Announcements
The Spotify Stars Program: Celebrating Values Week!

Help Wizard

Step 1

NEXT STEP

Android Widget Removal

Solved!

Android Widget Removal

We’re here to let you know that we are retiring the Spotify Widget for Android this week. 

 

We always take retiring features in Spotify very seriously. We’re pouring our energy into new ways of creating the best experience for our users.

 

You can still easily access the same playback features as well as information about what is playing through the Spotify playback notification and device lockscreen.

 

Screen Shot 2019-08-08 at 12.49.40 PM.png

 



To access the playback controls on Android simply swipe down while you are using Spotify to access the controls.


Screen Shot 2019-08-08 at 12.49.48 PM.png

 

If you’re interested in learning more about how the app evolves, check out our article about testing and why features change.

 

We’re also welcome to feedback from our users. The best way to give us feedback to is to write an Idea in our Idea Exchange

 

Thanks!

Reply
518 Replies

This is seriously stupid. What next? Gonna remove ability to search for songs, because you know better what to play?

An to call it an improvement. You shold be ashamed of yourself.

Bring back the widget. Who benefits from a missing feature?

Ill be leaving Spotify if the widget is not back in a week. Gonna take my money somewhere where they at least pretend to care about customers.

Bring widget back please! 

I want my widget back!!!  I don't want to do an extra swipe from my home screen to my notifications, just to access my playlist or altery music play.  Nor do I want to tap on the app icon for said reasons.  I also want to see what's playing without this extra gesture.  Inefficient!!!

 

Now you've made it that much easier to switch to Google Play music. Spotify was running like trash me lately anyway.

 

Taking away features that aren't mutually exclusive: bad move

The fact that I was bleeped for calling myself an I d i o t says a lot about Spotify, so I'll use the definition of it.  I feel like a FOOLISH person for paying for a service that doesnt really care about what i want.

It is pretty obnoxious, especially for paid users.

 

Like, put a poll out or something first. It's not like it cost them anything to leave it in there

I can't believe the widget has been intetionally removed. Please bring it back.

Definitely a noob question here, but how does one sideload a previous version of the app? Any way you could share your wisdom on this? It would be greatly appreciated. 

Cheers, 

Jeremy

This is possibly the most terrible idea you guys have had, spotify. I used the widget all the time and it made listening so convenient. Which **bleep** apple user(s) in your management level thought this would be a good idea???? 

If i could dislike this comment, I would. 

This is ridiculous. What's the point of an Android app without widgets? I think this might be what finally makes me switch to Google Music, and I've been premium since 2011.

Absolutely ridiculous. If the widget was removed for some technical reason, make a new widget. Surely it's not that hard for a company like this. Just give us the expanded player notification in a *resizable* widget and most people here would be happy. Lately all the Spotify updates make the experience worse. The new "your library" tab on the app is a downgrade from the old one (why is it so hard to search in liked songs??). It is also very slow sometimes (for example clicking the artist name from the now playing screen can take seconds to even display a loading icon). The windows app has horrendously choppy scrolling (on a surface laptop at least) but at least the library format hasn't been completely ruined yet like on mobile.

 

I should take my money elsewhere

I made a community profile just to say how bad of a move this was. Android has access to Widgets for a reason and the Widget worked just fine. Removing it makes no sense whatsoever. Please add it back and stop removing features and try maybe adding some. Thank you.

Poor decision, it affects the user experience badly. I hope you can bring it back.

Why in world would you remove this? I'm not aware this was a problem and/or complaint seeing as how if an android user didn't want it on their homescreen they didn't have to add it?? Definite step back. Almost every other music app has a widget. I like Spotify, but this is a deal changer for me.

This is a terrible idea. Widgets are an integral part of the user experience, that make apps convenient and easy to use. You have now made your product harder to use, why would you do that? What business model indicates that frustrating your customers is a growth concept?

Well, wth, I didn't know about this, I thought this was a glitch or a bug, not that you guys removed the widget on purpose, what the fu c k you were thinking? Geez, thank God I still have YouTube Music with a WORKING widget. Time to say goodbye to my subscription.

If i had known the latest update would have removed the widget, I wouldn't have updated my app. I'm just gonna switch to google music. or 1heartradio or any other app that has a %!@# widget on Android.  Stop removing stuff for no reason please.

Asinine change.

The "reasoning" is laughably pathetic.

If the widget isn't brought back in some form or another as I had to use it extremely frequently, we will be among those who will search for another service that doesn't spit on Android users.

 

Make the right choice please.

Stupid stupid stupid. If I wanted an iPhone I would have purchased an iPhone. One of the main reasons I like Android is because of widget support. Spotify it's becoming a major pain in my **bleep**. If this feature is not restored within the next week, I will most likely just start a new Amazon music subscription. This is ridiculous. Spotify should not be removing features from the app, especially when it downgrades the user experience and pushes Android users to become more like iOS users. It's very insulting, not user-friendly, and basically hostile to your customers.

Suggested posts