Choose between Google Cast and Spotify Connect

[misio1]

Plan

Premium

Country

Poland

Device

Pixel 7 Pro / Samsung S22

Operating System

Android 16

My Question or Issue

I've been using spotify to stream to my NAD C338 via spotify connect for couple of years now.

Recently it stopped working - only google cast option is currently available on the newest spotify app.

As a part of troubleshooting I downloaded older spotify APKs and installed on my android phone to see if it helps - it did! The latest version of spotify app which shows spotify connect option to my NAD is 9.0.78.1116, starting from version 9.0.82.1008 the spotify connect is not available, just google cast.

Can the app be fixed so that I have spotify connect option back available on my NAD C338 please?

[pabulous]

So I guess this is just never getting fixed? I haven't even seen an acknowledgement of the issue from Spotify.

[JC-bougi]

Well, I just decided to cancel my Spotify subscription and go all in on
Roon and qobuz.
This works flawlessly...

[andreiku]

I went through the **bleep** of getting through to a real more or less adequate human support person. I had to pass the AI and 3 assistance, who were useless. Eventually I got through to someone from “Escalations”. They told me that they are aware of the problem but not going to do anything about it. Use the Google cast they told me, since it still works. So I cancelled my subscription. 

[Mirtma]

Same problem. Still. 

[tesujimath]

Well that's that.  I cancelled my Spotify Premium, and am going with Amazon Music Unlimited for now.

Ironically when I clicked through the six or so screens required to finally cancel the subscription, I got taken to a song from @SpotifyCares.  Which this thread is surely evidence to the contrary.  See y'all on the other side. 👋

[pontusernstedt]

> Use the Google cast they told me, since it still works.
Are they under the impression that the Google cast option "just works" and thus works as a replacement for Spotify Connect? If so I just want to add the context that it most certainly does not.

[dagiles]

Can confirm same issue here using a Wiim Pro Plus / Google Pixel 8a, latest version of Android app. Wiim wired in to network, all known kludges work (disconnecting wifi on Android device, disabling Google Cast on the Wiim).

Contacted support, pointed them to this thread, was asked if I had tried the 'solutions' in this thread, and btw, can I reboot my router 🙄

Can also confirm that if I switch off the other Google Cast devices (leaving just the Wiim with Cast enabled) the Spotify app shows only the Spotify Connect Wiim endpoint.

Have previously used both Tidal and Qobuz - may well go back to Qobuz.

Attached an image from Qobuz (which works perfectly) for the benefit of Spotify support.

Also attached, an image from the iPad version of the Spotify app showing the options available on the ellipsis menu for the endpoint selection - this option is missing on the Android app.

[npack]

I spent over 3 hours with Spotifiy support, provided lots of detail including screen shots of iPhone vs Android. I was passed off to at least 5 different "advisors". This was then followed by at least 4 emails where they continued to ask for the same info over and over. They also suggested that I should come to the community site to see if could find a solution. This was after I referred them to this thread,incidacting the issue had over 140 replies. I couldn't get them to confirm this was a bug. Here's where it ended:

Spotify support:

We've confirmed this behavior is expected, but we're sorry to hear you're not fully satisfied. We’re always working on new ways to improve Spotify and really appreciate your feedback on this!

Testing new features helps us make Spotify even better, and we apologize if this temporarily affects your experience. Thank you for your understanding!

We've passed this along to the proper team. You can also start a discussion and let us know what you think over at the Community: https://community.spotify.com/. 

Thanks again for reaching out to us! If there’s anything else, we’re happy to help.

My response:

Hi, What do you mean by "We've confirmed this behavior is expected"?  It's not expected by me or by any of the users in the community here: https://community.spotify.com/t5/Android/Choose-between-Google-Cast-and-Spotify-Connect/m-p/7270171#... where a discussion was started over 2 month ago because this behavior was unexpected. 

Please confirm, this is functionality that used to work on Android, still works on iPhone and was intentionally removed from Android and is now working as expected?

Sportify support:

We completely understand how confusing this must be. We're always testing things by adding, removing, or tweaking certain features to make Spotify a better and stable app overall. We’re sorry that this means you’re not able to use the app as you could before.
 
We hope that this won't affect your interest for the app but instead create a much more positive approach to the updates/improvements that we always implement moving forward.

Should you have any questions, don't hesitate to get back to us and we'll be glad to help.

[kieranhightower]

In other words:  "Thank you for contacting ChatGPT.  It has been our pleasure (assigned task) to serve you generic placating responses with no action to be taken by this company.  We hope you continue to keep paying for Spotify anyway".