“Check it out if you're a Sonos enthusiast and an Apple Watch wearer.”
Zac Hall, 9to5Mac
Your Instant Sonos Remote for Apple Watch, iPhone, and iPad
Pause, skip, and set the volume in under a second. The Sonos app needs your home Wi-Fi. Lyd does not.
Your Sonos, Wherever You Are
Lyd runs on Apple Watch, iPhone, and iPad, and it reaches your speakers through the Sonos cloud. So the remote is on you, at home and away.
On Every Device You Carry
Apple Watch
Sonos on Your Wrist
- Sonos makes no Apple Watch app. Lyd has since 2019.
- Play, pause, skip, rooms, groups, volume on the Digital Crown, complications, and Voice Messages.
- Runs on its own, with the iPhone left wherever it is.
iPhone
The Full Remote in Your Pocket
Rooms, groups, a volume for each speaker, Sonos Favorites, playlists, and search across every service linked to your system.
iPad
Built for the Bigger Screen
A native layout with a sidebar: Music, Scenes, and settings side by side, rather than a phone app stretched wide.
In Every Place
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Out of the house
Works Away from Home
The Sonos app needs your home Wi-Fi. Lyd talks to your system through the Sonos cloud, so you can turn it down from the office or check that the house is quiet on the way home.
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A second home
Every System, One List
Home, office, and the holiday house: every system under your Sonos account, one tap apart. An S1 system next to an S2 one is fine.
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On the couch
Quieter Without Getting Up
Turn the music down, pause it, or set a Sleep Timer from your wrist. The Watch app runs on its own, so the iPhone can stay where it is.
Faster Than Opening an App
The Sonos app is for setting up and browsing. Lyd puts pause, skip, and volume on the surfaces you already have in hand, with no app to open.
Volume Buttons
Press the buttons on the side of your iPhone and the Sonos volume moves with them, five steps at a time. It works whenever Lyd is on screen.
Siri
"Play the Kitchen with Lyd." "Pause all with Lyd." "Louder with Lyd." The "with Lyd" at the end is how iOS knows which app you mean. Nothing to set up: the phrases register themselves when you install the app.
Shortcuts
Make a call, pause Sonos. Leave home, stop the music. Every Lyd action is available to any automation, applying a Scene included.
Lock Screen
Wake the screen and Sonos is already there: what is playing, in which room, with the buttons to pause or skip it. No app to open.
Home Screen Widgets
Widgets in every size iOS offers, on iPhone and iPad. Skip, pause and change the volume with no app to open.
Dynamic Island
Control Sonos from inside almost any other app. Tap the Dynamic Island to pause, skip or change the volume, then go back to what you were doing.
Scenes
One Scene Sets the Whole House
Which speakers play together and which one leads, a volume for each, the music, a sleep timer, and who should go quiet. One tap on your iPhone, your wrist, or your Mac, or ask Siri, and the house is set in about a second.
- Speakers
- Who plays together, and which one leads the group.
- Volume
- A level for each speaker, plus bass, treble and loudness.
- Music
- A Sonos Favorite, a playlist, Line-In, or the TV.
- Playback
- Shuffle, repeat, and a sleep timer that keeps running with the app closed.
- Quiet elsewhere
- A switch that pauses every room the Scene does not use.
- A check before you tap
- If a speaker is offline or a playlist has been deleted, the Scene says so before you run it.
- A name and a look
- One of the app's icons and colors, so you can tell them apart at a glance.
- A trigger
- "Apply Dinner Time with Lyd." Siri and Shortcuts can run any Scene.
Scenes are built on iPhone or iPad and sync over iCloud, to your Apple Watch and to Menu Bar Controller on the Mac. The Watch runs them; editing stays on the bigger screen.
Try it on your own speakers. Fourteen days free, every feature included, no signup.
Start Free TrialWorks with Every Streaming Service
Spotify, Apple Music, Deezer. If it plays through Sonos, Lyd controls it.
Press Coverage
What tech reviewers wrote about Lyd.
“It's like the Apple Watch app Sonos should release.”
Gary Ng, iPhone in Canada
“Und aufgrund der einfachen Darstellung auch definitiv schneller als mit der Sonos-App.”
Fabian, appgefahren.de
What Users Say
Three of the reviews behind the 4.6 stars.
★★★★★
“If you have Sonos, the Lyd app on its own justifies buying an Apple Watch.”
Wilf Forrow, App Store UK, July 2026
★★★★★
“Love running two different houses from my Apple Ultra 2.”
TJMILLER12, App Store US, December 2025
★★★★★
“The app is refined and the developer keeps adding more features.”
Raforbes, App Store US, March 2025
Frequently Asked Questions
Do I still need the official Sonos app?
Yes, and that is fine. Setting a system up stays the Sonos app's job: adding a speaker, Trueplay, firmware, stereo pairs, alarms, and putting things into Sonos Favorites. Lyd controls what is already there, and it reads your Favorites and playlists so you can start them from a widget or your wrist.
The Sonos app has widgets and Lock Screen controls now. Why Lyd?
It does, and they are good. What Lyd adds:
- Apple Watch. Sonos makes no app for it. Lyd has since 2019.
