Ahead of 200 posts ripping Sonos left & right for the new app with words like "destroyed", "useless", etc, I'll offer this:
- Apple people do not even need to touch the new app in a Sonos system already set up. I've owned Sonos speakers for years, use them nearly every day and just about never open the iDevice app. Instead I play music to them from Apple Music app (just as one can airplay to any other speakers too). Friends with them set up as home theater speakers just turn on their TV and their remote controls them (no app required). When I do use the new app to play- say- the Sonos music stations themselves (or Pandora/tunein/etc), it works just fine for me.
- The Mac Sonos app is still readily available as the "same old Mac app" for anyone willing to "workaround" if they don't like the new app. While less convenient than one on a mobile device, it is fully functional as a workaround until the new app gets to where one judges it needs to be.
- I've helped friends set up new Sonos systems since the new app was released and all went just fine using the new app.
- Objective reviews often rank Sonos towards the top of all smart speaker choices. Perhaps that's part of the problem here since Apple also sells smart speakers? All Apple competitors are bad, bad, bad.
- The new app is a wholesale change from the old app... exactly like Apple sometimes makes wholesale changes to apps. Those who do not like change vent.
- The new app appears to be an attempt to bring most popular uses of their app to the top. Previously, they were often multiple clicks away, but now you can design the "home" page as you want it and it's one click to play. I learned how to build the top "home" page as I want it and very much appreciate one click to anything I want to play now... vs. how the old app handled it.
- The new app has been out a good while now... and has had multiple updates to put some missing features back in again.
All that is not to say there were NO problems with the new app:
many did have some negative experience with it- especially on release quite a while ago. Wholesale change requires learning new ways to do old things and that sometimes gets a lot of gripes all to itself. In Sonos's RUSH to release it, they did not include some features available in the old app... and subtraction of features/functionality often yields gripes. Sonos clearly could have handled the change much better than they did but the rush to new revenue seems to have overridden enough beta testing to try to get it right the first time. Our favorite company makes that same mistake on an annual basis these days.
The point of this post is to help those who may read the thread understand that it's not all abominationationally terrible doom & gloom destruction & futility for all Apple people everywhere who own or want to own Sonos equipment... even if it appears that way by the time you get to post 100 or so. In the ways speakers are mostly used with Apple stuff, one doesn't even have to open the Sonos app at all (and could even delete it entirely with no consequence). Friends with recent installations gush & praise how well their setups sound, work, work with AppleTV-based setups, play home-shared media or airplayed music, etc... none of which requires opening the Sonos app at all.
If you want some smart speakers that have already worked out a solid surround sound setup with subwoofer (vs. only stereo at best HomePods) from a company focused on only speakers (vs. that being a hobby-like sideline) and like what you read on
objective sites and in
objective reviews about Sonos, consider buying from someone with a solid return policy and then HEAR with
your own ears in
your own home. If it's as bad as some say, return them. And if it's as it has been for my own friends (and myself), you'll probably find they are quite great in a mostly-to-fully Apple home.
Now on with the brand bashfest... 🍿
