Sonos CEO Patrick Spence said Wednesday that the speaker company is unable to bring back the old version of the app, meaning Sonos customers who are unhappy with the new app will have to rely on it, at least for the near future.
Spence said that while he had hoped the company could re-release the old version, the company found that doing so would make things worse for customers due to backend updates to the cloud servers and the software running on the speakers.
Everything was on the table to find the fastest way to fix your systems. In fact, until recently I was hoping we could re-release the old app (S2) as an alternative for those of you who have issues we haven’t yet resolved.
The trick, of course, is that Sonos isn’t just the mobile app, it’s also software that runs on your speakers and in the cloud. In the months since we launched the new mobile app, we’ve updated the software that runs on our speakers and in the cloud to the point where S2 is less reliable and less stable today than what you remember. After extensive testing, we reluctantly concluded that re-releasing S2 would make the problems worse, not better. I’m sure that’s disappointing. For me, it was disappointing.
Earlier this month, it was reported that Sonos was considering possibly bringing back the original version of the app to appease unhappy users until the new app can be fixed. The revamped app was released back in May.
Sonos users have criticized the new cloud-based app, saying it lacks basic features. When Sonos released the new app, it said it included significant fundamental improvements. The cloud-based approach should allow Sonos to add more features to its ecosystem in the future.
Unfortunately, existing Sonos users are not happy with the new app, saying it lacks basic features like alarms and timers. Sonos CEO Patrick Spence has apologized for the premature launch of the app and promised a bi-weekly update cycle for new features. The company has also postponed the launch of two new products, which was planned for the fourth quarter of 2024. The company is now focusing all its resources on getting the new app up to scratch.
In his Reddit AMA post on Wednesday, Spence assured customers that the “original architect of the Sonos platform” was back in charge and said Sonos had “brought together the very best and most experienced engineers” to fix the app.
According to reports, Sonos will face a balance sheet loss of $20 million to $30 million in addition to the loss of goodwill and customer trust it has already suffered.
