Searching for music on the Sonos interface has always been a bit frustrating, involving tons of sub-panels and too much back and forth. Today, Sonos promises to alleviate some of the pain with a new home screen interface in the Sonos app and desktop experience. News about the upcoming changes leaked earlier this month, but now we can see actual screenshots and get details on what this launch will actually look like.
The new interface will launch globally on May 7 and will emphasize customization and easy access. While Sonos integrates with more than 100 streaming services, you probably only interact with a handful of them on a regular basis. The new design will let you choose which services you see and allow you to easily change those preferences. Here are some other big changes:
no more tabs
The most painful part of navigating Sonos will be gone. The new home screen will bring all your content onto one screen, and you'll be able to easily jump back to recently played content, your library, and recommendations.
Fixed and grouped services to match how you listen to streaming
You'll be able to group multiple lines of content together so you can have a section for podcasts, music, and audiobooks. Sonos promises these will be easy to rearrange on the fly.
Search across services more easily
What's a bit vague is the promise that you'll be able to search for content or creators across all platforms. Sonos has already done this, but hopefully what they promised was a better experience. I'm often frustrated by search results that are inaccurate or that don't find everything I'm looking for, even if I know a service has it.
New location accessed by the system
Continuing with the "tabs be damned" theme, you'll swipe up from the home screen to access your system and get a visual representation of what's playing, on which speakers, and at what volume, so it sounds like this will replace the system tabs.
For the most part, the goal of the new app experience is faster access and the elimination of multiple levels of tabs. The new experience will support all S2 products , including newer Sonos products such as Arc, Beam and Era speakers. Typically, earlier Sonos products like the Play 1, Play 3, and Soundbar are included in all apps, leaving only older products like the Bridge.
