Sonos CEO defends app redesign as a "better experience" but admits failure to communicate
It's been an odd couple of months for Sonos. Excitement about the brand's first-ever foray into the competitive world of wireless headphones sees the US brand striding into uncharted territory in what could be a major industry shakeup, yet the excitement of the new Sonos Ace has been sullied somewhat given the brand's struggles with its recent app redesign.
Formerly heralded as one of the best platforms around today, a major overhaul to the Sonos platform a few weeks ago has not exactly received unanimous approval. Sonos has reportedly been inundated with messages from riled customers over the past few weeks, with many complaining that the overhauled mobile app is suffering from bugs, glitches and the glaring omissions of key features such as sleep timers, alarms and queuing songs. A Reddit thread titled "Dear Sonos, what the hell??" encapsulated this fury in impressive detail if you have the time...
Sonos has defended its controversial redesign on numerous occasions over the past month or so, with CEO Patrick Spence addressing concerns directly in an interview with The Verge as part of a chat about Sonos' upcoming Ace over-ears. There, Spence asserted the need for "the app to be easier and more modern to navigate", defending the new platform as "faster, more responsive and... a better overall experience" while admitting that it was a "change for consumers".
Thankfully, Spence gave reassurances that Sonos would fix the bugs and omissions that had sparked such fury, consoling users that "we’re going to find bugs as we go through this. We’re heads down and making sure we get those addressed... what I wish we would’ve done is probably communicate the roadmap a little more clearly".
Sonos has already provided a roadmap for improvements and issued a software update on May 21st for Android and iOS users which provided, among other things, improved VoiceOver support, improved local music playback and proper support for the newly unveiled Sonos Roam 2 portable Bluetooth speaker.
These efforts will hopefully remedy the multiple issues found with the recent overhaul which has clearly ruffled so many feathers among Sonos' wide consumer base. Even so, some commentators have pointed out that the trend of forcing out incomplete updates and redesigns upon consumers without warning or even the benefit of choice doesn't do much to repay a person's loyalty to a particular brand. Hopefully, the damage hasn't already been done for Sonos, especially with those Sonos Ace headphones now emerging from their proverbial chrysalis and ready to battle the big boys.
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