Sonos 27.1 Update Adds Persistent Music Queue and Android Volume Knob

The most consequential change concerns the music queue, which now persists across input changes. Previously, switching from music to TV and back wiped out the songs that had been queued, which meant losing your place part-way through a playlist. With 27.1, changing input no longer clears what was playing.

For listeners with large music libraries, Sonos has added a search autocomplete function, so a full search term no longer has to be typed out before a result can be found.

Android users gain several abilities that were not available on their phones before, among them the option to remove songs from the Recently Played list, swiping on a song to add it to the queue, and a virtual volume knob that adjusts volume through gestures.

The update drew a favourable response from Sonos users, and TechRadar reported positive accounts from people already using it. Many Reddit users, presumably Android owners, praised the virtual volume knob, with one describing it as "the best thing I've ever seen in an app." Comments on the Reddit thread where Sonos announced the release largely centred on features users would like to see next, rather than complaints about how the app works. That marks a change from a long stretch in which the leading request was simply for the app to function and to offer the basic features an app should have, according to the report.

Judging by those comments, the next item on the list is TruePlay, which both Android and iOS users want supported in the app. TruePlay is a tool that lets speakers measure the sound reflections in a room to fine-tune them, and based on reports it no longer appears to be available on certain devices.

Sonos has been promising a significant app upgrade for years, and some fans grew so impatient for software that worked the way they needed that they built their own. TechRadar describes 27.1 as another step in a gradual improvement, with relatively few remaining criticisms of how the app performs.