- Major changes to navigation and volume control.
- Available in a new beta this week
- Opt-in instead of enabling by default
Sonos has announced a set of new changes to the Sonos app, and you’ll be able to try out the new version this week as a beta if you wish.
In a post on Reddit, Sonos CEO Tom Conrad says that after “hundreds of hours watching real customers use the Sonos app,” his team has identified many irritants and pain points. “We’ve learned a lot about what blocks people, what’s confusing when you’re new to the system, and what slows you down when you’re just trying to change the damn volume.”
In response, Sonos is making a lot of changes to the app, including how to turn the volume up and down.
So far, the post has generated many positive responses, including Daveintausend’s current top comment: “I never thought I’d say this, but I’m excited for better volume control.”
What changes are coming to the Sonos app?
A new beta version will be released this week, with significant changes to the interface. As Conrad put it: “What kept showing up was this: A lot of friction came from proprietary patterns we created that made the app harder to learn and use than it needed to be. Stacks upon stacks upon stacks of content cards. Swipe-up gestures to change speaker orientation. Closing boxes where every other app on your phone would have a back button. Custom interface elements that never felt like part of iOS or Android.”
The plan is to change all that, and Conrad has highlighted three key areas: better tabbed navigation, an “all-new” volume interface, and more control over how players are listed and displayed.
It also promises “dozens of smaller quality-of-life fixes throughout,” including swipe to delete in playlists, new views on iPad, and an update to the Now Playing screen.
The main interface will be divided into three tabs: Home, System and Search, which will be styled native to your phone’s operating system and will replace “hidden gestures and content cards.”
And the volume control will have “a central mechanism that’s easier to grip and adjust, buttons to tap up and down if that’s your thing, and a new way to sync a group of rooms.”
The changes are not yet rolling out to the main app and, in fact, are not even required in this week’s beta, but if you install the new beta you will be able to see the changes by enabling “Enable improved navigation” in Settings. It will remain an opt-in post-beta, and Sonos will ask for feedback “until it’s fully polished.”
The beta program is here if you want to sign up and test the changes, but keep in mind that using beta software always carries the risk of bugs or other issues.
I think it’s fair to say that Sonos is doing things very differently since Tom Conrad took the helm in early 2025, and he was candid about the app debacle when my colleague Matt Bolton interviewed him earlier this year.
In that conversation he told us that “As a result of [the problems]”You just have to show up in people’s lives with some humility and do the hard work of regaining their trust through great execution, great product, great software, great experiences, and never forgetting what you put people through.” It’s great to see him delivering on that promise.
Follow TechRadar on Google News and add us as a preferred source to receive news, reviews and opinions from our experts in your feeds.
