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Sonos has unveiled a next-gen version of its app with a totally new look and functionality, which will launch worldwide on May 7, 2024, both as an update to its phone app and in a new web app you can use in any modern browser. Naturally, the new Sonos app will make it easier to control the best Sonos speakers – but the goal for it is to become a single hub for all your listening needs. At the heart of it is a new home screen that brings together favorites and recommendations from any services you use (from over 100 supported by Sonos), as well as a universal search feature that enables you to instantly search your podcasts, audiobooks and music for any term. I've seen the app in action, and it looks very much inspired by the smart TV software you get on the best TVs. Those are designed to pull in recently played items so that you can resume watching quickly, and to recommend movies and shows from the sea of options out there – and that's exactly what this will do, but for music. And just like all smart TV platforms these days (and similar to most music apps too, of course) it works through a series of sliding rows of options. The new hHome screen is on the left – you can expand the Mini player at the bottom to see the new Now Playing screen, shown on the right (Image credit: Sonos) By default, what you'll see on the home screen is a Recently Played section at the top, a Your Sources section that includes line-in (or TV audio if you have a soundbar), a Your Services section that's basically a list of shortcuts to open different services and browse in them directly, and then a Favorites section. On top of this, services can offer their own rows to be added here beyond Favorites. This is totally customizable, though – you can change the order, and add in particular types of Favorites or other ways to directly access music. What's on offer depends partly on what the services themselves offer for this home screen – pretty much anything can be added as a Favorite, but services can make other elements available to pin to the home screen, so for example Spotify could push personal suggestions straight there, or you could pin something like a 'More like Queen' recommendations list if you want a constant flow of that kind of music. Every user in your home gets their own home screen, and can customize it to make it specific to them. The Recently Played section will include anything played on any Sonos speaker in the household, whether that's by you or anyone else – that's the one area where your kids' delightful musical tastes will bleed into your screen. In the Favorites section, you can save artists, albums, playlists and songs, with little logos showing what service they're from. Browse to something you want in that service's section of the app, tap the three-buttons icon, hit Save To Sonos Favorites, now it's in the Faves. To edit these options, there's an Edit Home button, and then you can re-order things, or remove optional things, such as your pinned recommendations. You just drag things up and down the list to change the order, like editing a playlist. At the bottom of all this, but just above the new small 'Mini player' at the bottom is the Search bar. Tap in here and it'll show your recently searched options, or you can start typing to see results from every service you have connected. You can set your 'preferred service' in the Settings, and this will always float to the top of search results, and will be first in the Your Services list. So, if you want Apple Music results 90% of the time, make that your preferences and the app will prioritize it over anything else. The new Search screen, which shows previous search results and prioritizes your favorite services. These images also show off the app's light and dark modes (Image credit: Sonos) Easier control Just as important as all these changes to how you find music are updates to how you manage what's playing in the app. That includes multi-room management, as well as just quick play/pause options. There's a smarter, simpler view of all your speakers, which you can access either by tapping the name of your system at the top-left of the Home screen, or by swiping up from the mini player at the bottom while anywhere in the app. This basically shows you a bunch of mini players, in which you can instantly start/stop the music of different speakers, or tap on one to go into it and choose new music. If you tap a symbol that looks like a couple of Sonos speakers you can can group speakers, or split them. It's so much easier to parse than a lot of multi-room setups. It's very clear what's playing on different parts of your system, and what you should do to change things – it's just more intuitive. If you want more control options for a speaker, when you tap on it you get a full-screen player, which includes shuffle, repeat and other options, including grouping options right there. Sadly, Sonos didn't provide an screengrab for the speaker grouping controls on the phone app, but you can see the controls on the web app on the right here, and the new Home screen on the left (Image credit: Sonos) Analysis: it's got to make you want to use it With the long-rumored Sonos headphones said to be set for a launch soon, this app redesign makes total sense. The existing Sonos app has all the functionality it needs, but it's the kind of app you only visit because you have to. The new app needs to be something you use because it works well if it's going to power a pair of headphones. It's important that the new app is slicker, because the existing app has never been in competition with anything – if you have Sonos speakers and you want to play music on them, you have to use it. Sure, the experience should be pleasant and reliable, but ultimately it just had to work. But when it comes to headphones, the Sonos app is now in competition with the convenience of just using Bluetooth directly. The alternative is to simply not use an app at all. So Sonos has to provide a better experience than not using a hub app – one that makes you want to spend your audio time there to get the most out of Sonos’ headphones – and it appears that Sonos is betting on the ability to search multiple services, and bring your podcasts, audiobooks and music all together for really easy access, as the way to provide that experience. While I've seen this app being used, I haven't used it myself, so until I can do that I'll have to reserve judgment on whether it really works as a hub that I'm happy to rely on – but I like the principle of the idea a lot. Having instant playback of my favorite podcasts next to quick access to my personalized music streaming recommendations seems nice, regardless of the Sonos-ness of it all. Of course, outside of unreleased headphones products that remain theoretical for now, the update is still very welcome, especially for users of the best Android phones. For iPhone users, the Apple AirPlay support in Sonos products means it's super-easy to send audio to them from whatever app you like – it's already pretty slick. But it's not the same on Android, as there's no Chromecast support on Sonos speakers, and this app looks like it'll make using Sonos a lot more inviting on Android. You might also like A massive Sonos launch could soon bring a next-gen Roam 2 plus its first headphonesI listened to Sony’s new Bravia Theater Quad system, and it's full-fat Dolby Atmos without wiresEdifier's affordable wireless speakers bring a funky light show and hi-res connections View the full article

