- People continue to create alternative Sonos apps with features that Sonos hasn’t offered
- Recent creations include customizable room correction that works with front frames.
- Most are not widely available and are shown in beta versions by invitation only.
In recent months, Sonos has finally moved on from fixing the technical issues in its app to improving it with new navigation and adding some useful new technical features, such as a key new option for network troubleshooting.
But many Sonos users are simply tired of waiting for long-requested features, like the ability to add front-facing surround speakers, so they’re creating their own alternatives.
Not long ago we covered some user-created apps to enhance the Sonos ecosystem, and the list of available options continues to grow.
More Sonos apps than you can shake a stick at with a soundbar
First of all is “the application that Sonos should have created” according to its creator: Somos InControl. It’s an iOS remote control for Sonos home theater products with custom equalizer, saveable sound presets, surround height levels, and music functions too.
The big draws here are that it supports the addition of front left and right surround speakers, and the ability to save equalizer options for different use cases – the example screenshot has a slightly modified sound for 5.1 surround sound vs. Dolby Atmos vs. listening to music that you can instantly switch between. It’s a work in progress from Apple TestFlight, so availability is limited, but it looks very impressive.
The app that Sonos should have created. Try it for free. from r/sonos
Moosic is a self-hosted music server app that offers an alternative to Trueplay room tuning, with the always welcome ability to display room correction graphs, plus more customization options for tuning.
It also lets you change Sonos settings, such as switching a pair of Era 300s from functioning as rear speakers to stereo music speakers, but keep separate room tuning profiles for each setting, which again is something Trueplay doesn’t offer.
If you’re wondering why not use TruePlay, creator AffectionateFox5907 explains: “Sonos doesn’t provide a way to seamlessly switch between home theater and music settings. My app does, but as part of that I lose Trueplay. When you unplug and re-pair a speaker, it will lose its Trueplay settings each time. My app basically creates a better Sonos app that adds features I’ve been wanting for a while without having to have a bunch of different apps. It now works with multiple subs and should work with added fronts too.”
One of the big downsides to using third-party apps that add front bezels is that it disables Trueplay, so it’s a plus for people who color outside of Sonos’ usual surround lines.
It also seems ideal for anyone who finds it a bit annoying to use their home theater to listen to music, and there are plenty of people who do: there’s an entire Reddit thread calling for a simple switch between movie mode and music mode without having to reconfigure your system every time you do it.
I created my own version of “Trueplay” from r/sonos
Last but not least, MajorAtmosphere has created Kyuu (pronounced “tail”), a Sonos iOS controller that lets you use UPnP for local files, something the Sonos app doesn’t support.
As they explain: “Kyuu runs a lightweight local server that handles speaker discovery via SSDP, polls the playback status, and sends commands directly to the speakers. The iOS app talks to that server over your LAN – no cloud, no Sonos account, no external dependencies.”
I created a local Sonos controller iOS app using the UPnP API; no account required [Beta] from r/sonos
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