Affiliate links on Android Authority may earn us a commission. Learn more.
The new Sonos app is such a disaster, the old version may just return (Update: Not happening)
- Sonos has faced a challenging year, primarily due to the poorly received redesign of its mobile app, which rolled out in May.
- The redesigned app, plagued with bugs and missing features, has frustrated users, leading Sonos to consider re-releasing the previous version as a temporary fix.
- The previous version of the app might help buy time for Sonos while the company continues working on the new app.
Update, August 22, 2024 (05:06 PM ET): Despite user fondness for the old Sonos app, not to mention all the problems that have cropped up with the new edition, the company has no plans to abandon its current software. CEO Patrick Spence created a new Threads account for himself just this week, and the first thing he’s doing is shooting down some of this speculation (via The Verge).
Spence clarifies that while he was considering bringing back S2 (the old Sonos app), it just really doesn’t make practical sense. The biggest issue, he suggests, is that Sonos hardware and the company’s cloud infrastructure have slowly been receiving updates that are targeted at the current app. And while S2 used to work great before all these changes, if the company were to roll back now it would likely break a lot of things. While the devs seem to have considered both paths forward, working to improve the current app ultimately made the most sense to them.
The CEO goes on to try and reassure his user base with promises that the company understands the complaints they’ve been levying, and is taking steps to be better about addressing them — including some key staffing changes, including putting “the original architect of the Sonos platform” back in charge. While that sounds promising, Sonos has a long way to go towards building back user confidence. One of the first steps should be happening as soon as next week, with an update planned to improve the app’s setup process.
Original article, August 19, 2024 (02:07 PM ET): Sonos has had a rather tough year. In May, the company rolled out a redesigned mobile app that fell short of expectations, to say the least. What should have otherwise been a time of celebration at the Sonos headquarters, thanks to the launch of the company’s first-ever headphones, the Sonos Ace, has turned into a period of intense crisis management and even layoffs (more on that later).
The redesigned mobile app has received overwhelmingly negative feedback from users. The app lacked basic features and included numerous bugs, so it’s no surprise that customers were frustrated with the redesign. The Verge has now reported that Sonos is considering re-releasing the previous version of its mobile app as somewhat of a temporary fix. The reporting outlet notes, “There have been discussions high up within Sonos about bringing back the prior version of the app, known as S2.”
Since the launch of the app, Sonos has worked steadily to rectify issues within the new app. Still, bugs remain, and users’ frustrations persist. Given this, the older version of the app might help buy time for Sonos, while the company continues working on the new app and restoring its users’ confidence in its offerings.
During a recent earnings call, CEO Patrick Spence said:
While the redesign of the app was and remains the right thing to do, our execution — my execution — fell short of the mark. The app situation has become a headwind to existing product sales, and we believe our focus needs to be addressing the app ahead of everything else. This means delaying the two major new product releases we had planned for Q4 until our app experience meets the level of quality that we, our customers and our partners expect from Sonos.
Currently, Sonos is rolling out app improvements every two weeks, and Spence indicated that will continue till fall. The re-release of the old app is unlikely to change this since Sonos will need to have a near-perfect app ready before launching it a second time. That said, restoring the old app presents its own set of challenges, given that the company’s new software includes a lot of cloud-based functionality that might not be compatible with the previous version of the app. Still, it will likely offer users a more stable and familiar UI.
In related news, Sonos has laid off something to the tune of 100 employees. The layoffs happened across divisions, including product and engineering, marketing, software quality, and platform and infrastructure. The company previously laid off 7% of its employees in June 2023.