Sonos is continuing to work to improve its app, which has undergone significant changes since the company overhauled it last year to largely negative criticism.
The company continues to publicly talk about this work and be transparent in how it rolls out improvements to the app, which began in the summer with former CEO Patrick Spence acknowledging the issues and pledging to fix them.
New and Planned App Updates
In a post on the company’s support page, Chief Innovation officer Nick Millington said the team handling the app fixes are focused on two priorities: addressing all customer issues to ensure top technical performance and restoring previous app functionality based on user feedback.
Millington, who last wrote a post on the company’s website in December, personally thanked customers who have given Sonos feedback through support channels and social media for their detailed problem reports. They also gave Sonos the ability to collect diagnostic information from their systems to help solve issues.
According to Millington, users of the Sonos app should be seeing major functionality improvements, including app behavior when controlling portable speakers like the Roam and Move. Users should be able to “wake” idle portable devices from the app and display their battery life.
Other fixes include restoring the ability to “snooze” an alarm from the app, improvements to the System Settings interface, a performance tune up of commonly used parts of the app like search results and volume sliders, more actionable steps when error messages appear, and fewer interruptions asking users to reauthorize access to music services.
Upcoming app updates will focus on creating and editing Sonos playlists, improving the app’s startup time, allowing users to queue entire music folders and scroll faster through large lists, and overall system improvements and responsiveness.
“As Interim CEO Tom Conrad and I have promised, we will continue work on the app, both technical performance and functionality,” Millington wrote.
Sonos’ Busy Last Few Months
Sonos has been unable to stay out of headlines lately, with longtime CEO Patrick Spence and a handful of other executives reportedly leaving the company over the last few months in the wake of the less-than-stellar rollout of a new app last Spring.
The company has publicly acknowledged the app’s failures and has pledged to restore functionality and customer trust.
Millington’s update also comes as the company reportedly axed its plans to enter the video streaming market in a partnership with adtech company The Trade Desk, according to The Verge.
The company was publicly linked to The Trade Desk, which has said it wants to launch a smart TV operating system, with Sonos providing the hardware for a set-top box, per reports.
According to The Verge, Millington was overseeing the video streaming device, but his attention now appears to be 100% focused on restoring the app and the brand’s reputation.
