How it works

Your speakers, your network, no cloud in between.

Sonopley talks straight to the Sonos speakers in your home. There is no Sonopley account to make and no Sonopley server for anything to pass through.

It talks to your speakers

Sonopley finds the Sonos speakers on your home network and controls them there, using the speakers' own local protocol. Rooms, groups, what is playing, the queue and the volume all come straight from the speakers, and change on screen as they change in the room.

And to the services you choose

Pin a music service from the list your speakers offer, and while you browse or search it, Sonopley asks that service directly. When you play something, your speakers play it with the account your Sonos household already has for that service.

It works at home

Your phone or computer has to reach your speakers at home — on the same network, or on a network of their own. Away from home there is nothing for Sonopley to reach — and at a friend's house, it works with their Sonos on their network.

Speakers on a network of their own

Speakers on a separate network, such as an IoT VLAN, work too: Sonopley controls them over TCP port 1400 alone. Let your phone or computer reach them on that port, then choose in Speaker settings how Sonopley hears about changes made elsewhere — it asks the speakers regularly, or the speakers send updates to a fixed port on your device, which needs a second firewall rule and a fixed address. Each Sonos system keeps its own choice. Sonopley cannot find speakers on another network by itself, so first add one of them by its IP address in Speaker settings.

S1 and S2 in one app

Sonopley works with older S1 and newer S2 Sonos systems in the same app, where Sonos needs two. Every system's speaker groups are in the list at the top, so moving from one system to another is a single tap. Open the app where only another system's speakers answer — in your other house, say — and it switches to that system and says so.

What you make stays with you

Moments, cue points and Sonopley favourites are kept on your own phone or computer, not in your Sonos household and not online. That is what lets your favourites come with you to a friend's speakers.

What it cannot do, and why

Some limits come from the platforms and from Sonos, and they are worth knowing before you start.

No lock-screen player on iPhone. iOS keeps those controls for apps that play sound on the phone itself, and Sonopley's music plays on your speakers.
On iPhone, live updates pause in the background. iOS suspends apps you are not using, so Sonopley cannot hear from your speakers then. When you come back, it catches up straight away.
Windows may ask about your firewall. To hear about changes the moment they happen, the Windows app listens for messages from your speakers. If you decline, it checks every few seconds instead.
Sonos can switch local control off. If local control is turned off in your Sonos system's connection security settings, Sonopley cannot control your speakers — and it says so, rather than failing quietly.
You still need the Sonos app now and then. Setting up speakers, updating them and adding music services to your household are done in the Sonos app.