Sonos is today detailing the future of its multiroom home audio strategy, which revolves around a new app and operating system called Sonos S2 that will run on many current Sonos products and be the foundation for all of the company’s future devices. Sonos S2, will arrive in June of this year. Sonos says that all new products it releases after June will run on S2, as well as everything it currently sells and many of its older speakers as well. The exceptions are those previously-detailed legacy products that the company already announced wouldn’t receive new features.
For the large majority Sonos owners, those running hardware compatible with this update, it’ll arrive like any other one. You’ll get a notification in the Sonos app that your hardware has an over-the-air update available, and you’ll also install a new app for your mobile phone to control your devices. Sonos says that this new platform will allow it to build out new features and user experiences that it wouldn’t have been able to do on its existing software.
Sonos S2 will also allow for usability enhancements (there will be improved room groups functionality in June) and “more connected and personal experiences,” according to the company. There aren’t many details on the latter just yet, but in past conversations with Sonos employees, they’ve hinted at a future in which your Sonos speakers might automatically start playing a certain playlist or podcast when you arrive home (or wake up in the morning) based on your listening patterns.
Sonos will continue to support Alexa and Google Assistant with S2, but considering how contentious its relationship with Amazon and Google has become, you’ve got to figure that the company is charting out its own voice assistant future, and S2 could eventually play into that.
When the happens, there will be two Sonos apps on both Android and iOS: the current app will be renamed as Sonos S1 Controller. (To consumers, the newer S2 app will simply be called “Sonos.”) Legacy products will remain on S1, and modern Sonos gear will make the upgrade to S2.
If you only own recent Sonos speakers, there’s really nothing to worry about: you can just migrate to Sonos S2 and forget about the old app. But where things get a bit tricky is when you have both legacy and modern Sonos products in your system. For that scenario, Sonos is giving customers a few options to pick between:
1) Remove the S1-only products from your system. With only S2 compatible products remaining, you’ll be ready to download the new Sonos app in June.
2) Trade up S1-only products to their S2 compatible equivalents. For customers who choose this option, we continue to offer a 30 percent discount as part of our Trade Up program.
3) Run your existing system on the S1 app. You’ll still get bug fixes and security patches, and we will work with our partners to keep your music and voice services working for as long as we can.
4) Separate your system into two. We’ll publish detailed instructions for how to do this nearer the time. Unfortunately, it won’t be possible to group an S1 system with an S2 system.
Sonos says S2 will ship on all new products it releases after May. The company’s most recent product launches were the portable Sonos Move, Sonos One SL speaker (without built-in microphones), and the Sonos Port. All three were announced back in September.
