Review Insights · App Store
Sonos
Sonos, Inc. · 874,797 ratings · ★ 4.6
4.6
★★★★★
874,797 ratings
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Top complaints - extracted from 71 negative reviews
Recurring phrases mined from 1-2★ reviews. The bigger the percentage, the more users have the same problem. Fix the top 2-3 in your version and you have product-market fit on day one.
1
"sonos"
33 negative reviews mention this · 46% of all complaints
★★★★★ "Great hardware, bad software. It is 2024 and Sonos has been the leader in in-home speakers for at least a decade, but the lag in their platform is terrible. I live in Chicago and have over 200mbps internet most of the time and a new iPhone so it has nothing to do with i…" - PackerFan1287
2
"speakers"
28 negative reviews mention this · 39% of all complaints
★★★★★ "Great hardware, bad software. It is 2024 and Sonos has been the leader in in-home speakers for at least a decade, but the lag in their platform is terrible. I live in Chicago and have over 200mbps internet most of the time and a new iPhone so it has nothing to do with i…" - PackerFan1287
3
"work"
15 negative reviews mention this · 21% of all complaints
★★★★★ "Feels like an inside joke. You spend hundreds or thousands of dollars building your Sonos setup and then Sonos gives you this app to control your Sonos hardware deployment. Are there minions within Sonos working a dastardly plan and laughing with every app download? …" - JCBUS614
4
"system"
14 negative reviews mention this · 20% of all complaints
★★★★★ "Great hardware, bad software. It is 2024 and Sonos has been the leader in in-home speakers for at least a decade, but the lag in their platform is terrible. I live in Chicago and have over 200mbps internet most of the time and a new iPhone so it has nothing to do with i…" - PackerFan1287
5
"terrible"
11 negative reviews mention this · 15% of all complaints
★★★★★ "Great hardware, bad software. It is 2024 and Sonos has been the leader in in-home speakers for at least a decade, but the lag in their platform is terrible. I live in Chicago and have over 200mbps internet most of the time and a new iPhone so it has nothing to do with i…" - PackerFan1287
6
"music"
10 negative reviews mention this · 14% of all complaints
★★★★★ "Bug. I stopped music on three of my speakers and the remaining two speakers started squeaking. Extremely annoying bug. I had to hard restart the app and start a new song to resolve." - rootulp
7
"every"
9 negative reviews mention this · 13% of all complaints
★★★★★ "Feels like an inside joke. You spend hundreds or thousands of dollars building your Sonos setup and then Sonos gives you this app to control your Sonos hardware deployment. Are there minions within Sonos working a dastardly plan and laughing with every app download? …" - JCBUS614
8
"connect"
9 negative reviews mention this · 13% of all complaints
★★★★★ "Great hardware, bad software. It is 2024 and Sonos has been the leader in in-home speakers for at least a decade, but the lag in their platform is terrible. I live in Chicago and have over 200mbps internet most of the time and a new iPhone so it has nothing to do with i…" - PackerFan1287
9
"sucks"
8 negative reviews mention this · 11% of all complaints
★★★★★ "Sucks.. Have to keep unplugging and replugging in my speakers for them to be seen. Pilsner suck more." - xcvbmiyfjarn
10
"update"
8 negative reviews mention this · 11% of all complaints
★★★★★ "Declining.. I fell in love with Sonos a decade ago… And every time they update something it goes a little further downhill recently Nothing works consistently, sometimes half the system works… Speakers get lost the whole system has to be rebooted and r…" - huseph2000
11
"years"
8 negative reviews mention this · 11% of all complaints
★★★★★ "Declining.. I fell in love with Sonos a decade ago… And every time they update something it goes a little further downhill recently Nothing works consistently, sometimes half the system works… Speakers get lost the whole system has to be rebooted and r…" - huseph2000
📋 All 71 negative reviews
Every 1-2★ review we fetched. Use the copy button to grab them all for your own analysis (paste into ChatGPT/Claude with a prompt like "summarize core user problems, group by theme, ignore bugs, focus on missing features").
