Courage? (Premium)

The other day, lashed out at Sonos for the poor quality of its new app. But I should have waited. It’s much worse than I thought.

As I noted at the time, I should have known better: The Sonos mobile app has long been the Achilles Heel of this otherwise excellent smart speaker ecosystem. I only use it when I have to, as it’s not possible to directly control Sonos speakers using the YouTube Music app.

My issues with the now-previous Sonos app, which used to be called Sonos S2 to differentiate it from the legacy Sonos S1 app, were many. But all I was hoping for with this upgrade was the basics: A more elegant way to control the Now Playing queue.I want to easily add songs to the queue (Play next, Add to queue), remove songs from the queue, rearrange songs from the queue, and the like.

That I even have to type that out is indicative of how terrible this app is. Or, was. Because that app that I hated so much has been replaced by a new app. That, incredibly, I hate even more.

I will say this. The new Sonos app is prettier than its predecessor, with a more modern user experience. It will be more bearable when it works better, but the new app—in both mobile and web app forms, they’re built on the same code base—is definitely a visual improvement.

I noted in my previous article on this topic that the web app would almost immediately crash, and that was true for me, no matter which web browser I use on which platform. The issue, I discovered, was that the “Recently played” section would never successfully load, and that somehow crashed the page. You can see that here:

So I worked around that by scrolling past that section or navigating to a different page. Once I did that, the web app worked OK. And looking at it today, I can see that “Recently played” now loads correctly. So there’s one problem solved, I guess.

But there are other problems. Many other problems, including some functional regressions—features from the S2 app that are missing in the new version—that really upset the user base. The Sonos subreddit is full of complaints, many of which contain long lists of issues and missing features.

But my single biggest issue with this app is rather incredible. Remember how I wanted Sonos to make it easier to make basic changes to Now Playing? Sonos didn’t do that. Instead, Sonos removed those features entirely. It’s not possible to remove a song from Now Playing. It’s not possible to change the position of a song in Now Playing. It’s not possible to add a song to Now Playing, not after the currently playing song and not at the end of the queue. All you can do is replace the queue with something else (a song, a playlist, whatever).

This is so incredible I doubted myself. I mean, come on. This is media player 101 stuff. Obviously, you can edit Now Playing. I must just be missing something.

Nope. I’ve confirmed across the Android, iPhone, iPad, and web versions of the new Sonos app that there is no way to perform these obvious actions. I’ve downloaded the new Sonos app user guide, positive it would have the answer. On page 10 of that document, we’re told that the Queue button on the Now Playing screen brings you to an interface that lets you “Add, remove, and reorganize the songs coming up in your active listening session.” But as I noted above, it does not do that. The Queue screen lists the songs, yes. But you can’t do a thing to add, remove, or organize songs there. (You can toggle shuffle and repeat.) These features do not exist.

The Sonos response to the criticisms is even more incredible. Especially when you consider the eggshells this company must walk on with its overly sensitive customer base: When it revealed a perfectly reasonable plan to obsolete aging equipment, its users exploded in faux outrage, leading to apologies and some support adjustments. And in that case, Sonos was being unfairly treated, in my opinion. This time, it really screwed up.

Anyway, that previous drama is what led to the S2 app. Older, unsupported Sonos speakers are/were controlled using an S1 app, and newer, supported speakers were (until now) controlled with the Sonos S2 app. An app that sucked, to be sure. But now replaced by an incomplete, buggy mess.

“Redesigning the Sonos app is an ambitious undertaking that represents just how seriously we are committed to invention and re-invention. It takes courage to rebuild a brand’s core product from the ground up, and to do so knowing it may require taking a few steps back to ultimately leap into the future.”

Separately, the firm also said that it is “working diligently to reintroduce the missing features in the coming months, alongside additional enhancements that will make for an even better app experience.”

And I want to be clear about this. That response is bullshit.

Here’s the problem. The new Sonos app wasn’t released to the world alongside the Sonos S2 and S1 apps. Instead, the new Sonos app replaced the Sonos S2 app. So those who need these missing features are just out of luck: They can’t revert to S2 until the features are added to the new app.

Put another way, all Sonos had to do was release the new app alongside its existing apps, as a new app. And then phase out S2 when the new app was feature-complete. Which, according to that statement, won’t happen for months. This company released a new version of its app to the world that is months away from working properly. Months.

Courage?

That’s not courage, that’s insanity. That’s an epic lack of regard for its customers. Which is particularly appalling given how expensive Sonos products are. We discuss enshittification a lot these days, and for good reason. This is yet another example. The reason Sonos put this piece of garbage into the world now is that it’s about to release an important new product into the market, its first headphones. And those expensive new headphones won’t work without this new app and its underlying infrastructure changes. So Sonos compromised the user experience for all its users to make sure this product launch wasn’t delayed any further (It’s been delayed at least twice so far.)

Disgusting.

All Sonos has to do is re-release Sonos S2. Oh, and apologize again. Surely, that’s something this company is getting good at. After all, practice makes perfect.