Sonos appoints software veteran Hugo Barra to its board after app troubles

As Sonos continues a company-wide effort to redeem itself after last year’s app snafu, it’s adding a well-known industry name to its board of directors. This morning, Sonos announced that Hugo Barra is joining the board to replace Mike Volpi, who is stepping down after 15 years — the longest tenure of any board member.

Barra has a long resume that includes senior leadership positions at companies including Google, where he’s credited with leading “the Android ecosystem from nascency through its first billion users.” After that, he moved onto Xiaomi and spent three years overseeing global operations for the influential Chinese phone manufacturer. Barra’s next stop was Meta, where he served as vice president of the company’s Oculus virtual reality division.

He’s currently the co-founder and head of product at /dev/agents, which is described as “a software company building a next-generation operating system for AI agents.” For now, it sounds like Sonos is glad to have Barra because he’s got a strong track record of delivering results — but those AI ties might prove useful down the road.

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“He has a proven ability to turn cutting-edge innovation into great products — a great fit for Sonos,” board chair Julius Genachowski said in a press release. “With his deep expertise, including in AI, we’re excited to have him on the Board, engaging with the leadership team and adding value.”

Sonos remains focused on delivering performance improvements, bug fixes, and new features (along with some still-missing old ones) to its mobile app on Android and iOS. As part of that renewed effort, the company decided to cancel its next hardware product, a streaming video player codenamed Pinewood, which was first reported last month by The Verge.

The company’s product roadmap is in flux to some extent for the time being, but other projects in the works include a dedicated audio video receiver and a follow-up to the Era 100 smart speaker, which recently got a price cut. I’m told by sources inside the company that morale among employees has generally been on the upswing in recent months as interim CEO Tom Conrad — who seems likely to get the job officially — takes steps to right the course and shake up Sonos’ leadership ranks.