Sonos might fix its broken app by just bringing back the old app

Looks like Sonos might be reaching for the rewind button to fix its app mess. The Verge reports that the speaker company is toying with the idea of bringing back its old mobile app for both Android and iOS users. Talk about a throwback Thursday.

This potential move comes after the disastrous rollout of Sonos’ redesigned app in May, which was met with a tsunami of negative feedback. The new app currently sits at a dismal 2.4-star rating on Google Play.

The company’s higher-ups have been chatting about bringing back the older version, known as S2, while they continue to wrestle with improving the performance and squashing bugs in the new design. It’s like when you mess up a recipe so badly that you consider ordering takeout instead.

Bringing back the old app could give frustrated customers a lifeline and take some heat off Sonos as they scramble to fix the new one. Right now, users are stuck with the redesigned version.

Sonos CEO Patrick Spence has been sticking to his guns, insisting that rebuilding the app from scratch was the right move for future innovation. But he’s also owned up to the fact that they royally dropped the ball on execution. “While the redesign of the app was and remains the right thing to do, our execution — my execution — fell short of the mark,” Spence said during a recent earnings call.

The app debacle has become such a headache that Sonos is delaying two major product releases, including the successor to their Arc soundbar. They’re hoping to get the app situation sorted before unleashing new gear on potentially grumpy customers.

In the meantime, Sonos is updating the new app every two weeks, trying to patch things up faster than a sailor on a sinking ship. Whether they’ll actually bring back the old app remains to be seen, but it’s clear that Sonos is willing to consider desperate measures to keep their customers from jumping ship. Adding to the pressure, the company recently laid off 100 employees. However, the company’s social media manager, Keith, took to Reddit to reassure users by stating: “We are still targeting October for a return to normal, as outlined in Patrick’s blog post. We are confident that today’s actions will not impact our ability to deliver on that.”

So we’ll just have to wait and see how things pan out for the company. That said, feel free to share your thoughts on this potential move from the company in the comments section below.