Sonos is seriously considering bringing its old app back

The Sonos app issue continues to cause big problems for the company. The firm has reportedly delayed two key product launches while it focuses its energies on fixing its app, and a new report says that it's now considering something previously unthinkable – bringing the old Sonos app back.

The Sonos app update was one of the biggest redesigns in the app's history, but when it launched earlier this year many users found that they could no longer access familiar, and in their view crucial, features. After initially dropping the PR ball Sonos has committed to fortnightly app updates to fix problems and restore missing features. But according to The Verge it's now considering a massive U-turn.

Why would Sonos bring the old app back?

According to the report, there have been discussions "high up within Sonos" about bringing back S2, the previous version of the Sonos app. For context, the newer version's Google Play rating is just 1.3 stars. 

That doesn't mean Sonos plans to abandon the new version of its app, and it has no plans to drop its fortnightly update schedule. But making the older one available again might take some of the pressure off as it continues to work on getting the newer app right.

As Sonos CEO Patrick Spence told investors during last week's earnings call, "Far too many of our customers are having an experience that is worse than what they previously had". 

While Spence remains committed to the new app – he's consistently said that he sees it as the future for Sonos, especially in regard to new products we haven't seen yet – Spence has also admitted that the bad publicity around the app has overshadowed the launch of the Sonos Ace headphones. It's also been very expensive: Spence says that in the near future, updating the newer app will cost between $20 and $30 million.