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Sonos Said Rolling Out Widely Criticized App Redesign Took 'Courage'
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Was not given the option to keep the old app! It auto updated overnight.
The new one is a major step backwards and does nothing to make it easier to use.
The new one is a major step backwards and does nothing to make it easier to use.
My take is it that Sonos have 2 problems.
1) More and more people use Spotify or Apple Music to control the system rather than the app. That essentially just makes them the hardware and they want to be more than that. They want to be the destination rather than just some dumb pipeline. They think their ability to aggregate services differentiates them (i.e. you could have a playlist with Apple Music, Spotify and Tidal content and not notice anything).
2) They have a lot of devices they need to support natively and want consistency without the headache of different code basis
Given that I've just seen the new web version at play.sonos.com, they are going the react/elektron or whatever web UI route just like all the other platforms (Netflix, Amazon etc). So they just have 1 code base and deliver to everywhere.
They've also got a launch timeline because of these headphones so they needed to launch. They probably know from stats that timers and alarms are not used by everyone so thought they'd get away with for a while.
But then there using these web ui's and its still not native and will have problems. MS teams, etc etc all needed a lot of work to make them run smoothly using this type of development.
I think it will get there, but I feel it will take a while. But I do question the concept of wanting everyone to use Sonos app instead of Spotify etc.. but not giving them a native, 1st class experience. I cant see that working out in the long term. Also, most users will only have 1 service so what really is the point?
1) More and more people use Spotify or Apple Music to control the system rather than the app. That essentially just makes them the hardware and they want to be more than that. They want to be the destination rather than just some dumb pipeline. They think their ability to aggregate services differentiates them (i.e. you could have a playlist with Apple Music, Spotify and Tidal content and not notice anything).
2) They have a lot of devices they need to support natively and want consistency without the headache of different code basis
Given that I've just seen the new web version at play.sonos.com, they are going the react/elektron or whatever web UI route just like all the other platforms (Netflix, Amazon etc). So they just have 1 code base and deliver to everywhere.
They've also got a launch timeline because of these headphones so they needed to launch. They probably know from stats that timers and alarms are not used by everyone so thought they'd get away with for a while.
But then there using these web ui's and its still not native and will have problems. MS teams, etc etc all needed a lot of work to make them run smoothly using this type of development.
I think it will get there, but I feel it will take a while. But I do question the concept of wanting everyone to use Sonos app instead of Spotify etc.. but not giving them a native, 1st class experience. I cant see that working out in the long term. Also, most users will only have 1 service so what really is the point?
Brought to you by the company that bricked a house full of their products ($5,000+) with an update to a new model and offered nothing but a pathetic discount to buy replacement speakers. They all ended up in a landfill. Never buy a Sonos product, incompetent software, eventually fixed but not customer focused, they have another objective. New subscription services or something.
Sonos this week released a major redesign for the Sonos app, introducing customizable home screen meant to deliver a personalized listening experience. The update was announced back in April, but just went live, and unfortunately, it removes a number of features while also introducing several bugs.
Multiple complaints on social media have called the app a "step back" with missing features like editing a song queue, managing playlists, shuffling a music library, and setting alarms and timers, along with slow performance and hard-to-access system controls. There has also been feedback from users about missing accessibility features.
The Verge asked Sonos about the negative feedback, and in response, Sonos said that it's aware of the complaints, but "it takes courage" to rebuild a core product.Sonos said that it is working to address the missing features "in the coming months," and the update will ultimately lead to "exciting innovations" in the years to come. There is no way for iOS customers who have already upgraded their apps to go back to the prior version, though users are calling for Sonos to roll back the update until the new app is more fully fleshed out.
Article Link: Sonos Said Rolling Out Widely Criticized App Redesign Took 'Courage'
Another put down the user comment… sorry, i own 9 Sonos products, and what you might consider ‘pretty much’, i consider ‘not enough’, and frankly i forgive a lot of flaws. But this update is flawed, thats just the bottom line. It’s designed to sell you more. I wont be.
So tired of companies, these days, releasing future promises.
I’m not sure what you consider to be a small company but Sonos is a $2 billion company with over 1800 employees and just reported a 2Q revenue of $252 million and 44% gross margin.
And these “critics” you speak of are their loyal user base who’ve had basic functionality removed from their user experience. Mind you, this is not the first time Sonos has bamboozled their customers.
I can tell you as someone who has worked with Sonos products since they were available, they are premium priced. What has happened since they launched is that other companies have begun offering premium versions of their products to compete with Sonos.
Had you educated yourself of the issue, you’d understand the issue has nothing to do with networking or airplay but the user experience of features found / no longer found in the Sonos app.
You know what's better than wireless headphones?
