The Sonos app is still broken, so users are taking matters into their own hands

Sonos has some of the best-sounding hardware, but its app easily qualifies as one of the most disastrous app redesigns in recent times. In early 2024, the famed audio brand not only recreated the entire companion app for its speakers and claimed it was centered on feature personalization, but it also shipped the app half-baked. The “new” app broke basic functionality like volume control, made pairing a headache, and even lost key library features, including saved radio stations.

Nearly two years after Sonos promised to fix the app, it has yet to deliver a fully functional version for all. As of February this year, an overhaul was already in its final stages of internal testing, and Sonos opened up a beta for interested users last month. But, tired of waiting for the “fixed” app to roll out soon, some savvy users have taken things into their own hands and created unofficial variants of the Sonos app (via TechRadar) to enable highly requested features that don’t exist natively.

The more user-friendly TruePlay

The first of these user-created apps for Sonos hardware includes a variation of Sonos’s TruePlay functionality, which can be used to auto-tune speakers’ EQ based on the room’s acoustics. However, the creator of the unofficial app, called MoosicLab, claims their app does more than the official Sonos app by making it almost seamless to switch speaker setups. The Sonos app loses TruePlay configurations whenever you unbind and rebind speakers or subwoofers.

Instead of repeating the entire process entirely, especially when multiple systems (say, soundbar and cupboard speakers) share a subwoofer or another component, the app stores configurations that can be easily applied when moving from one setup to another.

An app Sonos should have made

Another unofficial Sonos app that has cropped up recently is unapologetically called Somos InControl. It’s an iOS app to remotely control your speaker setups, offering multiple audio presets per device, as well as configurations beyond what the official app allows.

Along with those features, it informs users of the formats, such as Dolby Audio, currently playing through their speakers, has dedicated toggles for TruePlay and Speech Boost, and also lets users control their favorites and playlists.

A local-first media controller

Kyuu (which sounds like “Queue”) is an iOS app that serves as a controller, letting users play media from multiple source devices, such as their Mac, Windows, or Linux, directly to Sonos speakers using the UPnP (Universal Plug and Play) and SSDP (Simple Service Discovery Protocol) protocols. It runs a lightweight local server to relay information like what’s playing and upcoming media, and also gives users full control over playback, volume, and multi-room setups.

The app runs entirely locally and doesn’t need external dependencies, including a Sonos account.

These apps join the league of unofficial apps previously created by users to manage their Sonos setups, including a couple of web-based interfaces for controlling their speakers.

It’s worth noting that most of these are currently available through TestFlight, with limited slots, so you might not be able to get access immediately. If you want a better chance, we suggest tracking posts from these creators frequently for when newer slots open.

As for the official app, there’s no further update on when a fully functional version will arrive for all users, but the new CEO recently said the company will “listen to what you have to say and iterate until it’s fully polished up.”