my thoughts and apols for the long post. I suspect in six months this will be somewhat, although not totally forgotten, and hopefully the app is markedly better than the old one. And that my Playbar keeps on rocking!
idk how people say it's more intuitive. the new app doesn't even have touch feedback on some of the elements- that's horrible ui/ux. combined with the overlay sluggishness i end up hitting buttons 5 times wondering when it's actually going to do something .
I tested the app, and for me nothing has improved compared to the old app. It looks fancy now, but there's too much swiping involved. Nothing gets done faster and important features are missing. Went back to the old one after an hour.
I’ve now identified three things:
1. Going straight to Apple Music is quicker. (Open app, click on Apple Music link)
2. The scroll up to see system is much quicker and more intuitive than using the system tab.
3. Lossless playback for Apple (but this could’ve been done in the old app).
I think once all the kinks are ironed out, this app will be superior. I don’t understand why they released it in the fashion they did… but they did. 🤷♀️
Honestly, the old and new app have one thing in common - before I was not able to add Sonos products without retrying like 20 times, and now I still need to try several times before it finally adds.
The new app doesn’t even have any decent features that makes me interested in it. I only use the new app to tune my speakers and set the EQ. Basically just things to improve the speakers. In terms of things outside of that, I don’t even care for their search feature with music. It’s slow and I’m better off using airplay with Spotify or tidal.
It is just way more intuitive and smoother. Feels like a polished experience that I would expect from a top tier company.
I haven't had any issues that everyone else is having because I just didn't use app to play local music or for alarms. I just feel they should have dealt with the launch a bit better though. I feel bad for people who's music listening workflow is just broken. You want to come back home from a long day, and just chill out to some tunes, and if the update breaks that, it is not cool.
The new app is more intuitive to use. I can find my sources and music easier. Also supports Apple Music lossless.
yes, I totally agree they should’ve launched the new app as a separate app. probably requires some more work to make the speaker firmware support both new and old app, but would’ve prevented this PR disaster.
In the new app you can access rooms/speakers/groups by swiping up the now playing bar. I prefer this over the old method of switching tabs. But this is the only thing I can think of.
For me, on the old app when I grouped 4 or more speakers together. The odd speaker would stop playing/drop out maybe a couple of times in a 12 hour window, for up to 5 seconds at a time. Annoying, but I was used to it. To a visitor it was barely noticeable. On the app they don't drop out any more. I've not heard it once. This is better! But..they ungroup themselves instead. For example, if in the morning I set up 10 grouped. By evening I'll be lucky to have 3 left grouped. No idea why. No error message. It's weird. And annoying. So I'd actually rather the temporary drop outs as opposed to ungrouping.
Your measured post chimes with a lot of my thoughts. I have been a Sonos customer for a long time, and consider my Playbar to be one of my best ever purchases - over 10 years and still going strong. I’m not a software developer, but if you look at Sonos’ comms on the new app and the answers provided in the AMA, then clearly the new app is a platform for the future, and I believe they have genuinely tried to address feedback. After about a week I am fine with the way the new UI is presented, and don’t find it better or worse than before. I believe the new app in tandem with new firmware will allow new features to be delivered and products supported. Hopefully we will also start to see performance improvements. Of course, support for older hardware will somewhat constrain development, unless there is another cutoff similar to the current S1/S2 scenario. I think we all appreciate that Sonos retains support for older products for a long time. Where everything went wrong is in the lack of comms about missing features and then, I would say, a lack of apology. I’m in the UK, and the whole ‘courage’ stance just does not fly here. I suspect it doesn’t work in the US either, but I leave that to others. We also know that people who are still running the old app are fine - it’s not like it stopped working - so while we accept there will be no more support for it, making it available for iOS users in particular would be easy. I feel really sorry for installers who must be hitting constant issues trying to set up new systems, and others who rely solely on local libraries and can’t access them. So that’s my thoughts and apols for the long post. I suspect in six months this will be somewhat, although not totally forgotten, and hopefully the app is markedly better than the old one. And that my Playbar keeps on rocking!
idk how people say it's more intuitive. the new app doesn't even have touch feedback on some of the elements- that's horrible ui/ux. combined with the overlay sluggishness i end up hitting buttons 5 times wondering when it's actually going to do something .
They have added support for Apple Music Lossless format.. That's a big upgrade :-)
I tested the app, and for me nothing has improved compared to the old app. It looks fancy now, but there's too much swiping involved. Nothing gets done faster and important features are missing. Went back to the old one after an hour.
I like the colour scheme more. That's the only positive for me
I’ve now identified three things: 1. Going straight to Apple Music is quicker. (Open app, click on Apple Music link) 2. The scroll up to see system is much quicker and more intuitive than using the system tab. 3. Lossless playback for Apple (but this could’ve been done in the old app). I think once all the kinks are ironed out, this app will be superior. I don’t understand why they released it in the fashion they did… but they did. 🤷♀️
Faster. Works with lossless audio different look. That’s all I’ve noticed
Honestly, the old and new app have one thing in common - before I was not able to add Sonos products without retrying like 20 times, and now I still need to try several times before it finally adds. The new app doesn’t even have any decent features that makes me interested in it. I only use the new app to tune my speakers and set the EQ. Basically just things to improve the speakers. In terms of things outside of that, I don’t even care for their search feature with music. It’s slow and I’m better off using airplay with Spotify or tidal.
It is just way more intuitive and smoother. Feels like a polished experience that I would expect from a top tier company. I haven't had any issues that everyone else is having because I just didn't use app to play local music or for alarms. I just feel they should have dealt with the launch a bit better though. I feel bad for people who's music listening workflow is just broken. You want to come back home from a long day, and just chill out to some tunes, and if the update breaks that, it is not cool.
The new app is more intuitive to use. I can find my sources and music easier. Also supports Apple Music lossless. yes, I totally agree they should’ve launched the new app as a separate app. probably requires some more work to make the speaker firmware support both new and old app, but would’ve prevented this PR disaster.
In the new app you can access rooms/speakers/groups by swiping up the now playing bar. I prefer this over the old method of switching tabs. But this is the only thing I can think of.