When the Sonos Play:1 was released last year, it received nearly universal rave reviews (including from me), although one complaint was almost as ubiquitous: the Sonos app feels old.
The message was clearly heard, as Sonos announced this morning an overhauled app for Android, iOS, Mac, and PC users. The app has a more modern, flat design with a focus on white space and colors, compared to the overwhelming blue of the old app.
Sonos explains that the app is designed around three main modules: what’s currently playing, what room it’s playing in, and how to find the next song. It’s the company’s attempt to bring simplicity to an app which integrates content from several different sources, while also potentially managing playback in multiple rooms in a home. Sonos is also bringing to the forefront its universal search feature, which combs through all supported services to let you know where an artist, track, or album is available.
I also asked Sonos about the reports from last year that Chromecast-like functionality (i.e., the ability to push content to a Sonos speaker from a native app, such as Spotify) was coming to the Sonos platform. While the redesigned app doesn’t include that functionality, Sonos did confirm that those features are still being worked on.
Android users can participate in the public beta to try out the new app today, while the iOS app will be released later this spring. Mac and PC apps will also get the new look later this year.