Sonos CEO Aims to Win Back Trust After App Changes

Sonos CEO Tom Conrad has spoken candidly about the company's recent app-related missteps and what he hopes will be a path back to user trust. After an update that left some customers confused and frustrated, Conrad says Sonos is recalibrating how it rolls out features and communicates with listeners.

Conrad framed the situation as a learning moment. He acknowledged that changes to the Sonos app and ecosystem didn’t land as intended for a portion of the user base, and that the company underestimated how disruptive those updates would feel for long-term customers. Rather than defend the rollout, he says Sonos is focusing on concrete steps to address feedback.

Those steps include faster bug fixes, clearer release notes, and a renewed emphasis on stability for core features such as multiroom playback, voice assistant integrations and third-party service support. Conrad also indicated Sonos will try to be more transparent about the trade-offs behind design decisions, so users understand why certain changes are made.

The CEO suggested the company is balancing innovation with continuity. New features remain important to Sonos’ roadmap, but so is preserving the reliable, high-quality audio experience that attracted users in the first place. Conrad indicated the company will prioritize rolling out improvements in smaller, more iterative updates to reduce disruption.

For listeners, the message is cautiously optimistic: Sonos appears committed to listening more closely and acting faster when things go wrong. Whether that will be enough to restore goodwill depends on the company’s follow-through—and how quickly users see meaningful improvements.

Conrad’s tone was straightforward rather than defensive, and his plan centers on practical steps rather than lofty promises. For Sonos fans wary of change, that pragmatic approach may be the right place to start rebuilding confidence.