- Away from home. The Sonos app needs your home Wi-Fi. Lyd goes through the Sonos cloud.
- iPad. A native layout with a sidebar, not a phone app stretched wide.
- Scenes. Regroup the speakers, a volume for each, and quiet in the other rooms.
- Volume buttons. The buttons on the side of your iPhone move the Sonos volume while Lyd is open.
- S1 next to S2. Every system under your Sonos account in one list.
- Guest Mode. A system that is not yours, on its Wi-Fi.
What if I have multiple Sonos speakers?
That is the normal case. Group and ungroup speakers, give each one its own volume, and control a single room or a whole group. If you run more than one Sonos system, including an S1 system next to an S2 one, Lyd lists them all and switches between them, as long as they sit under the same Sonos account.
Does it work when I’m not at home?
Yes. Lyd sends its commands through the Sonos cloud, so as long as your phone has a signal you can pause, change the volume, switch rooms, or start a Sonos Favorite from anywhere. Guest Mode is the exception, because it talks to the speakers directly and only works on their Wi-Fi.
Isn’t this what Sonos Presets does?
Presets in the Sonos app save music, rooms, and volume and bring them back in one tap, and that is a good thing to have built in. A Scene holds more: it regroups the speakers and picks the group leader, sets a volume per speaker plus bass, treble, and loudness, can pause every other room, sets a sleep timer, warns you before you tap if a speaker or playlist has gone missing, runs from Siri and Shortcuts, and syncs to your Apple Watch and to Menu Bar Controller on the Mac.
Can I try it before buying?
Yes. The 14-day trial starts the moment you install Lyd, with every feature unlocked and no signup. After that it is a one-time purchase, no subscription, and Family Sharing covers up to five people.
More questions? Read the support page
One-Time Purchase. Yours Forever.
Pay $8.99* once and use Lyd forever. No subscription, no renewal, nothing to cancel.
Includes a 14-day free trial with complete access to every feature, and Family Sharing for up to five people.
* App Store pricing varies by country. This price is for the US App Store.
Who Makes Lyd
Alexander Heinrich started Lyd in 2019. Dominik Maglia has looked after it since July 2025. It is a one-person project: the person who writes the code also reads the support email.
2019: Built Out of Necessity
"I was frustrated that Sonos never built Apple Watch support. So I did."
Alexander Heinrich
Developer
Alexander Heinrich, a longtime Sonos and Apple enthusiast, created Lyd out of personal necessity. As someone who had invested heavily in both ecosystems, he was frustrated by the gap Sonos left open — no way to control his wireless speakers from his Apple Watch.
He named the app "Lyd" — Norwegian for "sound" — reflecting his straightforward approach: pure, direct control over your audio without complexity. What started as a personal project to solve his own daily frustration has become the definitive Apple Watch Sonos controller, used by thousands of music lovers who refuse to compromise on convenience.
2025: Building on the Foundation
"I found Lyd as a user and immediately saw where I could take it further. I reached out to Alexander to make that happen."
Developer
Dominik Maglia discovered Lyd while looking for a better way to control his own Sonos system. The app worked exceptionally well, and he immediately saw potential for more.
As a developer focused on user experience, Dominik knew he could build on Alexander's solid foundation and take Lyd further. He reached out to learn about Alexander's vision and where the app could go.
When Alexander's new job prevented him from continuing development, the timing aligned perfectly. In July 2025, Dominik took over the app with a clear goal: preserve what worked while pushing it forward. Since then, he's shipped a complete UX overhaul (version 4), brought widgets, Live Activities and Shortcuts to the iPhone (version 5), and continues actively developing new features based on user feedback.
Learn How to Get More from Sonos
Step-by-step guides for setting up the widgets, building the automations, and getting the controls onto your wrist.
Sonos on Your Apple Watch
Sonos makes no Apple Watch app. Lyd has since 2019: rooms, volume on the Digital Crown, Sonos Favorites and grouping, with the phone left wherever it is.
Read the Guide
Sonos S1 vs S2, Explained
Two platforms, two apps, and speakers that will never play in sync. What the 2020 split fixed in place, what it still leaves you, and how one app covers both systems.
Read the Guide
Six Sonos Apps for iPhone, Compared
Widgets, Apple Watch, Shortcuts, remote access, price: how Clic, Lyd, Orto, Sono+, SonoPhone and Soro differ, and which one fits the way you actually listen.
Read the Guide
Sonos Widgets and Live Activities on iPhone
The official Sonos app keeps every control inside the app. Lyd puts play, skip and volume on the Home Screen, on the Lock Screen and in the Dynamic Island.
Read the GuideFor the Mac
Also on a Mac?
Menu Bar Controller for Sonos is our separate macOS app. Sonos sits in the menu bar, one keystroke away, with no window to switch to.
Menu Bar Controller for Sonos
macOS, 14-day free trial
- In the menu bar
- Playback, volume and rooms, one click from whatever you're doing.
- A full Music Library
- Search every streaming service, browse your own collection and edit the queue.
- Your Scenes, on the Mac too
- Scenes sync over iCloud, so a Scene you build in Lyd is one click away on the Mac.
Start Your Free Trial Today
Control Sonos from your wrist, a widget, or away from home. Fourteen days free, every feature included, no signup.