Sonos is finally improving its app — but its not moving fast enough, so people are building new alternatives to solve big gripes about home theater setups and more customizable sound | Tech Radar
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Sonos is finally improving its app — but its not moving fast enough, so people are building new alternatives to solve big gripes about home theater setups and more customizable sound
Redditors are sharing their Sonos apps and we're extremely impressed
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People continue to build alternative Sonos apps with features Sonos hasn't offered
Recent creations include customizable room correction that works with front surrounds
Most aren't widely available, and are being shown in invite-only betas
In the last few months, Sonos has finally moved on from fixing its app's tech issues to improving it with new navigation and adding some useful new techy features, such as a key new network troubleshooting option.
But many Sonos users are just tired of waiting for long-requested features — such as the ability to add front surround speakers — so they're building their own alternatives instead.
We covered some user-created apps to improve the Sonos ecosystem not too long ago, and the list of available options continues to grow.
More Sonos apps than you can shake a soundbar at
First up there's "the app Sonos should have made" according to its creator: Somos In Control. It's an i OS remote for Sonos home theater products with custom EQ, saveable sound presets, surround height levels and music features too.
The big draws here are that it supports adding front left and right surround speakers, and the ability to save EQ options for different use cases — the example screen shot has slightly tweaked sound for 5.1 surround versus Dolby Atmos versus music listening that you instantly switch between. It's an Apple Test Flight work in progress so availability is limited, but it looks very impressive.
Sonos users are vibe coding alternatives to the app, with some cool results
The Sonos app is finally getting its long-awaited upgrades to make it easier to use
Okay Sonos, where is my TV sound system with real left and right front speakers?
The app Sonos should have made. Try it for free. from r/sonos
Moosic is a self-hosted music server app that offers an alternative to Trueplay's room tuning, with the always-welcome ability to display charts of the room correction, plus more customization options for the tuning.
It also enables you to switch your Sonos configuration — such as switching a pair of Era 300s from working as rear speakers to working as stereo music speakers — but to keep separate room-tuning profiles for each configuration, which again is something Trueplay doesn't offer.
If you're wondering why not just use True Play, creator Affectionate Fox 5907 explains: "Sonos does not provide a way to switch between home theatre and music setup seamlessly. My app does, but as part of that I lose Trueplay. When you unbond and rebond a speaker, each time it will lose its Trueplay configuration. My app basically builds a better Sonos app that adds features I've been wanting for a while without having to have a bunch of different apps. This now works with multiple subs and should work with fronts added as well."
One of the big downsides of using third-party apps that add front surrounds is that it disables Trueplay, so this is a win for people coloring outside the usual Sonos surround lines.
It also looks ideal for anyone who's found using their home theater for music to be a bit of a pain, and there are plenty of people who do: there's a whole Reddit thread asking for a simple switch between movie mode and music mode without having to reconfigure your system every time you do it.
Last but not least, Major Atmosphere has created Kyuu (pronounced "queue"), an i OS Sonos controller that enables you to use UPn P for local files, which the Sonos app doesn't support.
As they explain: "Kyuu runs a lightweight local server that handles speaker discovery via SSDP, polls playback state, and sends commands directly to your speakers. The i OS app talks to that server over your LAN — no cloud, no Sonos account, no external dependencies."
I built a local-first Sonos controller i OS app using the UPn P API — no account required [Beta] from r/sonos
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Writer, broadcaster, musician and kitchen gadget obsessive Carrie Marshall has been writing about tech since 1998, contributing sage advice and odd opinions to all kinds of magazines and websites as well as writing more than twenty books. Her latest, a love letter to music titled Small Town Joy, is on sale now. She is the singer in spectacularly obscure Glaswegian rock band Unquiet Mind.
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