WIRED HEADPHONES.
Yes, I'm STILL PISSED about the headphone jack. Apple needs to put it back.
Oh, and I think we all know who to blame for this being a problem:
APPLE.
If we had normal software installation on iPhones, this would be a non-issue. You could just delete the new version of this app, and install the previous version that worked.
The app store sucks, and needs to die.
APPLE.
If we had normal software installation on iPhones, this would be a non-issue. You could just delete the new version of this app, and install the previous version that worked.
The app store sucks, and needs to die.
They are a public company. They have a $2 billion + market capitalization with nearly $300 million of cash and marketable securities on the balance sheet with little to no debt. Doesn’t mean they should not be cost conscious but they are not without resources and liquidity.
If they had NOT updated the app, I could follow the argument, but still might take issue with the core of it. But they went ahead and spent money on an overhaul of the app. So I just don’t get the idea of suggesting they are the victim of being small and cash strapped.
The mindless implementation of agile has a lot to answer for. You just know some dingbat in meetings was banging on about an MVP. They all hear Minimum; they never hear Viable.
Understand but respectively disagree.
They could have released the app as Sonos for Headphones, perfected it then rolled it out to everyone else under the Sonos S2 app. Make headphone users the beta (alpha?) testers, not the entire universe of Sonos users.
It takes guts to release a beta version to the public saying it is a ready to use app. Not bringing core functionality like controlling Alarms is a major miss.
As most folks said here they could have delayed the release or go for a beta program but no they had to release a beta version …
As most folks said here they could have delayed the release or go for a beta program but no they had to release a beta version …
sometimes the only way get a product to 100% is to release it. Sad but true. It's more about how quickly you can fix things than it is about making sure no one is unhappy. What won't work is hard deadlines like hardware shipping dates etc. You cant change them as easily as you can update the software. So release goes ahead.
I think it's great to say release the app as Sonos for Headphones but that only works if that was the plan 6 months ago. If they only find errors late in the day they cant change the release plan so quickly.
I think there must have been confidence during most of the dev cycle that this would all be successful and on time. And the presentations given to the heads of the company was probably positive. They also must have been reassured that not many people play and queue music from the app itself. I think the app is actually a bid to try and get people to use the app more for that stuff. So maybe thats why they didn't think omitting that feature was a dealbreaker for release.
Shame as it was good when you do that. I’m on a Sonos 5.1 playbar system with my tv and a play 5 in the kitchen. I get that my system is 10 years old but it was 2 grand and I don’t think the new player system is a big enough improvement to warrant an upgrade, especially while mine is working fine.
It was frustrating when the split my play 5 to the older app and now this is just a bit of a joke..
Everyone is forcing streaming over physical purchases and it’s massively disappointing
I’m tired of technology companies using the term courage as the excuse for delivering a crappy product.
And this, ladies and gentleman, is the type of ignorance that helped Apple get to the trillion $ market value all those years ago.
"muh speakers werk fyne y'all ar crayzeh!1!!1!"
I'm somewhat surprised by the reaction to this update. While it was certainly pushed out prematurely, it is also replacing an app that was complete crap. The only thing I use the Sonos app for is to control which speakers are playing, I control my music through Spotify connect which works perfectly.
Why not just release this new remake as a new app ID? That way people aren't forced to endure being beta testers for your courageous vision?
We tell everyone to keep app updates on, especially for security updates. But then we abuse the software update channel to push experiments and "courageous" changes. That's exactly the sort of thing that belongs in an opt-in mechanism.
In either case, why are "remakes" always seen as so necessary? Is it just job security for designers and UX testers?
We tell everyone to keep app updates on, especially for security updates. But then we abuse the software update channel to push experiments and "courageous" changes. That's exactly the sort of thing that belongs in an opt-in mechanism.
In either case, why are "remakes" always seen as so necessary? Is it just job security for designers and UX testers?
Are you kidding? Their sub costs £700. Is that really not considered a premium price?
Almost certainly one or both of two things: (1) they are rumored to be releasing a pair of headphones "soon" - if they added support for the headphones to the new version of the app, but neglected to do the extra work to add it to the previous version, then they could be stuck rushing the app to support the hardware release; and/or (2) the release of the new app coincided with an earnings report of some sort, they might have wanted/needed the "shiny new" app to point to in their meeting. I might guess that in return for this mess, some manager got their bonus for "shipping on time".
The new app is a complete mess, which needs a lot of work, and features re-added, the mess of a UI cleaned up, and some reported performance issues addressed. In the meantime, the best thing they could do would be to re-release the prior version of the app as "Sonos Classic" or something similar, and leave it available until the new app is feature complete and properly fixed and tested.