In early May, Sonos released a new update for its mobile phone app, which interacts with its products, such as speakers and headphones.
Unfortunately for app users, the redesign turned out to be clunky and filled with bugs, which led to the company’s CEO, Patrick Spence, issuing an open letter apology on the Sonos website and on social media.
“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 [sic] for disappointing you,” Spence wrote in a statement.
“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.”
He continued, “We developed the new app to create a better experience, with the ability to drive more innovation in the future, and with the knowledge that it would get better over time. However, since launch we have found a number of issues. Fixing these issues has delayed our prior plan to quickly incorporate missing features and functionality.”
Setting out a roadmap for repairs to the app, which has been taking place from this month and will continue to October, Spence added, “We know we have work to do to earn back your trust and are working hard to do just that.”
According to Smart House, the Sonos app update wasn’t just an unpleasant experience for users, it’s gotten bad enough that customers have been calling for a class action suit.
Later in May, Sonos launched its first-ever headphones, Sonos Ace, and finally got into personal listening with Sony, Bose, JBL, Sennheiser, and more.
The noise-cancelling headphones became available in black and soft white in Australia on 5 June for $699 AUD.