Hi everyone,
As the subject already tells, I'm searching for an accessible alternative controller application for macOS in order to control my Sonos products. The iOS and Windows apps work very well but the Mac app isn't really accessible with VoiceOver. The only thing you can do is to control the volume slider and a few EQ settings. Therefore, I need an alternative application. Maybe anybody knows about an alternative and can recommend it here. Or does anyone of you have direct contacts to the Sonos accessibility team? I've already written a mail to them but never got an answer yet.
Great weekend!
HEXAGON
Comments
Menubar controller for sonos
It’s made by the same person as the “Lid” app for the Apple Watch, and much like that app VoiceOver support is excellent.
Unfortunately it doesn’t let you browse the music catalogs like the official app, but if you set up some favorite playlists and radio through the iOS app you can use this to start any of them. It also lets you control playback and volume through global hotkeys (COmmand+the usual function keys that control media), toggle repeat and shuffle and group speakers.
https://apps.apple.com/us/app/menu-bar-controller-for-sonos/id1357379892?mt=12
Thanks so much!
Hi,
Thank you so much for this great recommendation, I'll give the menu bar controller a try. 👍
Just amazing!
Hi again,
I just bought the application and it's absolutely fantastic! I'm now able to control my radio stations or favorite playlists directly from my Mac! Many thanks!
Spotify
Sorry I know this is very late, but one other alternative is the Spotify app on the Mac. Obviously it's only useful for Spotify, but you can connect to any speaker and have it play from there. I tend to use Sonos Voice Control for grouping, volume etc and then the Spotify app to choose what to play. It's better than Air Play because it's independent of the Mac, so you can shut down and have it carry on. The Spotify app is pretty accessible. I'd say it's a nicer experience than trying to browse the same content in the Sonos app on the iPhone.
Anyway I realise this is no use at all if you don't subscribe to Spotify but just thought I'd mention it.
You can also use Alexa for things like playing radio stations etc.
I used to use the Mac app all the time when I could see, but now I do the above and don't really miss it.
Menubar controller for sonos
Hey! I know this post is a bit old, but I'm also looking for an app that will allow me to control my Sonos speakers from my Mac. What's the feedback on Menubar Controller for Sonos? Is it still a good and accessible app? Thanks in advance!
Re: Menubar
Well I bought this earlier today as I was curious if it might be useful, and it's quite cheap. I also use Lid on the watch which is quite good and accessible.
I started it up and it asked me to login to Sonos, which I did and then it picked everything up. It puts an icon in the menu extras bar. If you move the VO focus to it it says "Right click on the icon to play/pause
the music or to switch the volume.
Left click to open the control window". I couldn't figure out how to right click - well at least VO+Shift+M didn't work. Not sure if you need to use the VO mouse actions to do it or if I'm missing something.
Anyway I used VO+Space" on it and it popped up with a window where I could see the rooms and what was playing and there were various options. This window doesn't appear in Cmd+Tab so I believe you would need to go into the menu extras again to get back to it, unless there is a keyboard shortcut. I did have a quick whiz through the settings and all seemed accessible.
But then I ran out of time, a few hours passed and I'm trying to have another look. And I can't seem to get it to open up any more. If I VO+Space on the icon, nothing happens. If I go to the Application Chooser, I see there are some System Dialogs in there. Most are untitled, but one says Welcome. But if I select any of them nothing seems to happen. I don't know if they are even part of this app.
So, on first try it seemed OK, but now I'm feeling a bit disappointed. Maybe this is not a normal experience with it. Hopefully someone who has used it more than a few minutes can give a better impression.
The other thing I feel compelled to say is what a truly horrible experience the Mac App Store is. It's been a while since I've been in there - I possibly haven't bought anything since going full-on with VoiceOver but it is such a disorientating mess.
I'll hang onto the app and try it again but so far I can't see myself using it over the Spotify Connect plus Sonos Voice Control + Alexa alternatives.
Re: Menubar
I'm not having the weird dialog issues today.
When I started it up it told me that the menu bar was quite big so it was putting the icon somewhere else. And it told me about a global shortcut for it which is Cmd+Shift+M. Apparently there are some other keyboard shortcuts but I need to dig a bit.
It also integrates Sonos into the Now Playing thing in the menu bar (although you can tell it not to).
I did notice today when I went in, I select a group and went to the group volume and all rooms showed 0%, although none were playing at the time. This seems to not be happening now so maybe just a glitch, or maybe it takes a little time to update.
Other than the right-click thing, it seems quite accessible.
Sorry I am only trying it for a couple of mins here and there so not spending any quality time with it.
@ mr grieves
Hi!
Thanks so much for your feedback!
Mac controller
I see that Sonos are rolling out a new iPhone app in a couple of weeks time (oh god please let it still be accessible!). Anyway as part of this it seems they are phasing out the desktop controllers and introducing a new web controller that you can use instead. Much as I prefer a native app, this might be a blessing for us. With Sonoma we can probably wrap it up in a little app anyway. So other than Safari being totally terrible to use, it might still end up being usable - fingers crossed.