Feels like an inside joke
You spend hundreds or thousands of dollars building your Sonos setup and then Sonos gives you this app to control your Sonos hardware deployment. Are there minions within Sonos working a dastardly plan and laughing with every app download? The app is bad. Painfully bad. So much so I more often than not use three apps concurrently to manage my Sonos playback when streaming from Spotify. Of the three apps I use, not one of them displays ALL available speakers correctly or consistently. The Sonos app has a handful. Spotify might give me a few. Sonify is consistently the most reliable. Except on the days when it crashes with each attempt to launch. The wonkiness and unreliability I experience with the Sonos products (over $6k of them) is both embarrassing and maddening. If the Sonos app wasn’t required to use the Sonos products I’d absolutely not use it.
Bug
I stopped music on three of my speakers and the remaining two speakers started squeaking. Extremely annoying bug.
I had to hard restart the app and start a new song to resolve.
I had to hard restart the app and start a new song to resolve.
Sucks.
Have to keep unplugging and replugging in my speakers for them to be seen. Pilsner suck more.
Great sound, horrible system
I purchased 3 Sonos speakers and a sub. When they work they really do sound great.. but this app is horrible and I constantly lose connectivity randomly. Not worth the headache.
Can’t stand it
Won’t sync impossibly confusing
App
I have no idea what you’ve done to the app, but it’s now terrible. Please put it back to its original state.
Sucks
Sucks. Can’t connect. Drops out.
Annoying to connect speakers and system
The system is constantly dropping speakers
AWESOME SEVICE
So easy to connect and very relaxing to work or spend family time listening to
Declining.
I fell in love with Sonos a decade ago… And every time they update something it goes a little further downhill recently
Nothing works consistently, sometimes half the system works… Speakers get lost the whole system has to be rebooted and rearranged about once a week
Only started having these problems a few years ago… And they just can’t seem to get things going right
Nothing works consistently, sometimes half the system works… Speakers get lost the whole system has to be rebooted and rearranged about once a week
Only started having these problems a few years ago… And they just can’t seem to get things going right
I am looking for a software engineer
I am looking for a software engineer, who wants to move into my house and help maintain my Sonos system.
I just spent over an hour trying to reinstall a beam and it refuses to connect.
My other nine speakers are all connected just fine. No explanation for why this speaker disconnected and completely unable of connecting it. I shouldn’t have to unplug it and run around the house to find an ethernet cable to plug this in so I can get the damn thing to work. Anyhow, any software engineers out there want to move in with me and help me manage a system?
I just spent over an hour trying to reinstall a beam and it refuses to connect.
My other nine speakers are all connected just fine. No explanation for why this speaker disconnected and completely unable of connecting it. I shouldn’t have to unplug it and run around the house to find an ethernet cable to plug this in so I can get the damn thing to work. Anyhow, any software engineers out there want to move in with me and help me manage a system?
Pathetic
Nothing works
Don’t buy Sonos ever
I tried added Sonos play to my already buggy system and now it’s 80x worse, I’m returing this speaker and selling my other two on marketplace. I can’t believe how terrible Sonos is and people keep buying it and they have 4.5 stars?? Never again I’m over it
Playlist
I hate that I can’t play Apple Music through my Sonos speakers and creating/playing playlist through the Sonos app is so difficult and frustrating.
Terrible app
So we can slingshot astronauts behind the moon and back but Sonos can’t get their app right after years of failure. It’s just pathetic
Surround sound speakers are super hard to manage
Hardly anything comes out of it and it I group them as separate speakers it doesn’t work well
Super buggy
No volume control on my outside speakers
Wonderful hardware, lousy software
Sonos used to be wonderful all around. But it has the worst software I've experienced to manage hardware. I hope this changes soon before the company drowns.
