1 mo. ago • 98%

Sonos CEO apologizes for disastrous rollout of new app

www.theverge.com Sonos CEO apologizes for disastrous rollout of new app

He promises frequent improvements through the fall.

I mean, he's not wrong that the app wasn't ready. Which begs the question why they didn't un-roll-it-out. >.>

58 comments

Whoever the fuck thought a massive regression for every single customer was the perfect thing to deploy with no option for rollback needs to stop working in software.

52
- This isn't a software problem. It's a capitalism problem.
  
  It should be straight up illegal to remove pre-existing functionality from a device, regardless of whether that is present in software or hardware. If you release it on a stable channel, if you advertise it as a feature of a device, you support it for the life of the device. You can test beta features via an entirely separate beta app, but once the feature becomes stable you don't have a choice anymore. Once you stop supporting the hardware or software, you are required to open source everything required for consumers — as well as any competitor — to pickup where you left off and continue development.
  
  47
  
  If you release it on a stable channel, if you advertise it as a feature of a device, you support it for the life of the device.
  
  And when support ends you must provide everything necessary for users to have absolute control over the hardware themselves. "Unsupported so it's trash" is nonsense.
  
  19
  
  You don't even need demand eternal support. Just say that if manufacturers want their product to expire like milk, then they can damn well print an expiry date on the package, too.
  
  How would ""Will cease functioning on <x>" affect consumer purchasing decisions?
  
  8
  
  But there's no future profit for Sonos in them providing the ability for us to play music we already own from our own library.
  
  6
  
  (Photo of IoT dev living in your proposed world, colorized 2024)
  
  5
- There was an unofficial option for rollback - I'm on Android so I went to apkmirror and downloaded the last good version and turned off auto update. This worked for a while, but then they forced me to update - it literally said I had to update to continue using. I've seen someone say this wasn't actually a forced update, but rather keeping all the parts of your network in sync. I have one Sonos device and my phone is the only things that connects to it??
  
  5
  
  And that is why we don't buy things that depend on proprietary apps and/or cloud connectivity. Can't break my shit if it's local only.
  
  5
  
  Did you also disable FW updates on the hardware? I'm still running the old version because they nuked Subsonic support. There's a banner at the top remind me there's an update, but it's not forcing anything.
  
  3
- It's not that simple. They sold new hardware that claimed app support, and the app support was only in the new codebase.
  
  -1
  
  Ship a new app then. Sonos already do this for older products.
  
  1
10$ food coupons when?

36
- Pffft food coupons. It’s $5 off the purchase of your next device within 15 days of issue.
  
  3
Audio is one of the easiest if not THE easiest to do wirelessly. Why ANYONE would use this proprietary bullshit is beyond me. I'm looking at my girlfriends Sonos that we never use anymore once I put a shitty sound-bar on the theater TV which sounds better, and we can chromecast anything we want to it or just flip to the HTPC and use it like a computer.

Eat billionaires. Fuck corporations. Open. Source. Everything!

34
- Isn't Chromecast proprietary though?
  
  11
  
  https://www.libhunt.com/topic/chromecast
  
  https://developers.google.com/cast/
  
  2
- Amen
  
  1
Wait they made an even worse one?

27
- Yep. It's impressive, tbh.
  
  It's a company that was one of the first to get into "smart xyz" at all, scored big, and since then has shown that they have absolutely not a single clue how to do smart home appliances.
  
  8
They literally wasted all the effort trying to do patent trolling for years, and now their own lineup sucks sick. Who would have expected that

24
- That's the worst part, back when they were new, at least Sonos had a cool USP. Nowadays others do remote access and smart speakers too, and Sonos is still overpriced, still mediocre hardware, and now doesn't even have a nicely integrated all-in-one-app any more.
  
  7
  
  Kind of just the reality of corporate America. Live long enough until you become a villain
  
  8
Crowdstrike CEO: Did it crash the phone?

22
- Here's a $10 Ubereats coupon.
  
  5
It’s easier for me to control my Sonos devices through Home Assistant and dashboards I’ve created, rather than using the Sonos app itself. It’s like they hired some McKinsey consultants to make the app as useless as it can be.

