Update on the Sonos App from Patrick Spence

I read this note while not being able to connect to TuneIn radio stations (again, a function your app says is working,  maybe you should try it cause it isn't) I am reminded of my deep frustrations with Sonos.

I am frustrated that your road map does not even include fixing listening to podcasts from the phone app.

So, I have no music library,  no ability to listen to podcasts from the app, volume controls that don't funtion, an App that has to be opened multiple time to work, and once again no radio stations.

This email does not feel sufficient given I have 9 speakers and you have taken 3 months failing to fix a system that you chose to revamp when it worked well.

Failure in leadership. 

Hi Patrick.

Firstly, thanks for the apology… Appreciated.

I agree that progress is being made but your quality control still leaves a lot to be desired.
e.g. With the new 16.3 firmware update you made things worse for many of your user base where you broke Music Library “Imported Playlists” and “Compilations”. These previously worked fine under 16.2 firmware.
 

Also, I would hope that a high priority would be to add back A-Z positioning into your Music Library Artists/Albums which was present in your old app but missing from your new app. This is not a requirement for scrolling through small music libraries but pretty much essential for easy positioning into large music libraries.
3rd party apps like SonosPhone/SonoPad can currently do this so I am unsure why you can’t easily add this functionality back. I don’t see this mentioned in your future update schedule, but hope you will address this sooner rather than later.

FYI: My personal experience with the new app has improved dramatically since you resolved the cloud server issues that resulted in flaky UX responses for your users in the pacific/Asia region. Thank you for sorting this out in a reasonably timely manner.
 
I am looking forward to 6 months time when hopefully Sonos is still in business and the nightmare of the last few months is a distant memory.

Ross.

Blimey Ross are you on the payroll ??

The whole app is a diaster, why give the man credit 

He is paid a lot of money and a limp couple of lines on this forum hardly cuts it does it ,?

The mac desktop app still works like the old one as a work around for anyone with a laptop (at least until they decide to “upgrade” that one too).  I only use ours while sitting at work now because I can’t get the ios app to do anything besides encourage me to swear a lot. If they break that I’m done. 

So we have to suffer the app for 6 months more until you bring the features and use ability of the old app. Why bother just admit the anpp is garbage and release the old app asap !!

Nice to see an acknowledgement but when the app still can’t even connect to speakers months later, it means nothing.

When are you going to fix even the most basic function of playing to connect speakers?

To be clear before this major update we had no issues, so don’t even suggest that it might be related to local network or anything it wouldn’t have worked before this update if that was the case and yes we have tried reboots of all equipment.

When the app first came out it wouldn’t even connect to other play 5’s, a firmware update seems to have sorted that but not the connect which is now a brick :(

Thanks for the apology but why can't they just not change what works well? The whole system is based on the fact that you can only access your music library with the Sonos app, no bluetooth, no physical connection... What a fiasco!! 

Leaving aside that an actual sincere apology - which this isn’t - is long overdue, our mothers all taught us that words are cheap, but actions talk. With that in mind, Patrick, your answer to this unmitigated disaster is to double down on its origin and inflict more rushed, untested software updates on us, who are over a barrel? And with a roughly “two week cadence”? Speak English, please, not bad business BS, and tell us the only possible solution: that you will give us all back the old app that actually functions, file the new crap in the dust bin of historically bad decisions, and then resign.
 

Patrick Spence, please resign now.

And that would make what material difference to you or your speakers…?