Last updated: September 2026 — added iCloud sync and the Whole Home in-app purchase.
The Short Version
Somos InControl does not collect any data. We have no servers that see your activity. No Somos account is required to use the app. There are no analytics, no ads, and no third-party SDKs. The app’s internet requests are fetching product photos of your speakers from Sonos®‘s public image library and, when you browse or sign in to a music service, talking to that service’s own servers. Everything else — discovery and control — stays on your local Wi-Fi network. Your settings stay on your device and, if you’re signed in to iCloud, in your own iCloud storage. The optional Whole Home purchase goes through Apple’s App Store.What We Collect
Nothing. Somos InControl does not collect, transmit, or store any personal information on our servers — in fact, we don’t operate any servers. We do not use analytics, tracking pixels, advertising identifiers, crash-reporting SDKs (iOS’s own crash reports stay on your device unless you send them, below), or any third-party code that phones home. The app contains zero third-party libraries; it is built entirely on Apple’s own frameworks. The website is a separate thing, and it is entirely opt-in. The forms on this site — support, suggestions, the poll and the questionnaires — send us whatever you choose to type into them, and nothing else. Every field is optional, including your email address: leave it blank and we simply have no way to write back. The app never fills any of this in for you; it only opens a link to this site, and whether you answer anything after that is entirely your choice. Diagnostics are sent only by you. Submit diagnostics in the app’s menu opens the iOS share sheet with the app’s log — action names, error codes and what the speakers answered, never passwords, sign-in tokens or what you played. It goes nowhere until you pick a recipient. From build 40.0.5, iOS also hands Somos its own crash and hang reports for the app; Somos keeps the newest few on your device and, after an unexpected close, asks once whether to send the latest. The newest reports travel with the diagnostics log when you use Submit diagnostics, and like the log they go nowhere until you pick a recipient.Local Network Access
To find your Sonos® speakers, the app uses two standard local-discovery methods on the Wi-Fi network your device is connected to:- Bonjour (mDNS) — the same kind of discovery used by Apple’s AirPlay, Apple TV, and the official Sonos® app. The app listens for Sonos® speakers advertising the
_sonos._tcpBonjour service. - A direct subnet probe — as a fallback, the app sends a short HTTP request to each address on your local subnet asking “are you a Sonos® speaker?”. Any address that responds is added to your speaker list. Nothing is sent beyond the asking.
Bluetooth Access
The app uses Bluetooth for one purpose only: detecting Sonos® speakers that are nearby but not yet on your Wi-Fi network — for example, a brand-new speaker you are about to set up, or one that is temporarily offline. iOS will ask for Bluetooth permission on first launch. The app only looks at the advertising name of nearby devices and filters for Sonos® speakers. It does not pair with anything, does not send any data over Bluetooth, and does not identify you or your device in any way. If you decline Bluetooth permission, the app still works fully for speakers already on your Wi-Fi network.The Internet Requests We Make
Speaker photos. When the app displays your speakers, it fetches each speaker’s product photo from Sonos®‘s public image library atmedia.sonos.com. This is a plain HTTPS request for a static image — the same kind of request your browser makes when loading any website’s logo. No personal information is sent — not your speaker names, not your network details, nothing beyond the IP address that any standard HTTPS request reveals. The request amounts to: “please send me the picture of this speaker model.” If Sonos®‘s image library is unreachable, the app falls back to the low-resolution icon served by your speaker itself on the local network.
Music services. When you browse, search, or sign in to a music service in the app — Amazon Music, Pandora, Spotify, iHeartRadio, TuneIn, Bandcamp — the app talks directly to that service’s servers over HTTPS, using the same music-service interface your Sonos® speakers use. It sends what the action needs: the search term, the folder you opened, the item you picked, and the sign-in token the service issued to the app. Artwork is loaded from the service. Signing in happens on the service’s own page, opened inside the app; the app never sees your password and stores only the token the service hands back, in the device’s Keychain, until you tap Disconnect. Each service’s own privacy policy governs what it does with your account. Apple Music is browsed through Apple’s own framework on your device, under the Apple Music permission you grant, and Apple handles that traffic.
Apple’s iCloud and App Store. When you’re signed in to iCloud, your settings sync through Apple’s iCloud (see Where Your Settings Live). The Whole Home purchase and Restore Purchases go through Apple’s App Store (see In-App Purchase).
Beyond these, the app makes no other internet requests. No telemetry, no “analytics,” no “product-improvement” pings, and nothing to us — we have no servers.
Where Your Settings Live
Your preferences — selected speakers, presets, EQ settings, the favorites you heart from music services, and whether the intro video has played — are stored in the app’s local storage on your device (iOSUserDefaults), the same way any iOS app stores its settings. Music-service sign-in tokens are stored in the device’s Keychain. A small portion of this storage is shared with the Somos InControl widget and Live Activity so they can show the same speaker you are controlling, and the room list, each room’s presets and your Sonos® favorites are sent to the Apple Watch app when one is paired. Apart from the iCloud copy described below, everything stays on your devices.
iCloud sync. When your device is signed in to iCloud, the app keeps a copy of your presets, home names, room order, saved groups, hearted favorites, playlists and app switches in your own iCloud storage (Apple’s iCloud key-value store), so they reach your other devices and come back after a reinstall. That copy is held by Apple under your Apple ID and governed by Apple’s privacy policy; we cannot see it. Music-service sign-in tokens, room names and widget settings are never synced. Signed out of iCloud, nothing is synced.
Uninstalling the app removes all of its local data. The iCloud copy stays with your Apple ID, where iCloud settings can remove it.
In-App Purchase
The app offers one optional, one-time purchase, Whole Home. Buying it, redeeming an offer code and restoring it are handled entirely by Apple through the App Store. We receive no payment details, name or email from the app; the app only asks the App Store whether Whole Home is owned on your Apple Account.Relationship with Sonos®
Somos InControl is an independent, unofficial third-party app. It is not affiliated with, endorsed by, or sponsored by Sonos, Inc. Sonos® is a registered trademark of Sonos, Inc., used here only for the factual purpose of describing which speakers the app works with. The app communicates with your Sonos® speakers using the same publicly documented local control protocol that Sonos® speakers expose on the local network.