19
- I hate it, and I play music on my tiny Home Mini more often, just to avoid the app.
  
  3
Too little, too late. For first month the app was unusable. It took forever to play the music and when it finally got played the missing features made the experience at best mediocre

I'm not going to stick with Sonos. I have already started lookingfosr a replacement. Audio Pro looks pretty good.

14
- Same. For me the final straw was when it started desynchronising from actual progress when playing podcasts, which means every time I pause and resume I'm somewhere else I the episode.
  
  5
Sonos speakers sound great but their app was/is/forever will be hot garbage.

11
- You may want to reevaluate your views. For the price there always were much better sounding options. Their main selling point is supposed to be convenience, but with all the software glitches it does not seem like they have it anymore.
  
  4
  
  I personally don’t own one. I work a couple of shifts at a bar that does though, so I’m forced to interact with it. Personally I would never buy or recommend one.
  
  But in my interaction with the speaker it sounds good, the app just never works. It’s clunky and not user friendly.
  
  1
Haven't they been trying to roll out their new app for like 4 years now?

10
Every Sonos app sucks. It's just one of those facts of life.

9
This is what happens when a digital rewrite is on the critical path of a physical product.

Physical product development is a behemoth. Manufacturing, certification, marketing, shipping, warehousing, contracts with retailers, etc. all add up to mean that, past a certain point in the project, the product is gonna launch whether the digital side is ready or not.

If the C-level/VP-level folks aren't willing to tailor the product roadmap to allow for a safe rewrite effort, you're pretty much guaranteed this outcome.

(Options are either keep the new product on the back burner until after the rewrite settles, or launch the product without IoT support at first. But you gotta plan for these up-front so you don't mess up your product's legal claims.)

6
Why can't they just fix the simple bug of having to open the app ,close it down, then reopen it just to connect to your setup? A simple 'wait' line of code would do wonders.

6
IoT gonna IoT

5
I’m lucky that I only have Gen1 products. I kept getting hit with “well don’t you want new features?” And I’m thinking to myself “what features?” This does everything I want. Plays local music, integrates with streaming services, syncs between multiple devices throughout the house.

And it’s a good thing I can’t upgrade after seeing this whole mess.

5
Hey why don’t we lay off the production people then claim we made a bunch of profit?

Ridiculous pay package pleeze.

4
I thought I lost my Sonos integration with my music source. In fact it was just an update to the app and I don’t know how to navigate that… or maybe the new app just removed the integration

3
- It's still in the app, but the app just really sucks to use.
  
  1
I was starting to think there was something wrong with my setup. Glad it wasn’t just me! Hopefully they’ll fix it. Better they be upfront and admit the mistake.

3
I just want queue management back again 😭

2
As someone in the market for a new sound system - looking for recommendations for something wireless w/ Dolby Atmos. Any suggestions?

2
- Sonos. Recent app troubles aside (it’s really not that bad, just kind of clunky for certain tasks), the longevity alone make them so worth it. Despite being essentially computers/smart home devices, they support 10+ year old devices in their latest app, older devices in their S1 Controller app, and the sound quality & setup ease is amazing.
  
  Plus, they have pretty good Black Friday sales and make it easy to build piece by piece if pricing is too high. You can also used replaced pieces to build a sound system in another room.
  
  Over ~3 years I started with a Beam, then bought a Sub and two Play:1s as rears. Bought an Arc, moved the Beam to the bedroom. Just recently I bought 2 Arc 300s as rears/upward firing Atmos speakers, and moved the Play:1s to the bedroom. Resale value stays high so if you have no use for a piece, you can sell it and get 50%-75% of what you paid out of it easily.
  
  There are cheaper devices with better sound quality out there, but nobody else can compete on the whole package with Sonos.
  
  7
- You might check out wiim stuff. They seem to be the darling of budget streaming for the moment.
  
  2
- I didn’t even know the app was updated before this post. I only start it when I add new devices, which is never.
  
  2
Glad I dumped them for $100 HomePod minis. The extra layer of shit just isn’t worth the sound quality, especially since I’m usually listening with headphones.

2
Such a courageous move.

1

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