Sonos CEO details recovery from app crisis and new software platform

In a podcast interview, Sonos CEO Tom Conrad discusses how the company navigated its 2024 app redesign failure and subsequent leadership changes. He outlines structural overhauls and the introduction of Sonos 27, a new platform that redefines the company's product strategy. Conrad asserts Sonos has fully moved past the crisis and is entering a new phase.

Conrad's career spans Pandora, Snap, and Quibi before he joined Sonos's board, where he witnessed the 2024 app redesign failure firsthand. He stepped in as interim CEO during the crisis, then took the permanent role roughly a year before this September 2026 interview, succeeding Patrick Spence. The redesign threatened to crash the entire brand and prompted major structural changes.

Sonos 27 is the company's new platform foundation, positioning its speakers as a mesh network of home computers rather than standalone audio devices. The platform aims to integrate AI assistants across the system, though Google's Gemini remains unavailable on Sonos hardware due to ongoing tensions between the companies. Conrad also discussed smart home standards and how the platform makes every Sonos product work better as part of a connected system.