Sonos apologises after disastrous app launch

‘There isn’t an employee at Sonos who isn’t pained,’ CEO says

(Sonos)

Sonos has apologised after a disastrous app update that has left users with missing smart speakers and other problems.

The audio company released a new update for the app used to play music and control speakers at the beginning of May.

Ahead of its release, the company said it had “completely redesigned and rearchitected the Sonos app to make it easier, better and faster”. It pointed to a new look that was intended to make it easier to choose music, and suggested that the new app would have faster and more reliable performance.

But, when it was actually released, users were outraged. Features had been inexplicably removed from the app, and some found that their speakers had gone missing and could no longer be used.

Some even suggested that the app had left their system entirely unuseable.

Since then, forums including the company’s official website and Reddit have been filled with complaints from users. Some said they had sold their entire Sonos setup and promised never to buy them again.

The app update also overshadowed the release of Sonos’s new ‘Ace’ headphones. Those had been intended as a breakout into a new category for the company – but most users just used them as another opportunity to criticise the company’s app.

Now Patrick Spence, Sonos’s chief executive, has apologised to users and promised to keep making updates to the app.

“I want to begin by personally apologising for disappointing you,” he wrote. “There isn’t an employee at Sonos who isn’t pained by having let you down, and I assure you that fixing the app for all of our customers and partners has been and continues to be our number one priority.

“We developed the new app to create a better experience, with the ability to drive more innovation in the future, and with the knowledge that it would get better over time. However, since launch we have found a number of issues. Fixing these issues has delayed our prior plan to quickly incorporate missing features and functionality.”

Sonos’s website gives a detailed list of new updates that are expected, which consist of improving the reliability as well as restoring features, with new updates promised every two weeks. But some of those updates to restore previous functionality might not arrive until October, the company said.

The apology led to yet more frustrated comments from users.

“I‘ve Invested thousands in Sonos speakers, how are you rolling out new apps without major testing prior,” one popular comment on Instagram read. “Embarrassing....”