Hey all, today we're sharing a message from our chief innovation officer, Nick Millington in the announcement here. Going forwards we will update that topic and we therefore close this one for further replies.
We set out to create a more personalized and effortless listening experience with the updated Sonos app. It was rebuilt from the ground up to ensure it could support future innovation in the years to come. For its initial rollout, we focused on how we could answer some of the most common requests from our customers, including increased reliability, performance, and faster access to music.
Many of you have shared valuable feedback on both the improvements that have made your experience better, as well as the areas where we fell short. We are listening to all of your comments and working to address them as quickly as possible. Over the coming weeks, we will reintroduce the below features, while fixing bugs and performance issues. Thank you for your engagement and we look forward to building upon this first step to create a listening experience that meets everyone’s needs.
Imagine a Boeing - one should not talk about Boeing these days - so imagine a Tesla doing something similar to deliver a much better driving experience next year! By starting a steering wheel redesign this year?
Do Sonos users in the first world really need a different music listening experience next year?! Whatever that may sound like...but whatever that is can only be delivered by radically different hardware than just tweeters and woofers in a box. Or, by the other end, in how the music is performed, recorded and mastered.
curious if the idea of a class action suit would make Sonos more amenable to providing a rollback mechanism?
Added to all the other missing functionality....using Pandora through Sonos, I used to be able to select a Pandora mode for a given station (Crowd Faves, Deep Cuts, etc) but that functionality seems to be gone. Please add it back.
@Keith N
Another insight which will resonate inside Sonos only after the post of “VP of User Experience” is eliminated, because all this churn is that post justifying its existence. It does not matter who occupies that post.
A common analogy in high end audio system users to justify their constant kit upgrades is to point to cameras, or even cars, where the same things are done.
There is a fallacy in this one and it is this: A better UI in cameras/cars may allow you to take better pictures or make you a better/safer driver.
But beyond a point that is quickly reached, a better UI for a home audio system is not going to allow you to elevate the music listening experience, that is a passive one, compared to those of taking pictures or driving cars that are active experiences. There one is interacting with the UI all the time that the equipment being controlled by the UI is being used.
Sonos, led by such VPs and like, has fallen in the trap of thinking that innovation for a system that is used passively for 99% or more of the time, lies in the domain of the remote/UI. And tt is easy to confuse change for innovation.
Or — how about you fire your designers and use well established platform paradigms that aren’t terrible or absurd?
I’m beyond baffled on how Sonos isn’t acknowledging the UI/UX paradigm isn’t a sheer mistake of utter arrogance and the general new low standard butt end of a joke on what not to do in almost every dev group I’m in.
The entire UI/UX should be rolled back, not tweaked.
This response is embarrassingly tone def and comes across as doubling down.
The app is simply not functional at the moment. Why not give people an option to use the previous, working app in the meantime?
Keith, this is a lame excuse for a mea culpla. You have not apologized to your customers which suggests to me you really don't understand the impact your (reckless) actions have had.
On top of basic features not working, which is messing with our sleep timing, alarms, music habits, etc. the system is now horribly unstable. On my Samsung, it opens about 20% of the time, on my Ipad closer to 60%. I have stopped the update on my PC, but really at 3 am when insomnia hits booting up the laptop to hear a podcast is a real pain.
Maybe you don't get how much your customers use your system to meet daily needs. If you had done proper user testing you would never have released this inferior product.
I don't care about the user interface, I could use the old one and (if it worked) I can learn the new one. I care about features and stability, neither of which you have anymore.
Your timelines extend well beyond my dump Sonos completely and find another system.timelone, spending a lot of money and damaging your brand for .e immeasurably.
Please allow us to revert to the old version while you clean up this debacle.
And, do real user testing next time, that is business 101, but it seems Sonos forgot that part.
UGGHHHHHH!
Hi @Keith N - any word if returning media controls in the Android notification centre and lock screen are on the roadmap?
Keith, this is a lame excuse for a mea culpla. You have not apologized to your customers which suggests to me you really don't understand the impact your (reckless) actions have had.
