This Sonos Update Should Make Searching for Music Easier

The new home screen aims to make searching for music easier.

Searching for music on the Sonos interface has always been a little frustrating, involving a lot of subpanels and too much back and forth. Today, Sonos is promising to alleviate some of that pain with a new home screen interface across the Sonos app and desktop experience. News of the upcoming changes leaked earlier this month, but now we’re able to see actual screenshots and get details of how this rollout will actually look. 

Rolling out globally on May 7, the new interface will emphasize customizations and easy access. While Sonos has the ability to integrate with over 100 streaming services, you likely only interface with a few routinely. The new design will allow you to choose which services you see, and allow you to easily change those preferences. Here are some of the other big changes:

No more tabs

The most painful part of the Sonos navigation process is going to go away. The new home screen will bring all your content to one screen, and you’ll be able to easily jump back into recently played content, your libraries, and recommendations. 

a new search, home screen and system interface are coming Credit: Sonos

Pin and group services to match how you listen to streaming

You’ll be able to group rows of content together, so you can have a section for podcasts versus music versus audiobooks. Sonos promises these will be easy to rearrange on the fly. 

Easier search across services

A little cloudier is the promise that you’ll be able to search for a piece of content or creator across all your platforms. Sonos already does this, but hopefully what they’re promising is a better experience. I’ve often been frustrated with the search results being inaccurate or not finding all the content I’m looking for, even when I know a service carries it. 

A new location for system access

Continuing the “tabs be damned” theme, you’ll be swiping up from the home screen to access your system and a visual overview of what’s playing, on which speakers, at what volume, so it sounds like this will replace the system tab. 

Mostly, what the new app experience aims for is faster access, and eliminating the many levels of tabs. The new experience will support all S2 products, which includes newer Sonos products like the Arc, Beam, and Era speakers. Usually, the earlier Sonos products like Play 1, Play 3, and Soundbar are included in all apps, leaving out only legacy products like the Bridge.