Sonos considers relaunching its outdated app

Sonos has explored the opportunity of rereleasing its earlier cell app for Android and iOS — a transparent signal of what an ordeal the corporate’s hurried redesign has develop into. The Verge can report that there have been discussions excessive up inside Sonos about bringing again the prior model of the app, often called S2, as the corporate continues toiling away at enhancing the efficiency and addressing bugs with the overhauled design that rolled out in Could to a flood of destructive suggestions. (The brand new Sonos app at the moment has a 1.3-star evaluation common on Google Play.)

Letting clients fall again to the older software program might ease their frustrations and scale back at the very least a few of the strain on Sonos to rectify each difficulty with the brand new app. No less than for now, the redesigned model is all that’s obtainable, which makes it unattainable for some clients to keep away from its flaws. The scenario has gotten considerably higher with current updates and the app has turned a nook for a lot of, however there’s nonetheless loads of work to be achieved.

CEO Patrick Spence has remained insistent that rebuilding the Sonos app from the bottom up was the best selection and can make it doable for the corporate to innovate extra ceaselessly and develop into new product classes.

However he has additionally readily acknowledged that Sonos severely let down its clients. “Whereas the redesign of the app was and stays the best factor to do, our execution — my execution — fell in need of the mark,” he mentioned throughout final week’s earnings name. He went on to say:

The app scenario has develop into a headwind to present product gross sales, and we imagine our focus must be addressing the app forward of all the things else. This implies delaying the 2 main new product releases we had deliberate for This autumn till our app expertise meets the extent of high quality that we, our clients and our companions count on from Sonos.

A type of two delayed merchandise is the successor to the Sonos Arc soundbar — codenamed Lasso — and sources inform The Verge that Sonos nonetheless hopes to launch that product someday in October. (Sonos’ fiscal 12 months ends in late September, so October would deliver the corporate into fiscal 12 months 2025 and line up with Spence’s assertion.)

Final week, Spence estimated that righting the ship is more likely to value between $20 and $30 million within the close to time period as Sonos works to assuage present clients and preserve them from abandoning the corporate’s whole-home audio platform. The brand new app is being up to date each two weeks with enhancements, and Spence has mentioned that cadence will proceed by the autumn. S2’s potential return wouldn’t change this. Restoring the outdated app might show to be a technical headache since Sonos’ new software program shifts a variety of core performance to the cloud.

This has unquestionably develop into probably the most turbulent occasions in Sonos’ historical past. Within the span of only a few months, the corporate has gone from a well-regarded shopper tech model to a painful instance of what can occur when management pushes on new initiatives too aggressively. Spence himself admitted that the app controversy has fully overshadowed the discharge of Sonos’ first-ever headphones, the Sonos Ace. Simply right this moment, Sonos laid off round 100 staff because the fallout from its rushed app makeover continues.