They aren’t apologizing, the official response from management is removing these features took courage.
They are now trying to change the channel, whitewash May 7 and move the focus to May 21 when features will allegedly start to come back.
Unfortunately, Patrick already promised that you wouldn’t do anything like it again. He said “If we run into something core to the experience that can’t be addressed, we’ll work to offer an alternative solution and let you know about any changes you’ll see in your experience.” You broke your promise.
A someone that remembers the S1/S2 mess, this reminder is perfect. Ouch!
For its initial rollout, we focused on how we could answer some of the most common requests from our customers, including increased reliability, performance, and faster access to music.
Well, you failed miserably on all fronts. Roll back, apologize, redesign from scratch.
It also speaks volumes that none of the executives could be bothered to address the community in any way. Feels like, we already got your money, now go play with your broken toys and be quiet.
increased reliability, performance, and faster access to music.
Failed, failed and failed.
We are listening to all of your comments and working to address them as quickly as possible.
You’re not. Well *you* might be listening but the powers that be are not.
I don’t envy your job at the moment, nor that of the other members of the community team at times like these, but I’m not sure how much these statements help. You tell me you’re listening then tell me that basic functionality is a month away and that big fixes are will happen in the coming weeks (next week, 7 weeks time?). In the meantime 2/3 of my system is basically unusable. Sonos has, to all intent and purposes, bricked many peoples systems. Regardless on views of app design, missing features, etc, you have rendered people’s hardware unusable and are offering no interim way of using it. The overriding request has been to rollback/re-release the old S2 app until you have fixed things and release an “S3” app when it’s actually ready. In my opinion that’s the only request you should be listening to.
Here’s my feedback to your senior team: I’ve been a UK customer since ~2008 but this is the sour cherry on an increasingly stale cake. I’m done.
This fiasco can destroy company reputation overnight. The Head of Product has a lot of answer for and i expect they are squarely on the line for this absolute disaster of a product release.
Anyone buying a new Sonos will be automatically put off with how poor the new app is.
Annoyingly, people like me with 16+ devices are stuck with the mess this app is.
Poor UXUI, buggy, unstable. It’s shoddy.
I am in the process of renovating my home with Sonos designed throughout, however if this the future of the product, I will genuinely seek alternative products.
Finally, I will say on your press release, you stated “…this took courage.”
No. It took utter poor planning, ego trips and stupidity to release the app in the state it’s in.
As a Head of Product with 15 years of experience, you messed up. Badly.
We set out to create a more personalized and effortless listening experience with the updated Sonos app. It was rebuilt from the ground up to ensure it could support future innovation in the years to come. For its initial rollout, we focused on how we could answer some of the most common requests from our customers, including increased reliability, performance, and faster access to music.
Many of you have shared valuable feedback on both the improvements that have made your experience better, as well as the areas where we fell short. We are listening to all of your comments and working to address them as quickly as possible. Over the coming weeks, we will reintroduce the below features, while fixing bugs and performance issues. Thank you for your engagement and we look forward to building upon this first step to create a listening experience that meets everyone’s needs.
Screen reader for visually impaired customers: May 21
Adding and editing alarms: May 21
Adding to queue and playing next: early June
Sleep timer: mid-June
Local music library search and playback: mid-June
Update Wi-Fi settings: mid-June
CRAP!
We set out to create a more personalized and effortless listening experience with the updated Sonos app. It was rebuilt from the ground up to ensure it could support future innovation in the years to come. For its initial rollout, we focused on how we could answer some of the most common requests from our customers, including increased reliability, performance, and faster access to music.
Many of you have shared valuable feedback on both the improvements that have made your experience better, as well as the areas where we fell short. We are listening to all of your comments and working to address them as quickly as possible. Over the coming weeks, we will reintroduce the below features, while fixing bugs and performance issues. Thank you for your engagement and we look forward to building upon this first step to create a listening experience that meets everyone’s needs.
