Sonos Official

Update on the Sonos App from Patrick Spence

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Hello everyone,

We wanted to take a moment to address concerns regarding our new app that launched in May. At Sonos, delivering an exceptional experience is paramount to all that we do. Unfortunately, your experiences over the past several weeks have fallen short of our commitment to you.

Today, our CEO Patrick Spence published a letter that includes a detailed update on the progress we’ve been making and plans going forward. You can read the full letter here.

We sincerely appreciate your patience and continued support. We are working hard to earn back your trust and are more committed than ever to delivering a consistently great Sonos experience for everyone.

Thank you all for your patience,
Your Sonos Team

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jgatie

I love @SONOS and love the CEO making a statement. The issue I have is that Patrick states that when the app was released you “found” a number of issues. That wasn’t the problem. The problem was that you literally removed features people used every day. That was a deliberate decision by the developers. So, the apology rings hollow because this statement makes it sound like a software bug and not an oversight or a conscious decision.

As has been explained before, the app was a ground up rewrite, using an entirely new architecture (mDNS) from what was used before (UPnP). So nothing was “removed”, it just wasn’t finished in time for the planned release date which not so coincidently was 2 weeks before the release of the new headphones.

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scottdwinter

Trending Lyricist I

I love @SONOS and love the CEO making a statement. The issue I have is that Patrick states that when the app was released you “found” a number of issues. That wasn’t the problem. The problem was that you literally removed features people used every day. That was a deliberate decision by the developers. So, the apology rings hollow because this statement makes it sound like a software bug and not an oversight or a conscious decision.

As has been explained before, the app was a ground up rewrite, using an entirely new architecture (mDNS) from what was used before (UPnP). So nothing was “removed”, it just wasn’t finished in time for the planned release date which not so coincidently was 2 weeks before the release of the new headphones.

Semantic argument. If they chose to release it without legacy features, they were removed regardless of any plan to add them back in at some point.

Either way, as I said, it was a conscious decision not “found errors” as Patrick stated.

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Anon689327

Lyricist I

I feel like this letter would land better if they send owners some 50% off vouchers and 12 months free Sonos HD Radio.

jgatie

Semantic argument. If they chose to release it without legacy features, they were removed regardless of any plan to add them back in at some point.

Either way, as I said, it was a conscious decision not “found errors” as Patrick stated.

Semantic to you, the consumer. Not even close to a sematic argument to the people who designed, developed, and were forced to release a half-baked app.

jgatie

I feel like this letter would land better if they send owners some 50% off vouchers and 12 months free Sonos HD Radio.

Or they could just give every Sonos owner a 10 lb. solid gold bar and a 5 karat diamond. They’d be out of business real quick, but boy would that letter land well!

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sjw

Local Superstar

Of course it was removed, users could do something beforehand and their ability to do them after the update was removed - never mind the incredible number of bugs that were introduced. Although, by the same logic can it be said they weren't introduced? How Sonos came about to that is completely irrelevant to users.

I'm just trying to imagine explaining to a user why they can't do something in my code isn't because it's been removed but because I started again and re-wrote it. Bizarre logic.

They should maybe just release the App that Patrick has used since Christmas because that was great apparently.

jgatie

Of course it was removed, users could do something beforehand and their ability to do them after the update was removed - never mind the incredible number of bugs that were introduced. Although, by the same logic can it be said they weren't introduced? How Sonos came about to that is completely irrelevant to users.

I'm just trying to imagine explaining to a user why they can't do something in my code isn't because it's been removed but because I started again and re-wrote it. Bizarre logic.

They should maybe just release the App that Patrick has used since Christmas because that was great apparently.

Now who is making a sematic argument?

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Gaham

Headliner I

Semantic argument. If they chose to release it without legacy features, they were removed regardless of any plan to add them back in at some point.

Either way, as I said, it was a conscious decision not “found errors” as Patrick stated.

Semantic to you, the consumer. Not even close to a sematic argument to the people who designed, developed, and were forced to release a half-baked app.

Let’s not forget that the half baked app was released on 7th May and that, if they did not know it was half baked when they released it, they found out it was half baked as soon as users started using it. They knew that we had concerns within minutes/hours of the release but Patrick Spence refused to acknowledge those concerns fully until now.

And yes I am venting because Sonos need to hear us. That letter has taken 12 weeks to write, 12 weeks.

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Anon689327

Lyricist I

I feel like this letter would land better if they send owners some 50% off vouchers and 12 months free Sonos HD Radio.

Or they could just give every Sonos owner a 10 lb. solid gold bar and a 5 karat diamond. They’d be out of business real quick, but boy would that letter land well!

Yeah gold bars and diamonds are totally the same thing.

jgatie

Let’s not forget that the half baked app was released on 7th May and that, if they did not know it was half baked when they released it, they found out it was half baked as soon as users started using it. They knew that we had concerns within minutes/hours of the release but Patrick Spence refused to acknowledge those concerns fully until now.

And yes I am venting because Sonos need to hear us. That letter has taken 12 weeks to write, 12 weeks.

You’ve been around long enough to know that it was shown to be half-baked in Beta testing, but was released anyway. And I couldn’t care less to have a letter from Spence or anyone else. When I need warm fuzzies, I don’t turn to the CEO of a nameless, faceless corporation to let me know how I should feel. Sonos screwed up. It’s now up to me to decide if I want to dump them, or wait it out, and no stupid PR stunt like a letter of apology is going to make one difference to me in that decision.

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