During setup I had a nagging problem when using my Sonos home theater system: I was trying to add a Sonos wireless subwoofer to my network, but according to the Sonos mobile app, the subwoofer was nowhere to be found. The app would either say “Couldn’t connect” or, even more bizarrely, say it was trying to connect a gray box labeled “Product” with an unrelated serial number.
“I thought smart homes were something that would make our lives better. Easier“My husband gently commented as he watched me factory reset the Sub several times, power my phone on and off, toggle Bluetooth, replace my phone, and finally bang my head against the wall and cry before calling Sonos tech support.”
As you all know, I’m not the only one having issues with the new Sonos app: the company implemented a major redesign in May that broke some key features. Change the volume The glitch has affected some of the company’s speaker systems and has angered countless longtime Sonos fans.
Today, more than two months after the controversial redesign, Sonos CEO Patrick Spence finally acknowledged public customer disappointment in a lengthy message posted to the company’s Instagram account. “We’ve had a lot of issues since launch,” he wrote in typical sarcastic British understatement. Spence apologized for the frustration the update caused and said fixing the broken app remains Sonos’ “top priority.”
The post walks customers through a detailed list of Sonos software updates that have already been released and lays out a roadmap to further improve the dysfunctional app: Here are some of the issues Sonos promises to fix in the coming months:
- Implementing music library setup, browsing, searching, and playback (July and August)
- Improved volume responsiveness (August)
- Improved alarm consistency and reliability (September)
- Playlist Edit Mode Restored (September and October)
It’s a short list, probably too short. The number of improvements the company needs to make is staggering, to say the least. It’s hard to think of anything big enough to compare to this app update debacle, because in my time as a consumer tech reporter and editor, I can’t think of any other software update that took away the user’s ability to control volume.
More than that, it takes away the user’s ability to control the volume and then It wasn’t fixed right awayMonths! I reached out to Sonos to ask why the fix timeline for Spence is taking so long. The company has yet to respond.
It’s worth noting here that Sonos hardware remains the gold standard in the world of premium consumer audio: My colleague Parker Hall called the Era 100 the new standard for smart speakers; the Ace wireless headphones earned an 8/10 rating and a WIRED Recommends badge; and when I finally fired up my Sonos home theater system, I was astounded by the richness and depth of the Jungle’s sound. Land of Evil(The bomb explodes!)
And yet this sense of frustrated disappointment is oddly familiar. My household was once completely Sonos-driven, with Play speakers spread throughout the house and even my husband’s workspace. I ditched the Play system in 2020 because I couldn’t stand the company’s decision to split the controller software into two Sonos apps, one for new speakers and one for old speakers. Why should I have to do mental math to remember which app controls which speaker when I want to change the music?
But I’m once again stuck in hardware and stuck in software, unable to edit my Sonos playlist until September. Maybe I’m just a silly, beautiful dreamer. At least my Roku TV is still working.
