- Sonos 27.1 is rolling out to compatible devices
- It adds several features, including a virtual volume knob on Android
- Biggest fix: it won’t forget your playlist when you change function
Sonos has been promising a significant app upgrade for years, and fans have been so desperate for software that works how they need it to that they’ve taken to making their own. Well, the official app is slowly getting better, and the latest upgrade may be a highlight.
The company has announced that Sonos 27.1 is currently rolling out; it is coming to all but its oldest devices, as well as Android and iOS phones, and most people will be able to download it soon.
The biggest upgrade here — at least, as I see it — is that you’ll have a persistent music queue. Previously, if you switched from music to TV and back, the songs you had queued up (say, because you were part-way through a curated playlist) would be gone, which would be pretty frustrating. No longer; changing input doesn’t mean you have to lose what you were listening to.
For people with a large music library, there’s now a search autocomplete function, so you don’t need to type in a whole term to find it.
Android users will now get many functions which were previously not available on their phones. This includes the ability to remove songs from your Recently Played list, swiping on songs to add them to your queue, and a virtual volume knob that lets you adjust volume with simple gestures.
Sonos fans are happy
The announcement of Sonos 27.1 went down well with Sonos fans, and there have also been positive reports from people who’ve been using it.
Many Reddit users (presumably Android ones) are praising the virtual volume knob, with one calling it “the best thing I’ve ever seen in an app”.
More tellingly, lots of the comments on Reddit (where Sonos announced the update, before you accuse me of spending too much time online) are suggesting new features they’d like to see in the app.
This is telling because for a good long while, the number one request was simply for it to work, and to have the basic features an app should. There are now relatively few criticisms of how the app works. The Sonos sea change is here.
Judging by the comments, next up is TruePlay, which Android and iOS users both want to see supported on the app. This is a tool which let your speakers measure the sound reflection in a room to fine-tune them and, based on reports, no longer seems available on certain devices.
