Sonos apologizes for its disastrous iOS app overhaul, reveals new roadmap

Sonos rolled out a major update for its iOS app in early May. Since then, an overwhelming number of users have expressed their frustration and disappointment through various channels.

The redesign of the Sonos app for iOS devices involved the removal of key features like “Play Next,” “Play Last,” “Shuffle All,” and the ability to search for songs in local/offline music library.

Although some of them made a comeback via updates, the new Sonos app is still miles away from the original app. If you’re one of the Sonos fans who decided to stick with the company even after the iOS app redesign fiasco, then this apology is for you.

“We know that too many of you have experienced significant problems with our new app which rolled out on May 7, and I want to begin by personally apologizing for disappointing you,” says Sonos CEO Patrick Spence in a blog post.

This is coming after Spence defended the controversial app redesign a few weeks after its release. At that time, Spence’s only problem was that his company could have communicated better with customers. He did not regret the redesign and even said that customers will have to adapt to the changes.

Fast forward a few months and it looks like Spence’s dismissive stance has melted completely: “there isn’t an employee at Sonos who isn’t pained by having let you down, and I assure you that fixing the app for all of our customers and partners has been and continues to be our number one priority.”

Sonos has already pushed out several updates since the redesigned iOS app was released. Many of the features that were initially removed have been added, but there’s still a long way to go until the Sonos app becomes just as useful again.

That said, Sonos revealed some kind of roadmap that contains information about the contents of the updates it plans to roll out in the coming months. Here is what to expect from Sonos in case you’re still attached to the company:

July and August

• Improving the stability when adding new products
• Implementing Music Library configuration, browse, search, and play

August and September

• Improving Volume responsiveness
• User interface improvements based on customer feedback
• Improving overall system stability and error handling

September

• Improving Alarm consistency and reliability

September and October

• Restoring edit mode for Playlists and the Queue
• Improving functionality in settings

Sonos also said that it will release new updates on a bi-weekly basis, which will be accompanied by detailed notes on what it’s being addressed.