Despite its designing of some of the best soundbars in the market, Sonos has been steeped in controversy of late following the disastrous launch of its new app redesign.
The kerfuffle has proven quite the conundrum, leading Sonos to delay several of its upcoming product launches as it works to fix the platform. In the face of these constraints, many believed it might relaunch its older app in the hopes of amending these issues, but those plans seem marred in their own slew of setbacks.
Sonos CEO, Patrick Spence, voiced these woes in a recent Reddit AMA, highlighting the S2 app's nature as running software in the cloud alongside your devices. This means that using the long-dated app would be far more challenging for Sonos and stability issues would only abound.
Spence cited fixing the app “remains my #1 priority,” but he also touched on the potential of two-factor authentication as being “a possibility” in the future. The new app launched nearly three months prior, and Sonos has yet to amend the issues it faces and it could still be awhile yet before it can right the ship.
Sonos goes repair mode
Sonos launched its new Sonos app on May 7, which led to pushback from users due to concerning performance issues, from slower navigation to constant crashes, and even hardware constraints, with our senior streaming writer Malcolm McMillan citing the need to "unplug my Beam once a week."
Even some of the best Sonos speakers are proving to have loads of issues now following the new app's launch due to how Sonos uses its app as software in line with the cloud to run its devices optimally. In July, Spence defended the new app's creation, citing it as a way "to create a better experience" and one "with the ability to drive more innovation in the future," but also noted the issues and that Sonos aims to amend them before any new features or functionality gets added.
After doing extensive testing we’ve reluctantly concluded that re-releasing S2 would make the problems worse, not better. I’m sure this is disappointing. It was disappointing to me.
Patrick Spence
Reports, like this one from The Verge, suggested that Sonos might move away from its original plans in adopting this new app in favor of utilizing its predecessor in the S2 platform. However, it seems those plans have fallen by the wayside in the wake of a recent Reddit AMA with Spence.
The Sonos executive would note the complexities of the new and old app designs, highlighting as mentioned previously 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 trick of course is that Sonos is not just the mobile app, but software that runs on your speakers and in the cloud too. In the months since the new mobile app launched we’ve been updating the software that runs on our speakers and in the cloud to the point where today S2 is less reliable & less stable then what you remember. After doing extensive testing we’ve reluctantly concluded that re-releasing S2 would make the problems worse, not better. I’m sure this is disappointing. It was disappointing to me."
This, unfortunately, doesn't give Sonos users a clear and concise understanding on when to expect its current remodeled app to find improvement. He did note that fixing the Sonos app "remains my #1 priority," but given the now three months of efforts on that front, it's hard to say when you can expect any major changes.
That being said, it might be best to look elsewhere when on the hunt for a new soundbar or speaker, with the Bowers and Wilkins Panorama 3 and the Yamaha Yas-209 as prime Sonos substitutes.
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