Sonos refresh Android and iPhone apps

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Wireless speaker company Sonos have announced a refresh of their iPhone and Android apps – bringing them in line with the sorts of flat designs that are all the rage now. They’ve added some nice new features too.

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Sonos have long been the people to beat when it comes to wireless sound systems. Unlike the various bluetooth and wifi solutions, such as A2DP and Apple’s proprietary Airplay system, Sonos and the Play range of products use a mesh network – and I can say from personal experience that the results are great. As you might expect though – all of this posh sound kit comes at a premium price. Essentially it’s a luxury product. Which is why its odd that the accompanying apps are… not as beautiful as you’d expect.

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The most obvious change is the new ‘flat’ designs, mirroring the shift we’ve seen on iOS7 and with the new Galaxy S5 and Android KitKat. The other big change though is the introduction of global search. Previously users had to select which linked music service they wanted to search – though now users should be able to search the likes of Spotify, Amazon MP3, TuneIn and whatever else they’ve enabled simultaneously.

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The update will be rolling out on iOS (iPhone/iPad) and Android in the spring – though early adopters can sign up to access the Android beta on the Sonos website. Apparently updates to the desktop apps with Windows and Mac will follow later in the year.

James O’Malley
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