Sonos today unveiled a redesigned Sonos app that is meant to unify an increasingly fragmented streaming market. The app is focused around a customizable home screen that supports more than 100 streaming services, so each user can set up a personalized listening experience. The home screen layout can be customized, and it displays the services that each user has set up along with controls for accessing content. There are quick access options for recently played songs, podcasts, and books, along with options to browse libraries and see recommendations from preferred services. Favorite content and services can be pinned in rows to the home screen, and the rows are rearrangeable and customizable. A built-in always-visible search feature allows users to search for artists, songs, podcasts, audiobooks, and more across all of their preferred streaming apps. Swiping up from the bottom of the home screen allows for a quick visual overview of everything that's playing on connected devices, and there are tools for groping speakers and adjusting volume across the home. The new Sonos app will be available globally on mobile and through the web on May 7.Tag: Sonos This article, "Sonos Launches Redesigned App With Customizable Home Screen For More Personalized Listening" first appeared on MacRumors.com Discuss this article in our forums View the full article

Consumer expectations for high-quality and high-performing business applications have never been greater, but a poor experience can have costly consequences. 100 milliseconds of latency costs Amazon $5.4bn in lost sales. Brand reputation and customer relationships are also at stake. But these trends don’t just apply to huge global enterprises like Amazon. With over seven million apps available across iOS and Android platforms, even SMEs that want to compete to grow their user base and boost revenue must deliver unique, engaging, and easy-to-use mobile applications. The impact of poor mobile application quality on SMEs can be felt right down to the bottom line. In fact, 96% of global SMEs estimate losses of up to $2.49m as a result of poor mobile application quality. Users are facing challenges with device or platform support, lack of native applications and buggy or slow experiences. These are problems that SME business leaders are cognizant of, as they recognize the value of a well designed mobile application for building brand value, delivering an enhanced user experience, increasing competitiveness, and driving customer retention, acquisition and sales alike. That explains why senior IT professionals and application developers at SMEs are increasingly categorizing mobile application quality as critical to their business, and recognizing the importance of testing the quality and success of their organization's mobile app development. The delivery of quality software, fast, has become a necessary prerequisite for winning and retaining customers and, ultimately, to achieving digital success. But the surge in demand has also exposed challenges in the mobile application development and testing landscape. This has prompted serious decisions amongst SMEs about how to reduce the impact of poor application quality. Defining and delivering on quality Ultimately, the customer is at the center of mobile application development. Security, high-performance, good user experience and accessibility all rank highly as the key markers of success amongst SMEs. The challenge however is that mobile application users don’t differentiate between businesses of different sizes (and budgets) when it comes to user experience - they want an app that is fast and easy-to-use, regardless of the size and scale of the organization behind it. Delivering a quality user experience is not just about developing apps that work, but creating an end-to-end experience that helps users to operate mobile applications intuitively. However, SMEs are suffering from a significant lack of resources to effectively support mobile development and testing to ensure this level of quality. We’re hearing from more and more IT leaders at companies of this size who recognize that there’s significant room for improvement in their mobile application development and testing strategies, but say they simply aren’t able to find the numbers and quality of personnel required to achieve better results. Competing priorities and cost also present