30/04/2023

Older Sonos devices won’t get new features, but there’s no forced brick coming.

Perhaps the more controversial part of the announcement earlier this week is the fact that systems running both “legacy” and more current products would be stuck without new features, even if some of the newer devices would have otherwise received an update. Essentially, having a legacy component in your Sonos system meant that all those devices would be stuck with that legacy experience. However, Sonos said that they were looking into a way to “split” a system so that modern products would keep getting updates while legacy ones would continue to work as they currently do. Spence reconfirmed those plans today, as well, and said the company was finalizing the details and would share more “in the coming weeks.”
To be clear, Sonos isn’t changing course on its plan here. Instead, Spence is trying to communicate a bit better what exactly is happening come May. There’s no info here that Sonos didn’t already release, but the public response to Sonos’ plan was such that it seemed necessary to address it. While we certainly can understand how people who spend hundreds or thousands of dollars on older Sonos gear over the years are disappointed by this week’s development, it’s good news that the products will still work as they do now and that there will be a way to keep newer products up-to-date as well.