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Sleep timer returns to Sonos app as improvements trickle in

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Sleep timer settings in the Sonos app.
Phil Nickinson / Digital Trends

You’ll be forgiven if you’re a Sonos fan who keeps checking multiple times a day for app updates (count us among that group). And today’s a good day to have that habit, as another update has returned one missing feature and improved others.

The sleep timer has returned to the revamped Sonos app. And while all maybe isn’t quite right in the Sonos world, it’s definitely starting to look a little more like it did before the massive May update that came ahead of the Sonos Ace headphones — and either disappeared or broke a number of other things in the process.

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As frustrating as the past few weeks have been for those of us who just want to use our wireless speaker setup and don’t really care too much about newfangled headphones, at least Sonos has been fairly transparent about what’s been broken and what’s being fixed. Sonos employees have been keeping up with the app update timeline on Reddit, and that thread is in sync with the changelog on the app itself.

In addition to the return of the sleep timer, other improvements this time around include:

  • Better setup, Bluetooth discovery, and Wi-Fi settings. (You’ll note you have to approve a few things after this update, almost like it’s a fresh install.)
  • Improved playback settings, with “Play next” and “add to end of queue” looking better
  • A mute button on iOS
  • Improved Trueplay on iOS
  • Distance settings added for home theater surround speakers
  • Better navigation cues for those with visual impairments
  • Better VoiceOver support for pop-up messages on iOS

Sonos also has been keeping up with a “coming soon” list of improvements. Slated for later this month are mute and volume numbers on the playback controls, more accessibility improvements for visual impairments, and local music library search and playback.

Phil Nickinson
Former Section Editor, Audio/Video
Phil spent the 2000s making newspapers with the Pensacola (Fla.) News Journal, the 2010s with Android Central and then the…
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