Current state of the Sonos app?

By Stoo, 16 July, 2024

Forum
iOS and iPadOS

Hi all, I've been toying with jumping into the Sonos ecosystem, however after all the problems with the app being broken for Voiceover support I have been holding off.

What is the current state of accessibility? Is it okay for me to invest in a Sonos product right now, or should I either hold off longer, or just not bother at all.

Any info welcomed.

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Comments

By mr grieves on Sunday, July 14, 2024 - 20:39

I can't compare it to any competitors, but the phone app is perfectly usable, although not as good as it used to be.

The main area of the app is the home screen. It's a bit of a sprawling huge list of absolutely everything and it really needs headings. But I don't particularly have much trouble getting through it. My biggest thing is that I find it a little hard to know which room something is going to play to. There are a few scruffy edges like some buttons that appear as something like "chevron right" or something but nothing too serious.

Personally I don't use it a huge amount anyway - I might adjust speaker volumes with it sometimes or start a Spotify playlist going but that's about it.

If I want music while I'm working I will use Spotify on the Mac, then I can use Spotify Connect to play through the Sonos which works well. I use Sonos Voice Control a lot (so Hey Sonos, add office to kitchen group" or "Hey Sonos, turn volume up in office" or whatever.

You can also use Alexa to play music which I will do for listening to the radio. You can use Sonos Voice Control to start music too although I don't tend to do that.

If you want to control Sonos from a PR or Mac then the Sonos Web Interface is kinda horrible. It's accessible I think but I just find it so overwhelmingly complicated that I can't be bothered with it. But maybe with more effort it might be usable.
So for my own use cases, I love my Sonos system on the whole. The app is good enough without being great but I don't tend to have any trouble doing what I need to do.

The recent problems with the app have at least demonstrated that Sonos are committed to providing an app that we can use with VoiceOver. I hope they aren't finished with it yet but it has made me feel at least somewhat confident that the whole thing is unlikely to be taken away from me permanently.