Totally Unstable
Sonos works really well…when it works. That’s about half the time. I have very strong Starlink internet so that is not the problem. I have to reboot speakers nearly every time I use Sonos. Sometimes it works, sometimes it doesn’t. It’s a royal pain. The problem is, I can’t find anything better.
Awesome hardware, trash software
See title.
DO NOT BUY SONOS SPEAKERS
These $200-500 speakers are ONLY “smart” at limiting what you can use them for.
They back down if you try to turn them up past what I guess they consider an acceptable level?! I say that as a question because there are none of the signs/sounds of overload AND there is a volume limit on the app so if I want to limit the Max Volume either to protect MY hearing or MY speakers I can.
The app has ALWAYS sucked and the irritatingly constant updates do nothing to help. With each one the list of restrictions, things you can’t or have to pay to do, and MAJOR streaming apps you CANT use (YouTube, Bandcamp) continues to grow.
Sonos sucks.
They back down if you try to turn them up past what I guess they consider an acceptable level?! I say that as a question because there are none of the signs/sounds of overload AND there is a volume limit on the app so if I want to limit the Max Volume either to protect MY hearing or MY speakers I can.
The app has ALWAYS sucked and the irritatingly constant updates do nothing to help. With each one the list of restrictions, things you can’t or have to pay to do, and MAJOR streaming apps you CANT use (YouTube, Bandcamp) continues to grow.
Sonos sucks.
Worst app I've used
How can a company that create such great speakers with amazing sound can come with the most bug full app in the universe?
The integration with soundcloud is so bad, you see a list press a track and it plays five tracks before. Like this is something AI coding can solve in seconds, yet they refuse to fix all the bugs. Or can't.
The integration with soundcloud is so bad, you see a list press a track and it plays five tracks before. Like this is something AI coding can solve in seconds, yet they refuse to fix all the bugs. Or can't.
Horribly inconsistent
The app will work great on some days and on others it won’t work at all. With no changes to the settings or hardware. I will select for it to play everywhere and a few minutes into the first song it stops play, drops everything on queue and defaults to one speaker.
Getting worse with every update
SONOS used to be practically perfect in every way, but somehow they’ve made it harder and harder to use with every update to the point were I can’t even figure out how to properly control the volume from the app! It’s getting to the point that I would dis-invest my 1000’s of dollars if I knew of a better alternatives.
Terrible functionality.
I have an older Sonos system and they have reduced the functionality of the IOS controls that I only use my system on a limited basis. Wish I had never purchased it.
Please God spare yourself and don’t buy
Literal worst connectivity issues, disconnects every time I leave my home with my phone. Buy literally anything other than Sonos, this company is trash
Don’t waste your money
This is the worse investment you are going to g to make for your house. You need really good internet to make them work. Good luck with that in your area
Buggy and slow.
App freezes on the phone. Drops speakers randomly. Started getting an echo effect with two speakers paired as a L/R pair.
Much worse than the Sonos 1 app
Much worse than the Sonos 1 app
Keep losing internet connection
Sucks
Total Garbage
Wow, this app is terrible.
Hardware that’s inconsistent, an app that doesn’t work
I’ve owned a Sonos devices for about 7 years and for the first 4 or 5 years they worked pretty flawlessly. Exactly how’d you’d hope they would work. 2 or 3 years ago there was some update with the firmware and app that absolutely destroyed everything.
For years now I can’t stream to multiple devices simultaneously. Random connection issues that pop up. They do generally stream music to individual speakers properly. But any of the other advertised features don’t work like you would expect. For the money you are paying these speakers are not work it in my opinion.
For years now I can’t stream to multiple devices simultaneously. Random connection issues that pop up. They do generally stream music to individual speakers properly. But any of the other advertised features don’t work like you would expect. For the money you are paying these speakers are not work it in my opinion.
Unreliable
I have several Sonos products and very seldom do they operate smoothly.