Screen reader for visually impaired customers: May 21
Adding and editing alarms: May 21
Adding to queue and playing next: early June
Sleep timer: mid-June
Local music library search and playback: mid-June
Update Wi-Fi settings: mid-June
CRAP!
Remove it now! Until it is completed
It's nice to see features recognised and dates of hopeful resolution..
However, that plan should be an internal development plan to deliver all of the fixes to the users - maybe by the last date - NOT drip feed fixes to appease discrete sections of users. It does not recognise many of the bugs that are also being reported though.
The right approach should be to firstly apologise for the huge trouble, anger and anxiety caused (and not tell us how courageous you have been!) and then re-release the exact 16.1 version we just had, even if it's called 80.x, that doesn't matter.
People can then happily go about their lives again, the forum quietens down and Sonos work through those issues and deliver the software in a fit and proper state, when it's ready - like it should have been a few days ago.
Alarms being back in weeks rather than months and local library search actually being on the roadmap are the first pieces of good news on this app.
Arbitrary deadlines to appease management who don't care about users, just to please shareholders, which will ultimately displease both users and shareholders. Great work everyone.
The problem for us as users is that changing from a multi-room Sonos setup to a different brand/setup is both expensive and a huge pain in the hoop. Sonos know this, and know they can shaft us with a rushed update that removes core features, and reply to no complaints but for this "it's an ongoing process" nonsense, and we still won't change because it's a ball ache.
The problem for Sonos is that a reputation hit like this, treating their uses so appallingly, can only embolden competitors, reduce new user take-up, reduce existing user new purchases, and ultimately hit the shareholders in the wallet. And, as we all know, when the shareholders are unhappy, it's the beginning of the end.
Search and play your local music library from June 21? Sorry what?
Do you not realise how many of your users have huge libraries of locally stored music and THIS IS THE ONLY REASON WE USE YOUR APP?!!!
So in the name of a "user experience upgrade" you take away my core user experience for six weeks?
How did it not occur to you that this would annoy your oldest and most loyal customers? But perhaps that doesn't count for anything. It certainly feels like it right now.
My Sonos products are getting quite old now and I was thinking of replacing them. I guess I will but it won't be with Sonos. Give yourselves a big round of applause.
Roll the update back and release the new version when it’s done…...
Volume level numbers missing on single room playback also eq missing on same slider
Battery % for move and roam missing
Hopefully when all is fixed later this year I can sell my system and recoup some of the money I spent on them
Bought my first and last Sonos product today. Cannot get it to work through this abomination of an app. Quite an education and experience to read this and the reddit threads. Scarcely believable. Fixes in mid June?!? No rollback?!? Has the management of this company been infiltrated by Bose double agents? Is this an experiment to see how fast to fall to a market cap of zero? What a fiasco.
Keith, I appreciate you and the team trying to stem the bleeding. I don’t envy your position of having to clean up self-inflicted consequences from management decisions.
That said, these timelines strike me as tripling down on the tone deaf and self-congratulatory “courageous” marketing messages being sent out.
You are telling me, the market leader Sonos speakers won’t be able to add a song to the listening queue for a month. This capability was available last week, but no longer due to an unannounced impact of the “upgrade.”
If I tried to suggest surprising users by taking away core functionality and promising to bring it back in a month, I’d be laughed out of a job.
The most obvious way to get back to current state parity is to provide access to the v16.1 app. No need to rush development and testing on the v80.x. Let those for whom the new app works continue. Let those for whom the new app does not work migrate when core feature parity is achieved. The last thing you want is to make the above promises and introduce new bugs.
Yet, for unspoken reasons, this option is never mentioned.
I’m all for change and creating a new platform for the business. I would like to see Sonos succeed. However, I haven’t seen evidence of Sonos having the judgment to know how and when to course correct.
Best of luck.
Spot on great post,
Yes, it really does call for a ‘Hey folks, we hear you, we got this wrong and apologise. The previous App is going to be made available as an update and you can carry on using it as you were while we work on and resolve the issues and shortfalls that have been observed since release.’ kind of message…
