Despite its design of some of the best soundbars In the market, Sonos has been mired in controversy recently following the disastrous launch of its app redesign.
The hubbub turned out to be a real conundrum, leading Sonos to delay several of its upcoming product launches As it works to fix the platform, many thought it might relaunch its legacy app in hopes of fixing these issues, but those plans appear to be marred by their own series of setbacks.
Sonos CEO Patrick Spence expressed these woes in a recent Reddit AMAhighlighting the nature of the S2 app as software running in the cloud alongside your devices. This means that using the long-standing app would be much more difficult for Sonos and stability issues would only abound.
Spence said fixing the app “remains my number one priority,” but he also mentioned the potential for two-factor authentication as “a possibility” in the future. The new app launched nearly three months ago, and Sonos has yet to fix the issues it faces, and it could be some time before it can get things back on track.
Sonos goes into repair mode
Sonos launched its new Sonos app on May 7, which has been met with some backlash from users due to concerning performance issues, ranging from slower browsing to constant crashes, and even hardware constraints, with our streaming editor Malcolm McMillan citing the need to “unplug my Beam once a week.”
Since the launch of the new app, even some of Sonos' best speakers have been plagued by issues, due to the way Sonos uses its app as a cloud-based software to make its devices run optimally. In July, Spence defended the creation of the new app, citing it as a way to “create a better experience” and “with the ability to drive more innovation in the future,” but also highlighted the issues and the fact that Sonos intends to fix them before adding new features.
After extensive testing, we reluctantly concluded that re-releasing the S2 would make the issues worse rather than better. I'm sure that's disappointing. It was a disappointment to me.
Patrick Spence
Reports, like this one from The Verge, have suggested that Sonos might be moving away from its initial plans to adopt this new app in favor of using its predecessor on the S2 platform. However, it seems those plans have fallen through following a recent Reddit AMA with Spence.
The Sonos executive highlighted the complexity of the new and old app designs, emphasizing as mentioned earlier how the app works in tandem with the cloud to better operate the audio devices that make up your home entertainment setup. Spence wrote:
“The problem is that Sonos is not just a mobile app, but also software that runs on your speakers and in the cloud. Since launching the new mobile app, we’ve updated the software that runs on our speakers and in the cloud to the point where today’s S2 is less reliable and less stable than you remember. After extensive testing, we reluctantly concluded that re-releasing S2 would make the problems worse, not better. I’m sure that’s disappointing. It was disappointing to me.”
Unfortunately, that doesn't give Sonos users a clear and precise idea of when to expect the current revamped app to be improved. He noted that fixing the Sonos app “remains my No. 1 priority,” but given the three months of effort on that front, it's hard to say when we can expect major changes.
That being said, you might be better off looking elsewhere when you're in the market for a new soundbar or speaker, with the Bowers and Wilkins Panorama 3 and Yamaha Yas-209 being your main Sonos replacements.