Very cumbersome
Having had Sonos speakers for years, I was forced to change to the Sonos 2 app. It’s very glitchy. It’s very different from the Sonos 1 app, which was very easy to use. Whoever designed this new app didn’t do enough testing with real human beings.
Deceptive
You “must” purchase this app for $19.99 to operate the Sonos Beam 2 sound bar. On top of the fact there is no remote for the sound bar. What a scam!
The worst app for such a great product
This app is still terrible
Not user friendly
I won’t buy another Sonos product. You can’t tell the battery level and it is very difficult to reassign it to a new network. Just another Bluetooth speaker/app in my opinion.
App sucks
The devices forget connections, take forever to figure out how to connect with each other, do not buy,
How does this still not work?
Honestly I’ve been a Sonos customer for over a decade. They STILL canNOT get this app to work correctly or as well as V1. In a word - it sucks.
right after nearly two years since the debacle began.
right after nearly two years since the debacle began.
Broke system
Sonos forced an updated app on everyone that is super buggy and removed features. Now some speakers won’t work as a group. One feature they added with the new app is ability to “zone” speakers so different sets can listen to different music. Nice feature. The speakers that can’t be group can be played via this new feature. This just means speakers are connected and work but basic functionality is broken in the app. Never had issue like this with old app. Purchased a lot of Sonos product not foreseeing such a complete disaster. Holding back purchases because my have to dump this company. Shocking that they did this
Update 4/26
Now some devices (wired or WiFi) become unavailable randomly
Furthermore, some devices I can’t stream to unless I only stream to that one device. Other devices I request music from that won’t play will respond to the other controls
This system is a total joke due to incompetent sw Sonos has had well over a year to fix thier incompetent sw changes and yet just gets worse
Update 4/26
Now some devices (wired or WiFi) become unavailable randomly
Furthermore, some devices I can’t stream to unless I only stream to that one device. Other devices I request music from that won’t play will respond to the other controls
This system is a total joke due to incompetent sw Sonos has had well over a year to fix thier incompetent sw changes and yet just gets worse
Horrible Apo
Love the speakers hate the app. Never works when people are over. The speakers are always having to update and reconnect. It’s the worst.
Sucks
I've never seen so much and enjoyed something so little
If it could only work
If it could only work
One job…gets one star for it.
Sonos used to be so good. Now the new word of the year is enSonosification. Do better.
App
Worst app ever
Buggy and clunky
Best sounding speakers for the money. Crappiest app
Poor controls of audio
Super laggy and does not consistently communicate with 3rd party services for music
Help
Never work and customer service is worst
Still doesn’t work correctly
I have been a longtime supporter but for the last two years the app has caused all our speakers to be unusable. Look at other systems.
I just want my speakers to work
I have to update the app, then update the iOS on my phone in order to get the speakers that I purchased 6 years ago to work on my new WiFi router. No bluetooth on the older speakers and no concern from Sonos for backward compatibility for older systems, even when those systems cost several dollars. Furthermore, apparently in order to get my speakers to work that I paid for and do in fact own, Sonos gets every piece of personal information from my phone to dk with as they please. I can’t begin to describe the rage this has created in me. I will never buy another Sonos again. And that’s a shame, because the speakers, before Sonos deciding to ruin the experience, sounded fantastic. Great speakers. Terrible company. Terrible policies. I own speakers. I should not have to deal with Sonos, or give them personal information, to make the speakers I own work.
App not connects with devices
It is fustrating, that after a power outage I am not able to connect my beam with the sub mini and the 2 bookselves. I restarted the modem, turned everything on and off. Once the app finds the sorrunding speakers, I connect and a second later the connection is gone. I try to fix it for hours now without succes..
Terrible app
I wish I never spent the money on the speakers. They are mediocre at best. The system is frequently down.
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Sentiment summary
89%
Positive (4-5★)
2%
Neutral (3★)
8%
Negative (1-2★)