The new Sonos app wants to be the one place you listen to music, podcasts, and audiobooks (2024)

Sonos has always been one of the companies that supports a heck of a lot of audio-based services. From music streaming services to podcast players and audiobook apps, Sonos currently supports over one hundred streaming services.

That’s a heck of a lot of services to keep track of, so the company wants to make that process much easier. Today, the company has announced a brand new Sonos app for iPhone and Android as well as an all-new application for the web.

Maxime Bouvat-Merlin, Chief Product Officer of Sonos, said in a statement that the redesigned app is a response to how fragmented the audio-streaming industry has become. From multiple apps to cover your music, podcasts, and audiobooks to exclusive releases on select services, the app seeks to bring all of your content together under one roof.

Today’s streaming experience has become fragmented across multiple platforms due to varied content offerings, algorithmic curation, or simply the desire to not recreate playlists in multiple locations. As the only audio brand with an open platform offering extensive choice, Sonos makes it easy to control your system and curate your favorite sounds all in one place. Our reimagined app delivers the industry’s most streamlined streaming experience by bringing a world of content and intuitive control to the Home screen.

Patrick Spence, CEO of Sonos, echoed Bouvat-Merlin, saying that the new fragmented landscape made it “the time to reimagine our app experience.”

We introduced the world to multi-room music over 20 years ago, and are proudly playing in over 15 million homes today. As we are always pushing ourselves to innovate, and listening to feedback from our passionate customers, we felt now was the time to reimagine our app experience. After thorough development and testing, we are confident this redesigned app is easier, faster and better. It once again raises the bar for the home music listening experience, and sets up our ability to expand into new categories and experiences.

The company says that the new Sonos app offers “one customizable home screen for a more personal listening experience. With a customizable layout and more accessible, cohesive controls for grouping and more, the redesigned Sonos app gets you to the music, podcasts, and audiobooks you love even faster for effortless out-loud listening.”

The signature feature of the new app is the new Home screen, which brings together all of your music, podcasts, and audiobooks from all of your services on one screen. It also lets you quickly jump in and out of your library and recommendations, control your Sonos setup, and search across all of your streaming services.

You can check out all of the features coming to the redesigned app below:

• 100+ streaming services, one Home screenThe redesigned Sonos app prioritizes a listening experience that’s human – allowing you to bringyourtrue favorites front and center and giving you more control to make your streaming experience your own.
• Get into your music (and off the app) faster: No need to tap between tabs — the new Home screen serves up all your favorite content and controls, all in one place. Quickly jump back into your recently played, browse libraries and recommendations from your preferred services, and fill your home with music and all the sounds you love.
• Customize and curate: Enjoy unparalleled curation by designing your Home screen to reflect how you listen. Pin rows of your favorite content and services; then move, edit, or rearrange them to your liking.
• Search every streaming library: Look for an artist, song, podcast, or audiobook across all your preferred streaming apps at once via an easy-to-use search bar that’s always available right on your Home screen.
• Elevated system control:Swipe up from the bottom of your Home screen to seamlessly control your entire system and access a visual overview of what’s playing on each of your products, quickly group speakers, and dial in on the perfect volume from anywhere in the app.

Check out some screenshots below to get an idea of what the new Home Screen, Now Playing Screen, and Search screens will look like:

The new Sonos app for the iPhone and Android, as well as the all-new web app, will be launching on May 7th. I’m personally stoked for this one because, as the proud owner of a Roam speaker, I will be utilizing this upgrade to what is obviously the fullest potential.