challenges for SME mobile app development and testing, compounding issues of complexity and lack of resources. And yet many still use manual testing for mobile applications - a slow and laborious process. Adopting automation and AI to overcome challenges Automation, underpinned by AI and low-code/no-code tools, presents a solution to these challenges. A YouGov survey from 2023 - commissioned by The Times and Lloyds Bank - revealed that 10% of SMEs had already used AI to grow their businesses by improving processes and systems, whilst 16% said that introducing automation had improved their productivity. So there is strong indication that SMEs can find significant productivity and efficiency gains by onboarding these technologies - our own research shows that as much as 75 hours per month could be saved. Beyond productivity, user experience ranks highly as a key use case for the adoption of automation and AI in mobile app development and testing. Automated testing enables teams to more quickly identify opportunities to streamline app delivery while maintaining quality and performance, getting better apps to market quicker. Meanwhile, AI can answer developers' questions far quicker, reducing the amount of tedious work required to find information manually. This leaves them free to focus on improving the end user experience, and fix any bugs found during testing. Despite these anticipated benefits, the number of those already reaping these rewards remains low. However, with more education about when and how to use them best AI tools will play a significant role in reducing the financial losses being incurred by SMEs as a result of poor mobile application quality. Mobile testing crossroads Clearly SMEs cannot afford to keep losing money because of poor mobile app performance. The time is now for long-term strategizing and investment in technologies that will positively impact both user experience and revenue opportunity - as well as helping to overcome skills and productivity gaps. Mobile application quality has never been more important, and the mobile app development industry is at a crucial juncture, with AI and automation presenting a unique opportunity to those who take advantage. It’s clear from our research that all SME stakeholders — from the C-suite to the developers themselves — are focused on improving their mobile application quality and testing processes, with much to gain. We've listed the best mobile app development software. This article was produced as part of TechRadarPro's Expert Insights channel where we feature the best and brightest minds in the technology industry today. The views expressed here are those of the author and are not necessarily those of TechRadarPro or Future plc. If you are interested in contributing find out more here: https://www.techradar.com/news/submit-your-story-to-techradar-pro View the full article

AWS customers can now view real-time and historical data visualizations of their critical resource and application metrics in a mobile-friendly format using CloudWatch custom dashboards in the AWS Console Mobile App. Now AWS customers have convenient access to customized views of their resource and application's health and performance metrics while on-the-go. View the full article

Tricentis added a Virtual Mobile Grid service to its portfolio to make it simpler to test mobile applications at scale. View the full article

Sendbird today added an application programming interface (API) to its low-code platform for building mobile applications that enables developers to add bots that communicate with OpenAI’s ChatGPT. Shailesh Nalawadi, head of product for Sendbird, said this API makes it possible to add the ability to communicate directly with the generative artificial intelligence (AI) platform from […] The post Sendbird Adds API to Invoke ChatGPT From Mobile Apps appeared first on DevOps.com. View the full article

Mobile apps have become the primary point of innovation for many companies, and skilled mobile developers are in high demand. The business asks developers to innovate fast using the latest smartphone features and capabilities to drive high download rates, wow their users, capture customers and grow their business. Dev teams facing constant pressure to move […] The post Four Secure Coding Best Practices for Mobile Apps appeared first on DevOps.com. View the full article