Sonos 4+

I see the hate and love relationship here. The transition between the old and new app definitely messed some people up but not for me. I don’t know how people’s speakers were lost during the transition, but I can only think of it being a WiFi issue or user error. As a person who works in people’s homes, I can say most of the tech issues are because they don’t know what they’re doing. I mean, it could be the app but I’m just saying.

I wasn’t able to update to the Gen 2 app because I was still using a ZP80. I had no idea. At first, I thought my whole entire system couldn’t be updated because Sonos called all my equipment old. This made me angry, knowing all my Sonos from barely a year ago is on a decline. Then I noticed that I was able to check the “compatible” equipment, to which is told me my very old connect was the thing holding me back. I removed it and now all my Sonos is under the new app. No issues with the app or speakers of course.

I guess what I’m saying here is Sonos poor communication and stating “anything before May 2020” is considered gen 1 is not only inaccurate it makes people think all the wrong things. ALL my Sonos works with the new app, old and new, just not my Sonos Connect from 2015. It still works with the old app, however. Sonos needs to rectify this with their consumers.

When the app works, it’s the same as the previous version. When it doesn’t and speakers disappear mid listening session or suddenly you are
“Unable to Connect,” it’s infuriating. God forbid you want to switch stations or songs... you’ll undo anything you fixed the previous day.
There can literally be sound coming out of a speaker and the app will be unable to see it. The issues are resolvable (you basically end up re-adding the speaker... sometimes 3-4 times), but it can take minutes to up to 30 minutes depending on the situation-it was a 20-minute fix session that prompted me to finally review. That wouldn’t be so bad, but it happens EVERY SINGLE DAY. Only the days that I only listened to one thing on one speaker have I NOT had an issue I had to fix. I don’t buy the user-error arguments here. I never had issues like this with the previous app/firmware, and my WiFi config is exactly the same. If there’s a universal cause that is my fault, great, tell me what it is, and I’ll fix it.
This app was not ready for prime time. The number one development rule in every software company I’ve worked for is you can’t break your existing customers. I love SONOS, but I feel like I’m driving a Ferrari with two flat tires at the moment.

I generally like the SONOS system and the ability to play same or different music. Sound quality is good but system is expensive. It works great with Apple airplay. But the app is worthless except for setting up the system. Fortunately, unlike others I lost no hardware functionality in upgrading the app. While the app can finally sort of handle large playlists, it takes so long and crashes so often it is pointless. Even small playlists take a long time to load, much longer than the “old” app does. I have the new app on my phone and old app on iPad and have compared performance. I see a lot of lost functionality with no improvements. I can find no way to edit the queue, there is no way to show a list of “stations”, there is no sleep timer. Adding sources as a separate entry from services might be good for some people but not for me. Albums and songs are gone. I never used songs but like albums. The biggest loss to me was removing “playlists” which could even be created using the app. Be aware that when you update the app it will change the default service to SONOS radio. I am always amazed at how app updates are so often not user friendly or lose functionality. Is no user input or testing done. Because of the problem handling large playlists I seldom used the app. With the losses, I see no use for the app except for setting up the system. I will continue to just use airplay.