Sonos launched downloads of its all new mobile app for iOS and Android on Tuesday (unfortunate timing given it was Apple’s iPad event; Google’s Pixel 8a was announced that day too) and so far, many owners are not happy with the all-new design.
Owners have slammed the Sonos app update on Reddit, citing how the app is missing critical features like before. One person made a satirical post responding to the flurry of hate, to say he lost his wife and kids because this app update is so bad (Lol).
Sonos has now given a statement to The Verge, saying it will be working to address concerns of owners. Chief product officer Maxime Bouvat-Merlin borrowed a line from Apple to say it took “courage” to redesign the app (Apple exec Phil Schiller infamous said it took “courage” when the company ditched the headphone jack from the iPhone in 2019).
“Redesigning the Sonos app is an ambitious undertaking that represents just how seriously we are committed to invention and re-invention. It takes courage to rebuild a brand’s core product from the ground up, and to do so knowing it may require taking a few steps back to ultimately leap into the future,” said Sonos.
“We realize there are beloved features our listeners are eager to continue enjoying now. We are working diligently to reintroduce them in the coming months, alongside additional enhancements that will make for an even better app experience,” added the company’s statement to The Verge.
Some notable missing features in the latest Sonos app:
Some are questioning why Sonos released the new app despite these missing features. The company is rumoured to be launching new Sonos ‘Ace’ headphones soon. Hopefully the app gets back some missing features.
We’ve been using the new Sonos app update since Tuesday and haven’t had any issues. It does take a couple of seconds to show after the first load, but after that, we are liking the new design as it’s much faster to control your music, which is our number one goal. Now if only there was support for Apple’s Dynamic Island on iPhone though…
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did you get lock screen notifactions working?!
I have a friend who uses a screen reader. Sonos claimed it was taking accessibility seriously. Meanwhile people using screen readers will be SOL until mid June, according to the community forum, and that took lots of pushback from blind users. Luckily she was able to stop auto updates for the time being. others were not so lucky.
Your friend may have done this already, but highlighting just in case:
Reportedly Sonos speaker firmware updates sometimes disable features in older app versions (it becomes playback only). To avoid that happening to the brown version of the S2 app, users should disable automatic updates of the speaker firmware (in system settings in the app).
The speaker firmware updates could contain security fixes, but for someone depending on the screen reader, updating to version 80 is out of the question at this point.
the app is forced onto customers for data mining and selling the info for revenue generation
If Sonos thinks this release demonstrates courage, they clearly don’t understand the word. Removing features without warning is gutless, not courageous. The massive step back in accessibility is particularly inexcusable. Numerous basic features are missing beyond the ones noted in this article (e.g. ability to modify wifi settings; various services no longer work, such as SiriusXM).
They could have indicated the new app was missing features, instead of hyping it with advance press. They could have planned co-existence for a few months, rather than stranding people in a hobbled version that’s clearly not ready. Better yet, they could have delayed the release. Course if they delayed, they’d have to answer questions in their earnings call…which was May 7. And now they claim courage. Smh.
Whoever was in charge on this release either doesn’t GAF about existing customers, or they’re incompetent. Or maybe that’s generous, and both apply.