Sonos CEO takes questions from irate customers as app update outrage continues

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Andrew Feinberg

White House Correspondent

Sonos’s chief executive has taken questions from irate customers as the problems surrounding its disastrous app update continue.

In April, Sonos announced that it was launching a new version of the app used to control its smart speakers. It was intended to modernise the design as well as improve the performance.

At the time it was launched, chief executive Patrick Spence said that the app had been “completely redesigned and rearchitected the Sonos app to make it easier, better and faster”. He said that the new one had been built with a recognition that the old app had been a “pain point at times”.

But, as soon as it was released, the new app led to a widespread outcry from customers. They complained that key parts of the app experience had been taken away – including some basic features – and that the performance had been drastically downgraded, with complaints that speakers were seemingly going missing.

In the time since, Mr Spence and the company have repeatedly apologised for the failure of the launch. The company has focused all of its resources on improving the app, even as it makes staff redundant, it has said.

Now Mr Spence has appeared in a Reddit question and answer session in which frustrated customers complained about their ongoing problems with the new app.

He said that the company has looked into relaunching the old version of the software in an attempt to stem the problem. But that is no longer technically possible, he said.

He also said that while the company had expected some negative reaction to the app, it had been surprised by the wide array of technical issues that users have been hit with.

“We have a high bar for every product we ship - hardware and software. We believed we’d cleared that bar with the new software. With hindsight, we know we fell short,” he wrote.

“In terms of negative reaction, we knew there would be a segment who preferred the previous experience, and we were prepared for that.

“We also knew we’d hear from customers who used local music & sleep timers, but in both cases we were confident we had a path to quickly address their concerns.

“What we didn’t expect were the stubborn and esoteric bugs - that was the surprising part.”

He said that if the company could start the rollout again, it would release the app in a way that allowed “early adopters” to try the experience out first before rolling it out more broadly. In reality, the app was distributed to all users at the same time – and the only way to opt out was to turn off automatic updates and refuse the new software.