Sonos Delivers New Ways to Control Your Music

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I have a wide range of audio devices from which to choose. The one I use most? My Sonos system. (Check out our Setting Up Sonos video here.) Sonos has expanded their speaker offerings but the iOS and Android apps have remains mostly unchanged. Until now. New apps are on the way and they promise more music enjoyment than ever.

 

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Sonos has seen huge growth over the past years. There’s good reason for that since the system is a terrific way to enjoy music, it offers great sound, a variety of different speakers from which to choose and an app that lets you stream directly from devices or tap into a huge range of streaming music services. My biggest frustration with the Sonos streaming ecosystem has been the app. It works well enough but it can have a bit of a lag and it takes numerous taps to get where you want to be. That changes this spring when the new iOS and Android apps are released. You can, however, check out a Beta build of the Android version now. Read on to find out how.

Sonos app search

The new Sonos app is rebuilt from the ground up. It has a new UI that not only looks great but also gives you even faster access to your music. (I’m SOOO happy about that.) One neat feature it will bring is universal music search. That means that, instead of having to look within each music service to find the music you want you can quickly search and find all the places where an artist’s work exists on the Sonos system.

Sonos: Switching on music should be as simple as turning on the lights.

The folks at Sonos noted that,

Creating an app that keeps up with your needs means we have to consider factors that most apps, which are designed for one user, rarely face. We must design for multiple dimensions that are constantly changing and different for every listener:

The way you use music services (now and over time)

The fact that you might not be the only listener in your home

The number of rooms you want to play to.

The app has a new design and a simplified interface that promises to make listening to Sonos more intuitive than ever before. The app has three main modules that allow for a simple navigation between the music currently playing, what room it’s playing in and how to find the next song you want.

SIMPLIFIED, MODULAR INTERFACE: A redesigned interface that makes accessing and listening to music all over your home easier.

IMPROVED SEARCH: Explore all the new ways to enjoy your favorite artists, tracks, and genres. Search simultaneously across music services; find little known covers, remixes and playlists from your favorite artists.

DISCOVER MORE MUSIC: Click on a service to get a full description before you press play

You can read the Sonos Blog post and, if you are an Android user, sign up to get in on the Beta of the new app here.

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About the Author

Dan Cohen
Having a father who was heavily involved in early laser and fiber-optical research, Dan grew up surrounded by technology and gadgets. Dan’s father brought home one of the very first video games when he was young and Dan remembers seeing a “pre-release” touchtone phone. (When he asked his father what the “#” and “*” buttons were his dad said, “Some day, far in the future, we’ll have some use for them.”) Technology seemed to be in Dan’s blood but at some point he took a different path and ended up in the clergy. His passion for technology and gadgets never left him. Dan is married to Raina Goldberg who is also an avid user of Apple products. They live in New Jersey with their golden doodle Nava.