Sonos considers relaunching its old app

Sonos explored the possibility of relaunching its previous mobile app for Android and iOS — a clear sign of how much of an ordeal the company’s hasty redesign has become. The edge I can report that there have been discussions high up at Sonos about bringing back the previous version of the app, known as S2, as the company continues to work to improve performance and fix bugs with the revised design that was released in May to a flood of negative feedback. (The new Sonos app currently has an average rating of 1.3 stars on Google Play.)

Allowing customers to fall back on older software could alleviate their frustrations and reduce at least some of the pressure on Sonos to fix all the problems with the new app. At least for now, the redesigned version is all that’s available, making it impossible for some customers to avoid its flaws. The situation has improved substantially with recent updates and the app has turned a corner for many, but there is still a lot of work to be done.

CEO Patrick Spence insisted that rebuilding the Sonos app from scratch was the right choice and will allow the company to innovate more frequently and expand into new product categories.

But he also readily acknowledged that Sonos has seriously disappointed its customers. “While the app redesign was and continues to be the right thing to do, our execution – my execution – fell short,” he said during last week’s earnings call. He went on to say:

The app situation has become a hindrance to sales of existing products and we believe our focus needs to be on addressing the app before everything else. This means delaying the two major new product launches we have planned for Q4 until our app experience reaches the level of quality that we, our customers and partners have come to expect from Sonos.

One of these two delayed products is the successor to the Sonos Arc soundbar – codenamed Lasso – and sources say The edge that Sonos still expects to launch this product in October. (Sonos’ fiscal year ends at the end of September, so October would bring the company into fiscal year 2025 and be in line with Spence’s statement.)

Last week, Spence estimated that righting the ship will likely cost between $20 and $30 million in the near term, as Sonos works to appease current customers and keep them from abandoning the company’s home audio platform. The new app is updated every two weeks with improvements, and Spence said the cadence will continue through the fall. The potential return of S2 wouldn’t change that. Restoring the old app can be a technical headache, as Sonos’ new software moves a lot of basic functionality to the cloud.

This has undoubtedly become one of the most turbulent times in Sonos history. In the space of just a few months, the company went from a well-regarded consumer technology brand to a painful example of what can happen when leadership pushes new projects too aggressively. Spence himself admitted that the app controversy completely overshadowed the launch of Sonos’ first headphones, the Sonos Ace. Even today, Sonos laid off around 100 employees as the fallout from its hasty app overhaul continues.