Sonos channels its inner Apple, says it took 'courage' to make its iPhone app suck

Sonos released an updated version of its mobile app back on May 7th, and while most similar app updates would just pass without too much interest among the masses, this one has very much gone in another direction. The app has been almost universally derided, with some accusing it of breaking accessibility and others simply lambasting the decision to remove features. But whatever reason people don't like it, they can all generally agree that it isn't great.

Sonos, on the other hand. would argue differently. The company says that it's aware that people don't seem to like the new update and that it's working to address the functionality that it has removed as part of this latest change. But in a statement provided to The Verge, Sonos says that it stands by its decision to roll the app out.

The Verge reports that Sonos believes that the changes it has made will ultimately result in a better app further down the line.

Chief product officer Maxime Bouvat-Merlin said that redesigning the app was "ambitious" and that it "takes courage" to rebuild the brand's core product from the ground up. But on a positive note, it does sound like we can expect some improvements.

Right now, users no longer have the ability to edit playlists within the app or indeed alter the queue of songs, both of which seem obvious features to have in an app like this. But improvements are on the way and Sonos promises that it will have the accessibility options back up and running by next month.

If the suggestion that it took courage for Sonos to break its own app sounds odd, it's actually not the first time we've seen something like this. Apple famously claimed that it was courage that caused it to remove the headphone jack from the iPhone, something that was largely mocked at the time. Soon after, all other phone makers removed the same jac from their own products.

As for those who currently have to use the app but don't like it, miss the features that Sonos has removed, or simply cannot use the app now that accessibility has taken a hit, there isn't an awful lot that you can do. Sonos does say it's working on things and that timeline to bring accessibility improvements to the new app doesn't stretch too far into the future, thankfully. Hopefully, all of the missing features return sooner rather than later, too. Who knows whether they'll get taken away again in the future, though.