The Sonos App Redesign: A Long-Overdue Course Correction
The latest Sonos app redesign is a substantial update to the multiroom speaker management app that restores tabbed navigation, improves volume control responsiveness and introduces flexible speaker sorting, all aimed at fixing usability problems that emerged after the controversial 2024 overhaul and rebuilding trust with frustrated Sonos ecosystem users. Sonos has begun rolling out version 87.00.36 for iOS and 87.00.35 for Android in a phased release that can take up to two weeks to reach every compatible device. Player software is also being updated to 96.0-78270 for modern products and 86.8.78270 for legacy hardware, reinforcing that this is not a cosmetic refresh but a deep system change. This is the first update in years that feels designed around how people actually use whole-home audio rather than how Sonos wants them to.
Tabbed Navigation: Stop Making Users Work for Basic Controls
Sonos’ choice to bring back visible tabs at the bottom of the app is the most important fix in this redesign. Home, System and Search are now clearly labeled and easier to find, making it obvious which area is active instead of forcing people to remember arcane swipe patterns. The new tabbed navigation can be enabled via the settings as “Improved Navigation,” and, in line with Sonos’ new promises, it is optional rather than forced. That matters because the 2024 Sonos app redesign replaced a familiar layout with stacked screens and gestures that made basic multiroom audio controls unreliable and confused many longtime customers. Giving users direct, visible paths to their rooms, content and search is not innovative, but it is exactly the kind of boring, dependable design a control-center app demands. Clear tabs mean less cognitive load and fewer support tickets when all someone wants is to play music in the kitchen.
Volume Control Improvements: Fixing the App’s Biggest Daily Annoyance
The revamped volume interface on iOS is the clearest sign that Sonos finally listened to how people use its system day to day. The new dynamic volume slider replaces the old controls that many users found laggy and unpredictable, especially when adjusting groups of speakers. iPhone owners get these volume control improvements first, with Android users told the redesigned interface is still on the way. That staggered rollout may frustrate some, but it is better than shipping half-tested controls to every device at once, as the 2024 redesign did. Sonos’ CEO Tom Conrad said the team spent “hundreds of hours” watching real customers use the app to understand what slows them down when they are “just trying to change the darn volume,” a rare but welcome acknowledgement that volume is the core interaction, not a secondary feature. More responsive controls mean fewer missed cues, fewer awkward silences and a system that finally feels worthy of the hardware.
Speaker Sorting and Pinned Rooms: Real Help for Complex Setups
The new speaker sorting features in the System tab show Sonos finally treating large installations as first-class citizens. Users can now sort speakers alphabetically, by most-used, or by those currently playing audio, and can pin favourites to the top for faster access. The System tab supports custom room ordering, letting people arrange products manually and keep their most important rooms where they appear first. For households and professional installs with many speakers, finding the right room used to feel like scanning an airport departures board; now, the app lets you shape the layout around how you live and work. This is the kind of speaker management app functionality that should have existed before Sonos began selling eight-channel amps and complex home-theater setups, and its absence exposed how fragile the previous design was. Clear tabs, customizable speaker sorting and more predictable volume controls are practical improvements for people who use the system every day, not just on demo days.
Rebuilding Trust After the 2024 App Disaster
Version 87 is not a victory lap; it is a repair job on a relationship damaged by the 2024 Sonos app disaster. That overhaul made basic multiroom audio controls unreliable, alienated longtime customers and forced Sonos into a leadership reset that included the departure of its former CEO. The company’s new approach—phased rollout, optional navigation changes, and the ability to revert—matches earlier commitments that major app changes would be introduced gradually and tested before becoming the default. Sonos promised it would stop using paying customers as an involuntary quality-assurance department, and this release suggests someone inside the company remembered. Version 87 does not erase missing or broken features from the past, nor does it prove every problem is solved, but it does show Sonos is listening to complaints that should have been addressed before the original redesign shipped. For many users, trust will return only when the app is boring in the best way: predictable, invisible and absolutely reliable.
